Subscribe to RSSAuckland’s Silliest Bus Stop
There are some very stupid placements of bus stops in Auckland.
This one takes the cake for Silliest BusStopâ„¢.
It is outside the beautifully restored Civic Theatre (although criminally neglected in terms of being made into a tourist attraction with no daily public tours).
It is in fact very very close to the busy intersection of Wellesley and Queen Sts.
I have a feeling it was actually moved closer a few years ago from being nearer Borders.
Cars that slowly get through the myriad of traffic lights down towards the Civic and wanting to turn left with the left hand turn find a) they get behind buses that crawl to the stop and then do stop for some time either to let off or pick up passengers or even worse take time to wait until their allocated timetable time to depart. The cars caught behind the buses then can’t often jump into the adjacent lane, skirt around the bus and then turn left as the lanes there are full. b) Car have to avoid the buses by going into the middle lane and then find they can’t turn left as the bus at the bus stop without indication as it is in the left lane already takes off and blocks their path and cars are forced down Queen St.
It has happened to me often (when I am not in the train and polluting the world with my petrol fumes) as I turn to try to head to Hobson St and the motorway.
I can’t understand why the Council and now Auckland Transport has not noticed it and done something.
But then it’s also been good to see AT staff actively and visibly out this week photographing bus lane offenders around the city including around Grafton Bridge and around the Symonds St area. Despite the protestations of the road-loving Auckland morning tabloid, bus lanes are for buses and motorists should be penalised for straying into them.
But in the Civic case, if you jump too quickly into the left lane to queue to turn the corner, you end up in the bus zone and could well be penalised too or get the justificable irate toots of a bus driver wanting to stop there.
I nominate this for Silliest BusStopâ„¢ in Auckland. Any other nominations?
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Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
9 Comments
My suggestion is the southbound stop on Rosebank Rd opposite Timothy Pl. The bus stop sign is 50m past the painted outline of the stop. Not sure which one the bus pulls up at.
I’m not sure about worst but bad bus stops I see are ones that are very close together. For instance:
Turning Left from K Rd into Queen St the link bus has a bus stop just before the corner, another 50m down Queent St and another 50 metres past that. 3 stops within 90 seconds walking distance.
Similarly heading into town on Dominion Rd there are 5 bus stops between Balmoral Rd and Valley Rd (plus the two on each side of that block) often just 30 seconds walk apart.
@ LarryH, Don’t worry, we once had 3 bus stop signs for the one bus stop on Oreil Avenue, West Harbour.
They need to monitor the bus lanes along Park Rd, I went to go visit someone in hospital the other day so caught the train to Grafton after work. Walking up Park Rd the bus lane between Carlton Gore Rd and Khyber Pass was completely blocked up with cars all ignoring the signs and lane markings. Then at the site of the old petrol station there were idiots who missed the light racing through the old forecourt using it as a free left hand turn and almost taking pedestrians out (I saw this two separate times within a few minutes).
Here! http://goo.gl/maps/kTN4
It wouldn’t be so busy if it was actually used by one of the bus routes! (Unless anyone can tell me what the hell SLS7 is?)
It has been continually graffitied and vandalised over the years but continually repainted and fixed up. Why don’t they just remove it rather than spending money on continually fixing it up. (I’m not sure who does this though.)
I’d nominate the one on Custom St West outside the Japanese place… no buses actually go along that route at all even though it has a full shelter. The only buses that stop there are the Asian tour buses going to the store there, yet the stop has been there longer than the store.
I vote for the group of stops on Symonds street up beyond Grafton Bridge. Classic placement - there is possibly no place on earth less convenient. But a good example of putting them where they will cause the least inconvenience to motorists.
There shouldn’t be any cars on Queen Street anyway.
Right Linz, no way to get there out of the elements or fighting with traffic.
And yes Ian, how long do we have wait?