Subscribe to RSSAuckland’s Worst Sited Bus Stop
This is a post a while in the making as I grumble to myself about the way some bus stops are sited.
Their line of sight to the road is so bad, you have no idea a bus is coming until it arrives -and the chances are the bus, when it finally comes, may zoom past unaware anyone is actually seated in the bus stop seat trying to escape the weather conditions.
I took a tour by car of bus stops and these are two of the most frustrating I found.
Bus stop 8305 on Sandringham Rd outside Gribblehirst Park.
Sit in the bus stop shelter, sited a way off the footpath, and all you can see if a neighbour’s tall tree. You have no line of sight of the road to see if a bus is coming until it zooms past.
And on a perfectly sunny day you can’t see buses coming.
Bus drivers concentrating on peak time traffic do not always have a chance to peak into difficult to see bus shelters to see if there are people there, nor do they have enough warning to stop unless they are in a specified bus lane.
To add to the problems, workmen have hung a speed limit sign so if people are standing by the edge of the footpath they still can’t see!
The second place I gave to the cluster of stops around Symonds St shops towards the corner of Khyer Pass Rd serving a multitude of routes.
The stop at the bottom for New North Rd buses is especially bad.
If you are seated, you can not see around the sharp corner near the motorway offramp so can not see buses coming until they are almost at the stop - and if they come in a cluster- as they do during rush hour because there’s a red light stop just around that corner- there is only a second available to try to decipher the numbers on the buses -and hail it down as they don’t automatically stop.
These are only examples.
Catching a bus shouldn’t be hard. Having limited seating and seating which makes it impossible to know a bus is coming and hail it down is not helpful.
Feel free to add your favourites.
3 Comments
Too much public space given to cars, the footpath is just too narrow. Traffic engineers perhaps never leave their vehicles? OK I know what the argument is here: You want a bus lane, so that has to come at the expense of the footpath, stop being greedy. No I want the humans to have priority. First on foot, then in mass transit, then in cars. Restrict the car lanes down one and there will also be room for a cycle lane. Sure the general traffic will at first not be as free, it will adjust, especially if we improve the alternatives.
The bus stop opposite the Morningside train station is pretty badly sited as well. It is just after a bend in the road and I’ve seen many buses have to screech to a stop to pick up passengers while some just keep going because it’s too dangerous to stop.
I called the Urban bus people this morning, wondering why it is that the 009 leaving New Lynn at 8.10 has disappeared into the horizon passing BHB Donovan St, by 8.12, wow!! 2mins from New Lynn to BHB, I called and asked why, and was told their buses left on time and I asked what was that time, she said 8.05 but on the bus schedule by the bus stop the time says 8.10 leaves New Lynn, I have always followed that schedule yes and on occassions I have been late and I have missed the bus by 2 or 3 mins., so now I know I can adjust myself, can the bus schedules please be changed. Think of it when our Overseas Visitors come and like me turn up on the schedule as outlined and they have missed the bus by 2 mins and would need to wait another half hour and then they are late. not a nice thing, so can you please be considerate and do the right thing for us mere bus catching people.