Reducing bus speeds ‘crucial’

A Papamoa mother's campaign to curb Bay Hopper bus speeds is accelerating with the backing of Tauranga City Councillor Steve Morris.

Sam Norton launched a Facebook page aimed at reducing bus speeds around the Dickson Road area after she noticed the 'alarming” speed at which buses travel along her two children's route to Papamoa Primary School.

Tauranga City Councillor Steve Morris is getting behind a campaign to lower bus speeds around the suburb.

Sam believes the buses consistently drive over the 30km/h peak limit, reaching speeds of up to 60km/h. Her ‘Slow Down Bay Hopper' Facebook page currently has more than 170 likes.

Tauranga City councillor Steve Morris fully supports Sam's stance, and says bus speeds in the suburb are an ongoing issue.

'It's probably something that I have seen as an issue for years and years,” says Steve.

'They [Bay Hopper buses] should not be speeding at all.”

The Mount Maunganui/Papamoa ward councillor agrees attempts to reduce speed have proved unsuccessful for many residents in the area, and it should not have to come down to filing a public submission to council.

'When you have an issue like this you can use police and regional council staff, so there is certainly a case of that without a submission at all. But in terms of putting in some traffic calming measures a submission is needed.

'The staff [at Tauranga City Council] are looking at some methods to reduce the speed and congestion, but it's looking like it's going to be a wide consultation process, with the wider community and organisations.”

Part of the problem lies in Dickson Road becoming quite narrow during the day as cars parked on either side produce congestion at peak traffic times, says Steve.

Steve says motorists attempting to avoid parked cars lining the streets tend to drift towards the centre of the road, and therefore increase their speeds.

Papamoa Primary School principal Phil Friar says the school has not received any complaints about the speed of buses either before or after school.

'I'm sure that probably at times like anything there may well be issues but there have been no issues addressed to us,” says Phil.

The Dickson Road school staff spend 25 minutes during pick-up and drop-off times on Dickson and Parton Road's ensuring traffic slows down to let children cross.

'What we do is facilitate our students accessing to the Bay Hopper. So if it was a concern for the buses that our student's access then we would probably talk directly to Bay Hopper or the bus driver.

'However, if it's a parent or community member then because Bay Hoper controls the Bay Hopper buses and it's a roading or transport issue, generally unless it was groundswell of people coming to me, I would be a little caught and can only pass on the information.”

Last week Bay of Plenty Regional Council reported they were aware of the Facebook campaign and had previously investigated complaints about the speed of buses at Papamoa.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council transport policy manager Garry Maloney says to complete a thorough investigation council requires public information including the time and day of the incident, the street the bus was on and if possible the route number on the bus, bus registration or fleet number.

'If people are unable to see the fleet number or registration details, then route number and direction the bus is travelling will help us,” says Garry.

'People should then provide this information to the call centre on 0800 4BAYBUS (0800 422 928).”

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4 comments

no one

Posted on 14-04-2014 14:06 | By Capt_Kaveman

saw what i saw a long time ago in that Dickson rd is to narrow then someone thought be good idea to plant trees which is not a bad thing but then there is no room to put in a footpath so it ends up against the road, so before the south cuebing was put in the rd should have been widened


Get cracking

Posted on 15-04-2014 09:32 | By Watchdog

Why do Councils in generel have so many rules that defy simple logic. Get the objective people, the Traffic Police in with a mufti vehicle or a speed gun, where the unsuspecting Bus Driver will get caught and fined for his/her actions. Financial clout usually wins out with this sort of thing. Might catch a few others, who knows.


Route 36 schedule too tight

Posted on 15-04-2014 15:51 | By oldmankiwi

If Route 36 terminated at Palm Beach Plaza then the present schedule could be maintained. The 36 bus is often 15 minutes late and the 33 bus is hard on its tail.


You are right oldmankiwi but...

Posted on 16-04-2014 15:15 | By Paul Melhuish

You are right about the 36 bus route needing to be turned around at the Plaza. I put in a submission to BOPRC last year and it was agreed to. Since then the BOPRC have done nothing to then get this to happen. Rescheduling for 'efficiency and effectiveness' (their own motto) seem way beyond their staff.


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