We started the year with a ripper of a presentation by Liz Yeaman about electric buses. Liz spoke for her entire address without notes and relied only on her overheads, which were excellent.
Here is the video of her address https://youtu.be/MBwsz0YDtwI thanks to Aaron Campbell.
This address raised many questions for me. One is are the local authorities working together on transportation challenges in a constructive manner? I cannot get over how awful the Transportation Plan for Greater Christchurch is, and how bold it could be; and isn’t.
We will follow up this observation of inadequate planning and invite representatives of the Greater Christchurch authorities to encourage a better effort by them all over the next few months. This isn’t just CCC. It’s all of them, Ecan, Waimakariri and Selwyn. Other areas are getting resources and we appear to be missing out and we need them as well.
It was interesting to read in the Guardian about bus usage in this article https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/12/boris-johnson-billions-buses-5bn?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0Jlc3RPZkd1YXJkaWFuT3BpbmlvblVLLTIwMDIxMg%3D%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=opinionuk_email&utm_campaign=BestOfGuardianOpinionUK .
One point which I found really interesting was this paragraph:
As a result of deregulation, the public sector can only provide capital for bus lanes, but it can’t specify what services will run on them, or how often, or at what fares. And worst of all, it can’t design a complete network. So right now, Boris Johnson’s billions will have a limited impact. The only way to improve bus travel in the UK is to reverse deregulation and provide local authorities with Swiss-style powers to regulate and coordinate their bus services, coupled with ongoing funding for a comprehensive offering that enables convenient travel any time of day, any day of the week, between any two places bigger than a small village. And so far, there are no hints of that happening.
I wonder if we are still not asking the right questions about whether or not the deregulated market is the answer.
In the Press this week there was an excellent article by Ben Wooliscroft titled “Time for private cars to give way”. This covers some of the transport issues we will be turning our minds to at the Tuesday Club this year. Here is a link to that article http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx.
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