Teens have say on city transport

• Published date: 24 June 2022

Harry Perry and Lucas Daum are Year 10 students at Tauranga Boys’ School and yesterday presented to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council-led Public Transport Committee

The boys presented to the committee about a year ago when they revealed a pitch for an app to address issues such as late buses, and expressed their dissatisfaction that the service was only transporting 1.3 per cent of the Tauranga population.

Lucas said they had not seen much positive change since their last visit.

Harry said fewer than 2000 people were transported a day, many of whom were school students and about 35 per cent were in the workforce.

In his view: “Less than 2000 people a day looks like a complete failure. It’s no wonder we are losing millions of dollars in revenue.”

The two had focused particularly on Matua, where they said the problems included schedules not being realistic and some areas being underserved.

They said their proposal would stop bottlenecks and get more people out of cars, with dedicated bus routes.

They suggested two Matua routes as well as a link route to the city, with a hub at Cherrywood.

Committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen thanked the pair and said their first presentation was fantastic and very well thought out. He said the same was true for their latest.

“It hasn’t fallen on deaf ears.”

He said staff were working on the issues highlighted, but passengers were reluctant to use hub systems.

Staff were to engage with the two students in their work.

Speaking about the chairman’s report to the meeting, von Dadelszen said he was aware there were problems with the bus system and hoped the service would return from its reduced state soon.

He said there were constraints with driver shortages. “These have to be overcome.”

Draft Regional Public Transport PlanThe committee approved its Draft Regional Public Transport Plan to go out for consultation on July 4.

Von Dadelszen said it was important to get the plan through promptly, being election year.

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