June 11, 2004
Sharing a ride the way to go
North Shore City Council is pleased to see Infrastructure Auckland joining the push to encourage car pooling in
the region, with its $300,000 grant for a carpooling website.
The grant, for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority to develop car pooling software, builds on work
being done in North Shore City to encourage this sensible and efficient means of transport.
Car pooling is already a success story in North Shore City's Onewa Rd transit lane, a lane dedicated to buses
and vehicles with three or more occupants, where car pooling rose from nine per cent of road users in 1982 to 26.5 per
cent in 2003.
"There is capacity along this corridor for more car pooling, and a website would offer opportunities for more
people to share a ride," North Shore City's works and environment committee chairperson, Joel Cayford, says.
"Organised car pooling would help relieve congestion in other crowded corridors, encourage socialising on the
way to work, and could save North Shore City commuters around $50 a week each through reduced petrol and parking costs."
Strict enforcement of the Onewa Rd transit lane means travel times in the lane are significantly shorter. In this case
there was no formal organisation of car pools - commuters simply realised it made good sense to share a ride.
A survey of Onewa Rd found two-thirds of all people bound for the motorway in the morning peak were travelling
in the transit lane, twice as many as in the general lane. That meant 68 per cent of people on Onewa Rd were travelling
in just 27 per cent of the vehicles.
Buses on the corridor are now more reliable, people are getting to work and home quicker, and average vehicle
occupancy has risen from 1.9 to 2.69 people.
Transit lanes are part of North Shore City's efforts to improve public transport and across the city. Options
are now being examined for possible transit lanes in other corridors, including Constellation Dr, Shakespeare Rd and
Forrest Hill Rd. The public will be asked to give feedback on these in the coming months.
"We want to give people fast, efficient transport options that will let them choose to share a ride or leave
their cars at home and still get where they are going," Joel Cayford says.
ENDS