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“Gimme Shelter” – Time to Think Fresh About the Humble Bus Stop - 6 July 2007

An Auckland passenger transport planner has thrown out the challenge to policy makers and local authorities to take seriously the lowly bus stop.

Chris Harris, from North Shore City Council, told the Public Health Association Conference today that in Britain, wind chill at bus stops has been identified as a key determinant of winter ill-health and surplus mortality.

“New Zealand’s excess winter mortality (that is, the spike of deaths above the monthly norm) of about one thousand deaths in July is similar to Britain’s. Britain may have cooler base temperatures than New Zealand but our winter winds are stronger and colder.

”A leading British researcher has recently described the combination of unsheltered bus stops and unreliable, infrequent public transport services as a ‘menace’ to the health of older people,” Dr Harris told the public health delegates.

“Such findings point to a need to take the on-street public transport waiting environment far more seriously than at present. Where else does society expect an 85 year old to stand or even sit in a winter breeze for twenty minutes?”

Dr Harris told the conference the emphasis in New Zealand has been on indoor cold stress and poorly insulated homes, but he said it was time to look at outdoor cold stress, as well.

“North Shore City now has over 500 bus shelters, most now of modern well-enclosed designs that keep users dry even in a storm. But precisely because we are putting so much effort into our bus shelter programme, we need to cut down the burden of paperwork per individual shelter.”

Dr Harris told the delegates that objections to individual bus shelter proposals from nearby property owners were often time-consuming to deal with.

He said it was cost-effective to design out the causes of objection, which have historically consisted of concerns about graffiti, broken glass, poor appearance and loitering.

By addressing the causes of objections, in a reasonable way, councils could move to a situation in which bus shelters could be installed more straightforwardly.

North Shore City council bus shelters had attracted widespread praise for their appearance as well as for their shelter properties, said Dr Harris. But scratching and glass breakage were still a problem.

Other authorities had achieved reductions in vandalism with decorative glass. Relatively unbreakable forms of acrylic and polycarbonate glazing were also continually being improved and tried out in the field.

The possibility also existed to control loitering by means of lighting. New solid state lighting systems were maintenance free and could be dimmed or brightened at will. This was being investigated as well.

Dr Harris told the conference, “Apart from the public health benefits of better shelter at our bus stops, the other improvements will play their part in encouraging people to use public transport, lowering CO2 emissions and increasing walking.

“It’s time we paid more attention to the very real benefits of bus shelters, instead of focusing on costs and vandalism as reasons for not installing them.

“The costs of bus shelters are quite modest compared to many other transport projects or the costs of ill-health; and the sources of objection to shelters can be addressed by design.”

ENDS

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