Engaging for success: transport solutions for small communities

Small communities need a basic mobility solution that is not a pared down city bus service but a transport outcome they have designed and 'own'. This technical note looks at three small New Zealand communities, that the author has been involved with, and their approach to the provision of public transport services. Mangakino, a small town of 1,100 people in the centre of the North Island, has a thrice weekly service to a larger neighbouring town that has been running for five years. South Mercury Bay, on the Coromandel Peninsula in the North Island, has summer visitor traffic headaches solved by a transport solution the residents actively manage. The local people of Mataura in the South Island, pop. 1,300, need access to a larger neighbouring town for basic necessities. The population is ageing and the town is slowing shrinking. This note will show that small communities must own their bus service if it is to be a successful transport solution for them.