Students lead the way on public transport

The 2018 Auckland Transport Tertiary Student Travel Survey is conducted every two years and involved students at Grafton, Newmarket and City campuses, as well as students from other Auckland tertiary providers.

These results show a positive continuation of a previous trend of increased public transport use for the University, with fewer students travelling by private vehicle than ever before, says Tim Sinclair, space and property manager, Property Services.

“The University’s three central campuses are all located along high frequency public transport routes, and public transport is now the fastest and most convenient mode of travel into and between our campuses.”

Tim says the AT survey shows that students have embraced public transport, but our staff car parks are still full, some with waiting lists. 

He says perceptions about public transport are also trending upwards, as is Hop Card use and the number of concessions (student discounts) being loaded.
 

Modes of transport

• The breakdown of modes of transport showed 59% travel by bus, 18% walk or run, 15% travel by train, 2% drive alone in car, 1% are passengers in car, one percent cycle and 1% take a taxi or Uber. Grafton and Newmarket had higher cycling and car usage, with slightly lower bus usage.
• Overall, more than seven in ten students surveyed agree, to some extent, that it’s easy to take public transport to the campus they study at (with 71% giving a rating of 6-10), including 51% who gave a rating of 8 or higher, and 23% giving the highest possible rating of 10.
• More than three quarters of students said that they would recommend public transport to other students, with 77% giving a rating of 6 or more, including 54% who gave a rating between 8 and 10, and a quarter of students (25%) giving the highest possible rating of 10.
   

Frequency of services

One in five (21%), stated increased frequency of services would make using public transport to or from campus easier and more convenient. More direct routes and having more reliable services were also commonly mentioned.
 

Barriers

The most commonly mentioned barrier to using public transport to get to campus was a perception that it’s not cheaper or doesn’t save money; however mention of this has declined significantly since 2016.

This was followed by suggestions to increase frequency of services, and mention of services being too indirect and that other options are faster.
 

HOP cards

The majority of students either said they currently have an AT HOP card (89%) or intend to get one (5%), leaving only a small proportion who either don’t intend to get an AT HOP card (6%) or are unaware of the card (<1%). Students at our City, Newmarket and Grafton campuses are all significantly more likely to own a HOP card.

The most commonly mentioned improvements to the HOP card were to have better discounts/cheaper, making the concession process easier, linking the card to a phone or bank card and being able to use the card to buy other things like food, parking or printing.