Call me a snob if you will, but there’s something cool about how those Scandinavians do public transport.
As an example, on a recent journey to a beautiful fjord in Norway, I snapped this photo of a mossy log cabin being used for a bus stop, complete with scooter park and ride.
Patrick came up with another example recently, when talking about the design of Copenhagen’s trains:
And finally, here’s a new example for today: What has been described by one completely anonymous internet commentator as the:
Sexiest, Coolest, Most EPIC Bus Commercial Ever
Its even complete with English subtitles if you don’t speak Danish.
“Call me a snob if you will, but there’s something cool about how those Scandinavians do public transport.”
They do cool roads as well. Take the E 6, for instance: “The road E 6 is a 2+2 lane motorway from outside Trelleborg to north of Uddevalla. It is also at least an 2+2 lane motorway from Strömstad to Minnesund, 70 km north of Oslo. Some stretches further north also has four lanes or motorway standard. According to plans it will be motorway all the way from Trelleborg to Kolomoen south of Hamar in 2013, about 700 km.” (Wikipedia)
700km is a good effort. A bit different from Auckland, where the motorway terminates on the northern edge of the city and it’s a winding 1+1 lane road from there onwards. We can certainly learn a few lessons from Scandinavians.
But isn’t the point, or rather the point of difference, that they do both? They sensibly are actually multi-modal not foolishly mono-modal with PR spin pretending to equally support underfunded other modes.
Yes they do both; the Norwegian coastal highways that leap from island to island amidst pounding surf is something to behold: http://radartiresjournal.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/atlantic_road_norway_1.jpg
Interesting that their highway improvements tend to focus on reducing distance (i.e. overcoming geographical barriers) rather than speed-enhancing capacity improvements.
I guess the lessons to take from the Scandinavians is that massive off shore exploitation of mineral wealth has its up sides
Lol. It certainly does, especially when driven by the state and accompanied by royalty programmes that see a large proportion of proceeds going into a sustainably managed investment fund.
Too true. If our mineral or petroleum resources were extracted, the money would all be siphoned off-shore by a multinational conglomerate such as Shell or BP. The Norwegian Government holds a 67% share in Statoil.
Yes I expected that reply, but…..
Wrong: The lesson from the Scandinavians is to invest wisely at whatever the quantum. Don’t aggressively and unnecessarily over-invest in one mode or you’ll end up with an unbalanced and un-future-proofed system. We could also conclude another related lesson from looking at Scandinavia; don’t run down and waste your old infrastructure in your rush to build another one: Very imprudent. NZ’s widespread rail system was built at the same time as Scandinavia’s, difference? They haven’t abandoned theirs. And I bet they’re not letting their local and rural road network decline now either. We are, in order to pursue an accelerated programme of gold-platted duplicated new highways.
There are our lessons. Also Norway has the oil, Denmark while still a net exporter, its production is now in decline and otherwise has none of NZ’s natural bounty, and Sweden has no oil. All have more sense though.
Yes I think that’s an important point Patrick: People who suggest that Scandinavia is successful because of petroleum exports are misrepresenting the issue.
Only Norway has massive oil resources; Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland are generally not that well off, especially compared to New Zealand.
I forgot Finland; 5.3m people, nothing like the hydro resource of NZ [it's not mountainous], no oil, climate only fit for growing trees, rally driving, and birching each other….. really to suggest they have it easy compared to us is hilarious…. Oh they Russia right next door; does that help?
I’m not sure if any parts of our highway system could be described as gold-plated?
All things are relative- have you seen the state of our once extensive and well maintained railways?
Have you driven on the Albany to Puhoi toll road. Apparently Transit (the previous version of the NZTA) pulled out all of the stops for it so they could showcase just how good toll roads would be to get the public eager for more.
I doubt NZ would operate any differently to elsewhere, including Norway. Even in countries where there is a national (100% owned) exploration entity, they still employ the expertise of the overseas companies (e.g. shell) in the operations, through Production sharing arrangements.
Many are quick to criticize arrangements whereby large amounts are taken overseas, but this is generally “cost oil” – reimbursement for the immense capital costs incurred in undertaking the exploration (avoiding the need for the country to pay for that upfront). The overwhelming amount of “profit oil” is retained by the particular country. At least that is my experience in dealing with these arrangements.
KLK Norway’s Statoil is an exception to that model; they export their expertise too. Also NZ asks for a tiny royalty by international standards… Norway would be the best model to follow.
There is the problem though that our offshore oil and gas reserves will rather more costly to extract than those found in the North Sea. So it’s debatable how affordable it would be for a NZ state owned company to develop any fields on their own.
Not that I think we should be looking at any field development anytime soon given the low probability/high risks off deep sea drilling…..
Patrick – the state owned companies I have dealt with all export their expertise as well (eventually) so it’s not such an exception.
And if NZ’s royalty is tiny by international standards, then there will be specific reasons for this – and the high cost of extraction would be the first place to look (though there might be others)
Our offshore, except the ‘Naki, is largely a fantasy, well the idea that ultra deep water East Coast oil will save us is nuts, furthermore Petrobras have enough problems of their own right now….
We really ought to be working hard on using less of the stuff, even if we were to find more. And that certainly something we can learn from the Scandis too… it’s the net number that matters: http://transportblog.co.nz/2012/08/28/oil-strike/
And, amazingly, that bus advertisement is from Jutland! It’s like getting something classy out of, oh I don’t know, the Waikato. And DSB, the Danish state railway is pretty good too.
Hey! The Waikato has potential, IMO
??? The article was referencing Norway, I made the observation the country has access to mineral wealth, and one slight of hand latter Patrick and Stu are misrepresenting my position ???
First time commenting on this blog,
Grrrrrrr, I am angry
Bob.
Hi Bob,
I was agreeing with you but just highlighting that mineral resources are especially useful when the proceeds are used to create a sustainable public fund, rather than finance base public spending (e.g. U.K.). And Patrick’s point was that Scandinavia in general does not have access to excessive mineral resources; even if Norway does in particular. You did use the word “Scandinavia” (not Norway) in your comment so I think it’s reasonable for Patrick to highlight the differences in natural resources that exists between the different Scandinavian countries.
So I don’t think it’s fair for you to suggest that we’re “misrepresenting” anything. It’s just the general kind of discussion that happens on blogs.
Hey Angry, you said ‘Scandinavians’ so now you’re misrepresenting yourself! Reason to be Self-Angry Bob. Anyway the article refers to Copenhagen, in Denmark, and a Danish bus ad, so hardly all about Norway then…. sorry to be so pedantic, but….[just keep taking the pills]
I love the bit where the bus is zipping by the cars stuck in congestion and everyone on the bus is pulling faces at them. The number of times I’ve been tempted to do that when flying along in the bus lane…
I know – great!
That’s some brilliant driving.
Perhaps they need some buses and drivers that will do that out west to drum up patronage
there was a Wellington train driver who was disciplined for waving at drivers stuck on the Hutt motorway; man was a genius and should have become marketing manager LOL
That is cool.
But the coolest bit *by far* is the bus pulling doughnuts. There’s a petrol-head lurking deep inside this engineer’s body …
Stu – if you watch the ad on youtube´s site, one of the recommended videos afterwards is the doughnut footage separately – We noted at work this morning what the reaction would be when the boss walks up to the driver and asks if you´d carry out a doughnut or 2 on work time for work purposes!
Ohhh yeaaaaaah that’s what I’m talking about. Some Mad Max-esque bus doughnut carnage …
I’ve often thought (in an if-I-ruled-the-world sort of way) that equipping buses with ‘snowplough’ attachments on the front to clear parked cars out of bus lanes and clearways would make a lot of sense. It might even curb bus drivers’ evident urge to do doughnuts, which could only be a good thing in busy rush hour traffic … Not sure it would do much for shared-use cycle/bus lanes though…
And here I was thinking if we just stuck a camera on the front that automatically took photos of any car in the bus lane that held a bus up and use it to issue fines
If you dislike subtitles here you go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snKbU5r0pBo
Wonder if this bus was on time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSoLrw9tVQw
Scandinavia is great. Tend to take a practical approach to most things compared to say our experience, for example Telenor has majority government ownership yet is now a top 5 global communications company. Interesting as their capital cities have metro systems as well as commuter rail given the population base is smaller e.g. only 1.1 million in greater Helsinki. Auckland does not even compare!
Yes, gotta love the Scandinavians over-arching pragmatism. Stockholm’s a delight; Bergen/Trondheim are treasures; and as for Copenhagen – Donkey from Shrek was right when he said “and tonight, we’re eating waffles.”
Im in Oslo right now. It is beautiful. The trams, trains, buses, cars and roads all seem to exist in perfect harmony. Well compared to every other city I’ve been in anyway.
The way they’ve developed their waterfront is really wonderful too, Auckland can learn SO MUCH from this place.
Well if you want to be a wimp about it. A snow plough is how real men get cars out of bus lanes. Apparently.
I went to Copenhagen by train last year from Berlin. One of the great experiences of my life. I was impressed by Berlin but Copenhagen made it look like an auto dependent cesspit.
Cycle lane staking up 2/3 of major streets. Cargo bikes with Mum and two kids in the front, groups of families cycling to parks for picnics.
My wife and I still talk about going to live there. Especially when I hear the latest announcement from our visionless leaders talking about how motorways are the only answer and that NZers dont want PT or cycles. Very depressing.
Auckland is many many moons behind Oslo. The high speed railway to Oslo Airport for example would never happen from Britomart to Auckland Airport. Why would it when they make so much on carparking! Maybe it is time to outsource Auckland’s transport to someone like Kollektivtransportproduksjon AS!
Copenhagen again. Bit like the DLR only better. Just think of the cost savings!
Yes Copenhagen has both a driverless metro AND a heavy rail commuter network… WTF!? and bike priority everywhere.
But we, apparently, are some form of homo-autodependantus and must be protected from the opportunity to use anything other than private mass transport, also know as congestion.
Copenhagen’s metro is great, really quite small and compact but the driverless allows it to have very high frequencies all day, so it has lots of capacity and doesn’t get crowded.
We should follow their lead. Once our heavy rail commuter network is finished with the CRL, we should look at driverless metro for any new line.
Less than 20 minutes by fast train from Copenhagen Airport to Malmo in Sweden using the new(ish) bridge. A large number of ex-Copenhagers now live in Sweden and commute to Denmark by rail each day. The cost of living in southern Sweden is significantly cheaper than Copenhagen.
And Private Mass Transport is less cool:
Comment from US.
It’s a beautiful rural setting. They have the multi modal transport right. The other thing they got right is they have only one sign and have respected the natural environment. In the Waitakere foothills we would get five fluoro arrow signs to go round the corner in that pic, plus a drive to the conditions sign and a wiggly arrow sign to tell you there might be some more corners ahead. You’d have larger road edges, marked with more yellow lines plus a large gravel edge for good measure.
That’s an excellent point Oratia – thanks for highlighting it. I’ve spent more than a year living in Scandinavia and never articulated why I like their rural roads so much – the tidiness of the edges is definitely impressive.
We’ve been talking about the roads and our natural environment out west. Some good work here from the UK about enhancing the rural character through appropriate road design and signage, and how good placemaking has a traffic calming effect. Appropriate to lots of our special places in New Zealand. http://www.kentdowns.org.uk/PDF/Rural_%20Streets_%20and_%20Lanes.pdf