This has just been installed in recently and is surely one of the most unique bus stops around the city, even if it is only temporary.
Thanks to Craig for the pics
Nice work Waterfront Auckland.
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This has just been installed in recently and is surely one of the most unique bus stops around the city, even if it is only temporary.
Thanks to Craig for the pics
Nice work Waterfront Auckland.
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Excuse my ignorance, but doesn’t the bus stop on the other side of the road? Or has that been changed?
I doubt you will see a lot of people using it, though. Public spaces out of view of the public eye – I’d rather wait in the rain. Bus shelters need to enable natural surveillance, i.e. be transparent. The Adshel ones are bad enough with prioritising revenue, but this is poorly thought through, and in violation of CPTED principles, see here: http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/global-publications/n/national-guidelines-for-crime-prevention-through-environmental-design-in-new-zealand-part-1-seven-qualities-of-safer-places-part-2-implementation-guide-november-2005/the-seven-qualities-for-well-designed-safer-places#3
It needs to be transparent so you can see your bus, and the bus driver can see you, otherwise bureaucratic BS
This is a busy place and there are plenty of people waiting for the city link et al when it stops and currently there’s nothing there, until WA finally stepped in. AT has been promising a bus stop for literally a year or two now and have done nothing. If you don’t feel safe in this then that’s your own hyperactive fears kicking in, the container nearby full of couches and books is always full of people and no one is feeling unsafe simply because they’re not in a glass box.
I think the concerns about the design are fair, and that calling them hyperactive fears is a bit much. The container with couches and books is not the same as a bus stop, and you don’t know that some people might not feel safe in it.
Personally, I do like the design, but I can understand why it could be problematic.
Well: the one with the couches is fully open – there’s your difference!
Umm the book ones are containers and on one side the wall lifts up, look closely this bus stop one also has two sections that can be lifted up as well.
It looks like the Wynyard Quarter has developed Christchurch envy and has started its own love affair with shipping containers but without the Earthquake necessitating a rapid response…
Wynyard has been using shipping containers as part of the public space since it opened so it isn’t a new thing for this area.
Does it close automatically at night or is it a solution to Auckland’s homeless issues as well?
Bus stops seem to attract some dodgy characters if not planned right…
Awesome. Totally unique. Great to see outside the box thinking. Good one Auckland Waterfront.
“outside the box thinking” – ha! Good one; I see what you did there.
I love the idea of using the container and the crate seats, and it fits with the Wynyard theme. As people have pointed out, though, visibility may be an issue… presumably it’d be possible to chuck windows in the container sides? Perhaps WA/ AT can look at that for the next iteration of the stop (or wherever the container pops up next).
Regardless, good on Waterfront Auckland for getting a temporary shelter in there.
who pays for this stuff? council? it’s temporary, so why complain? it is literally better than nothing and far more resilient than the other crap they build.
I’ve never liked transparent bus stops. they always get vandalised/smashed out south. The usual idiot designers who know nothing about the community they plonk their stuff down in without a second thought. huge waste of money. whereas the basic brick ones built 30 years ago are still standing.
“who pays for this stuff? council?”
It is waterfront Auckland, so yes, Council under a different name.
I am all for it. And where’s the proof that glass walls prevent dodgy behaviour? We can’t let such constant fears make us all cramped and decide that doing nothing is better than breaking some CPTED rule cooked up in some manual. Cities are cities. They aren’t all see-through.
Rules are one thing – some are actually there for a reason, and based on good research – usage is another. I predict – please proof me wrong – that people waiting for the bus will not use this, as it is a place that makes most people, apart from the few invincible guys in this forum, feel uneasy. As such, it’s a fig leaf.
I agree that visibility in itself is no guarantor of safety – but it does ever so slightly prevent some transgressions, and improves the ease of dwelling in a place. Shouldn’t we strife to make the public realm a place for everyone to enjoy? And it’s not like there’s a new monitored strategy behind this, like: OK, lets see what happens when we create some scary places – maybe people will enjoy them? Putting the container there like this is pure ignorance of a vast body of research about public places. And the book containers are NOT the same: they are completely open, and work well as a result!
Your comments might make me agree more if this was supposed to be permanent. It isn’t.
I have always felt a lot safer in Wynyard Quarter than in the Viaduct. And that has a lot of glass shelters. Doesn’t help when there’s aggressive drunks about.
Seriously: it took ages for them to put up a temporary shelter. How long do you reckon it takes for a permanent solution? Particularly if they don’t get the message that the temporary solution is inadequate? Let’s just suppose the aggressive drunks discover the Wynyard Quarter one day: how would you feel about meeting them in front of a cave?
“And the book containers are NOT the same: they are completely open, and work well as a result!”
What are you talking about? The book container is basically identical to this, open on one side only.
First picture only has one half of the front opened. Is the front in fact opened fully?
as it clearly states, it is a temporary shelter. and surely would have been a cheap job. It’s a great way of testing a new way of sheltering people while they wait for a bus. Perhaps it’s not for everywhere, but it could work at Wynyard Quarter with its atmosphere of playful urban furniture, installations and art exhibtions.