How a council fixed issues of young people behaving badly at a Dunedin city bus hub

A secret trial involving safety at a bus hub and on some routes has led to success for stamping out anti-social behaviour.

Excessive profile incident on the bus hub on Dunedin’s Nice King St – the identical avenue because the Dunedin Central Police Station – have made headlines because it opened in March 2019.

That included a a lady kicking a disabled man within the head, and teenage boys combating one another, in movies shared with Stuff.

However these incidents led to the Otago Regional Council (ORC) quietly introducing safety into the bus hub, in addition to ‘on-bus’, with its public and lively transport committee in search of a continuation of these measures at a gathering on Thursday morning.

ORC transport common supervisor Pim Borren stated considerations over anti-social behaviour on the Gt King St web site led to the regional council introducing safety final 12 months.

“There was a bunch of younger folks congregating across the hub, and that was a headache for us on the time.’’

For the reason that introduction of that safety, which additionally got here after complaints from the general public: “we haven’t had that subject’’.

Police had additionally elevated patrols of the realm, whereas Dunedin’s expertise of anti-social behaviour was much like that in different centres, the committee heard.

“We don’t have unhealthy anti-social behaviour, however it’s a public house, and it is usually an area for our staff, our contractors, our bus drivers,’’ Otago Regional Council (ORC) transport supervisor Lorraine Cheyne stated.

The council discovered preliminary interventions improved the state of affairs on the bus hub, whereas the trialling of on-bus safety, after a few incidents, which resulted in “good suggestions’’.

The regional council additionally labored alongside the Dunedin Metropolis Council (DCC) of the “general safety in and across the bus hub,’’ she stated.

The present safety trial was an extension of what the town council was doing in surrounding streets, and stuffed a void if police didn’t have sufficient assets.

The presence of safety reassured the general public, together with these taking buses, or simply strolling by means of the realm.

Initially, the committee was because of maintain the paper, Safety for Dunedin Public Transport, at a public excluded session, however since had a rethink because of public curiosity within the matter.

Council voted to proceed funding the safety trial to June 30 2024, at a price of $126,000.

It comes because the ORC reported growing bus patronage throughout the area.

Between July and September greater than 850,000 folks took the bus in Dunedin, a 31% enhance in passenger numbers as measured towards the identical interval pre-Covid.