How do you make a double-decker bus disappear?
Friday, 31 May 2019
OPINION: How do you make a 15-tonne double-decker bus disappear?
Paint it the colour worn by Auckland's 1300-strong AT Metro bus fleet.
The colour is called, unsurprisingly, 'AT Blue' the regulation outfit for Auckland's buses and trains.
The problem is, if you want people to notice public transport, it may be the last colour you would choose.
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AT Blue is the omnibus equivalent of people wearing black.
Individually there is a kind of elegance but, en masse out in the daily grind, it becomes invisible.
How did a dull kind of navy blue become the colour of Auckland's public transport revolution?
Colour matters. Is there anyone who doesn't know the colour of London's buses?
The fire-engine red is a global London hallmark, and you can see them a mile off.
Wellington's city council-owned fleet were also known as 'Big Reds' for decades, until privatisation brought a kaleidoscope of new schemes as new owners changed.
Following Auckland Transport's lead, the overhaul of Wellington's bus network has also brought a new colour, a lime green, with a canary yellow front.
The yellow front is a safety colour, commonly used on trains, while the lime green 'represents the vibrancy of the region and echoes its natural environment'.
Or as Rongotai MP Paul Eagle calls the buses, 'Vomitrons'.
Auckland's biggest operator NZ Bus, brought colour to the city, in the early 2000s with different brands and liveries.
Go West was green with ferns, North Star a beach depiction in sea blue and yellow.
Privately-owned NZ Bus conducted competitions to find colourful designs for its north,west, and south 'brands'.
The firm's Inner Link circular service was Kermit green, and its Outer Link cousin, orange. Then came AT Blue.
That was the colour mandated by AT as it concluded new long-term contracts with bus companies.
AT Blue, with dashes of safety yellow is also what Auckland's new electric train fleet wears.
One of Auckland's greatest attributes is its cultural diversity, celebrated colourfully at events such as Pasifika, the Chinese Lantern Festival, and Matariki or Waitangi Day.
Pasifika and Maori designs are often included in new public buildings such as libraries.
In 2012, I visited the Spanish factory where Auckland's new fleet of trains were to be built.
On the production lines were trains for Caracas in Venezuelan, boasting colour and artwork in keeping with a south American city.
Why AT Blue? The answer is simple. It is the corporate colour of the council agency Auckland Transport.
You will find it on your AT HOP electronic card. Without public consultation, or a design competition, Auckland's public transport livery was created in the image of the bureaucracy that runs it.
Auckland Transport has some opportunities to part the sea of dark blue.
Maybe the planned electric bus fleet could sport colourful designs that reflect Auckland's colourful cultures.
Is it too late to cancel the cans of AT Blue destined for the next fleet of 15 trains from Spain next year?
There is hope. The Orange, Green and Red for the three Link services has survived AT Blue.
Perhaps Aucklanders might like to create designs for buses and trains that reflect their hometown, rather than AT's corporate world.
A public design competition in 2010 produced the logo for the new Auckland Council. It is an idea AT might ponder.