Almost every time I catch a bus the thing that strikes me (other than the almost always lateness of Wellington buses), is how inadequate bus stops are  in their design for shelter.  It seems that I’m not the only one thinking this way …. With the invention of Adshel and its nasty advertising props parading, inadequately, as bus shelters, is there really any hope that public transport might become the prime mode of moving people around the city?  Despite Adshel’s promotional philosophy that they “are committed to providing an environment where people enjoy coming to work,” it appears, from their designwork, that a large majority of them drive their cars to work.  The bad news is that, in Auckland for example, Adshel have a 23yrs lease agreement dating from 2000.  I imagine poor old Wellington’s stuck in a similar situation.

Another Adshel bus stop (poor protection from the sun, the wind and the rain)

It’s a bit depressing realising that such bad design (as is evident in these bus stops), can exist in a city which pretends to prioritise good design.  Just recently Mayor Kerry Prendergast claimed that she stands for good design.  Electioneering aside it seems she doesn’t catch buses either.  It’s more than a small pleasure then to find the Next Stop Design website, produced by a group who pride themselves in being: “an experiment in “crowdsourcing” the best ideas and designs to build a better bus stop.  We hope that better stops will encourage more people to ride public transportation, which benefits us all (and our planet) in many ways.”

On the site is Ryan Smith’s handy “Functional Criteria to Consider When Designing a Bus Stop” .  All common sense but something we challenge Adshel (and Kerry) to not only have a good look at, but to use in a socially responsible re-design of Wellington’s stock of drafty, wet and cold bus stops.  But Next Stop is not just about a crude pragmatics – they also treasure pleasure in design.  Like Cyril Style’s Creative Bus Stop Design site, Next Stop have their own assortment of innovative bus designs on display.