WHERE THERE'S SMOKE...

I'm not going to wade into an argument that I know relatively little about, but...

The above image is from an Economist article that hails the success of Jakarta's busway. A dedicated transit route for busses. Like the one they're building on the North Shore.

I'm intrigued by how bad the graph shows taxis are in terms of emissions per kilometer. I'm guessing that they tend to sit around idling a lot. There's no emissions comparison for train, light rail, or trolley bus but if they're running on non fossil fuel generated electricity it'll of course be zero.

I'm also sure that a massive developing country city like Indonesia is better suited to a busway than Wellington is. They have the "ability" to appropriate land and generally not so challenging terrain.

Over at Wellingtonista there's been significant bus/rail debate (1,2,3,4,5) so head on over if you want some Wellington/NZ context on this. One post in particular has some great links and comment.