CityGlider bus stops

The extra roof coverage at the back of the stops makes sense. It's not fun getting wet because you can't squeeze in. And the extra passage in the middle of the stop will help house a crowd. So four stars for function.

But form? The extra height seems unnecessary. Especially when it's in bright yellow and blue. So just one star - all for the sugar glider with the pilot's helmet. What's his name?

The real issue in rating this properly, though, is whether we're talking about a high frequency bus service with overcooked shelters, or a watered down light rail service. What was the original dream? How far off track is what ended up being delivered?

Progress is a curious thing. Individuals and societies, developing their abilities and achievements. Improving technologies and productivity. More powerful but quieter engines and such like. We refine our practices and techniques, which become ever more stylish and effortless. More time at home reading, fewer hours on the factory floor. That’s what we like to think we mean by progress anyway.

Looking around though, it does seem that one common effect of ‘progress’ is that everything we own or use gets bigger. Our cars may be efficient, but they’re bigger and plumper. Homes are not homes but McMansions. Our waistlines are larger, our debts are greater. Even our bus stops are getting bigger.

At least that is the evidence from looking at these shiny new CityGlider bus stops, installed in time for the launch of the city’s shiny new bus route. You might say that this is just a necessary ‘upgrade’ of public transport infrastructure. We suppose it is. But with wider, longer, chubbier steel shelters squeezed into a same-size-as-before footpath where older, slimline models recently sat.

We might not have noticed these shelters so much if they hadn’t been decorated in the blue and yellow colours that the buses also wear, with hints of Council’s logo sneaking in, and a few glider cartoons thrown on for good measure. Maybe we’re being dour and boring, but these stops are LOUD. It’s all about being seen these days. Progress indeed.