Light rail is a great idea. But not a realistic one for now.

'With the current population base it simply doesn't stack up.”

This is Transport Minister Simon Bridges' overview of Tauranga City's transport – its needs, its future.

Smaller buses, more of them, better timetabling, more reliable services. 'That may need to be checked out but it's my sense of it.”

But certainly, he says, more of us should be thinking about using buses.

And more walking and biking to work. 'It's a magic opportunity in a city that is relatively flat and enjoys incredible weather.”

There's his idea for autonomous buses. 'How cool if Tauranga CBD was the first place in New Zealand to have regularised autonomous buses operating?”

And he would be keen to work with the Tauranga City Council on ‘park and rides' in outer areas like Tauranga Crossing and Pyes Pa. 'Where people can drop their cars for the day and hop on a bus.”

It all began with his thoughts on the suggestion of a light rail system down the middle of Cameron Rd. Out would come the grass median strips and trees and in goes the light rail – dual tracking and fast, flash and regular trams or trains. 'It would cost millions of dollars per kilometre and you'd need quite a few k's before it's remotely workable – a billion dollars before you scratch your nose on this one,” says Simon.

When the Minister and Tauranga MP walks down the street, he sees buses with very few people in them and lots of cars with just one person in them – the driver.

As Tauranga depends on cars more we're less likely to take a bus than any city in the country.

The Weekend Sun tested attitudes to the big yellows. 'I haven't ridden a bus since I was 13 – so at least 10 years.” 'I've been in Tauranga three years and never taken a bus.” 'No, I haven't used our buses.”

Someone else had taken a bus but that was two-and-a-half years ago, another person used the buses twice last year; and yet another was forced to use the bus because the car was broken down or they had been drinking.

There is also an attitude that buses simply are not cool. 'Do I look like the sort of person who would use a bus?”

Daily traffic in Tauranga has increased 8.9 per cent in a year and, by quite a margin, the city unenviably has the highest private vehicle dependency in the country with about 97 per cent of journeys taken by private cars.

'What we need are things that make public transport attractive,” says Simon. 'First and foremost, there needs to be some smart thinking on the bus network.” 'Those timetables, those services; that regularity and reliability.”

And hopefully over time we will see more people in cars than just the driver. 'Because every time you get two or three people in a car, you are taking other cars off the road.”

If the Minister of Transport was still a lawyer and prosecutor in Tauranga, he'd seriously consider cycling to work. And he considers that would be a realistic proposition for quite a number of people who live as far out as Matua or Bethlehem.

But it would require a whole lot of things to happen. 'Offices to be more accommodating, to have some facility around bicycles. TrustPower is a leader on that front – it's put in specific cycling facilities, showers, storage for bikes, and an allowance for people to buy some of the kit they need.”

As a result TrustPower's had good buy-in. 'Be very clear it's not going to be the magic bullet – nothing is going to be the silver bullet.”

The power, says the minister, is in all of our hands.