We hear a lot of talk about the need to integrate land-use planning with transport planning. Stuff like intensifying around transport nodes and developing “corridors” and so forth absolutely permeates any planning or transport document that one is likely to have a read through in Auckland. Obviously it’s smart thinking – if we can’t bring trains (or buses) to the people, let’s bring the people to the trains or buses. Properly integrated land-use and transport planning should result in reduced automobile dependency, it should result in less congestion and greater public transport use and it should result in more sustainable communities.
However, this is all just talk, and when you look around Auckland that fact gets hammered into your head again and again and again. To be honest, the integration between transport and land-use planning in Auckland over the last 20-30 years has been pathetic. There are two examples of this that have the potential to be fixed up in the future, but for now stick out like a sore thumb in terms of what happens when you don’t look at these two fundamentals in an integrated manner, but rather see them as isolated and separate concepts.
The first example is what I called “far-east Auckland”, the area that is located to the east of the Tamaki River. This includes Howick, Pakuranga, Botany, Flat Bush, Dannemora and all those other suburbs in between. This area has grown like crazy over the past few decades, and has really been Auckland’s main area of growth in the past 20 years in particular. This area is shown in the aerial photo below:
This part of Auckland is a classic example of having a lot of land-use planning having taken place, but almost no “higher-level” transport planning. Traffic from this whole entire area gets fed into the two roads at the top left of the photo: Lagoon Drive and Pakuranga Highway, if people are trying to access the bulk of the rest of Auckland. A new interchange at Highbrook has slightly improved this situation, but in terms of roading the very limited number of arterial routes and the fact they all converge on basically the same spot leads to utter traffic chaos. I talked about this in more detail a few months ago.
From a public transport perspective the situation is even worse. There is nothing out here – almost quite literally nothing for public transport. No railway line, no bus lanes, no busway, no transport interchange. All we have are a bunch of buses that, with no priority over general traffic at all, take up to an hour and a half to link this part of Auckland with the CBD. As a comparison, it usually takes a train from Pukekohe to Britomart under an hour to do its trip.
It really does beggar belief that this situation was allowed to happen. The most remarkable thing is that this process continues to be allowed to take place. Manukau City is promoting Flat Bush as one of the main growth areas in the future, with potentially up to 40,000 people living in this part of the city. In the above map, Flat Bush would be the lower-right quarter of the map – where some recent earthworks are visible. In other words, it is miles from any decent transport links other to Te Irirangi Drive. If someone was to ask the question “how long would it take on a bus from Flat Bush to the CBD?” the answer would be pretty scary – one hour and 15 minutes according to the timetable of the 681 bus route). For all the talk about integrating transport and land-use planning, this is a pretty pathetic outcome – simply due to the fact that transport planning has been completely ignored in this particular situation. Only the Howick/Botany Railway Line can ever possibly fix this situation – so why is it not even being planned for?
The second example of terrible integration between land-use and transportation planning is far more fixable, yet it still quite telling. And that is the Northern Busway. In this situation the transport planning has been done excellently, but there has been little if any integration with surrounding land-use planning from what I can see. This may change further into the future – but there’s an amazing irony that most of the busway stations (Albany, Smales Farm and Akoranga in particular) are pretty much surrounded by wasteland. I won’t go into too much detail here about what could and should be done about this, as you can read all about it in a previous post, but once again it’s a tad disappointing to see such little integration between planning and transport.
So, how can land-use planning and transport planning be properly integrated? I think we can learn a lot from what’s happening in New Lynn at the moment. In New Lynn at the moment there is a significant trasnport redevelopment that I outlined a few days ago. This will put the railway line in a trench, and also rebuilt the bus terminal around that new train station. Crucially, in this particular situation we also see the council coming on board and having some vision about how to best take advantage of the good transport links that New Lynn has. This vision is outlined below, and much more information on this project can be found on the council page I linked to earlier in this paragraph.
This is an excellent example of what we need to see in Auckland. This significant development project around a transport node is an integration of transport planning and land-use planning that unfortunately we just haven’t seen in many other parts of the city. Hopefully it’s a good sign of where things are heading, and we will see many other proposals like this. I also hope that this plan for New Lynn actually happens.
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Not so sure about it actually happening as it regards Lynn Mall, from memory of these plans they want to eliminate the mall over time… That ain’t happening…
The rest of the plan is quite good, doesn’t it also have provisions for porous pavement, that seems like a great idea as regards underlying soil and soil quality over time…
Damn it I’ll just re-read the plans again…
The problem with the northern busway is that if follows the motorway, which over time has only attracted industrial and big box retailers. Even the southern railway runs along the southern motorway for a short period and misses Manukau City Centre. All this is good for is land to provide park and ride services, which creates automotive dependency and families that need multiple cars. With the northern busway running along the motorway route, I would hope that future developments be more high density rather than big box retail.
In Wellington, the rail doesn’t run along the motorway, but along the middle of valleys (eg. Tawa, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt). This is were the western line will really see benefits through increased patronage as it runs through several town centres. But these lines were all old and created before the motorways were built. I would hope that planners can plan in advance to attract people to transport hubs (one could potentially be created at Botany town centre) before rail is constructed. If Te Irirangi Road is continued to be ungraded to a high speed road, then development will not be magnetized along what would hope would be the route for future rail.
Brent, the Northern Busway has plenty of potential. Over time I hope to see intensified nodes around all stations (possibly exception of Sunnynook). I was more using it as an example to say “North Shore City Council knew this was coming, why didn’t they encourage development around where the busway stations would be over the last few years?”
I like the plans for New Lynn, I hope it eventually turns out as well as what is planned. I see in the info pack about New Lynn that there is a proposal for a Clark St bypass away from Totara Ave. Do you know whether those plans are still in place, because I haven’t heard it anywhere else , except for the planning document? I agree the planning out east has been pretty lame really. As for more TOD ‘s in Auckland, I think Papakura for example could have been a good TOD, maybe it still can be. Some of the planning and development in Papakura has been quite a wasted opportunity I think. Hopefully the new Auckland Council and the new RTA will have a more disciplined focus on TOD development. Oh and by the way I had a look at Subiaco on streetview, it looks pretty awesome there, although the streets seemed a little deserted.
I’m not sure about the Clark Street bypass – I think a cheaper option is going to be built for the time being. However, the new intersection will be much more simplified than the current infamous roundabout.
I hope for more TODs around Auckland too. There is plenty of potential along most Western Line train stations and many of the further south Southern Line ones. Glen Innes, Sylvia Park and Panmure also have a tonne of potential on the Eastern Line. Plus there was that huge development plan for Orakei which incorporated the train station into it very effectively.
All this will mean a LOT more people using the rail system. I hope it can handle it.
The Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Act was supposed to help Auckland do the higher level work of setting up chnags to the Auckland Regional Policy Statement and District Plans to facilitate the intgration of land use and transport.
The hearings turned into the Supermarket Wars with big buisness interests pushing their own barrows, but good work was done with the documents which is slowly flowing through into actions.
Waitakere City took full advantage of the process to make major District Plan changes and the New Lynn work was part of that.
Lindsey, I guess that proves my point. All the talk about integrating land use and planning has often just been that: talk. When it comes to real action we are still yet to see much sign of proper integration – with New Lynn being an exception.
I guess it might take more time for these changes to filter through, as any policy shifts on these matters seem to move at glacial speeds.
Far be it from me to defend the mostly car dependant development in Manukau, but the situation with Flat Bush (and the other eastern suburbs) needs to be dug a little deeper before we can start writing the city off. MCC currently has a reasonably large sum of money identified in their LTCCP (around $20m over the 10 years from memory) for upgrading the (future) QTN route between Botany and Manukau City. That’s Chapel, Matthews, Aspiring, Hollyford, Redoubt, Wiri Station – ending after its past the new bus/rail interchange on Davies. Looking at the definition of QTN in ARTAs network plan, and the amount of money available from Council, this means bus lanes – significant bus lanes. Not as effective long term as rail, but affordable in the short term and more responsive. ARTA are also proposing ramping up services out of Flat Bush on the QTN route and coordinating timetables with the rail service to ensure efficient transfer. There is thinking happening there. The more important factor is that all of these PT plans are dependant on subsidy from NZTA. As you know, the new GPS slashes the available budget for new PT infrastructure for the future.
The problem still exists that it takes a bus an hour and a quarter to get from Flat Bush to Britomart. A QTN simply in and around Flat Bush might only save a few minutes. A railway line could get people from Britomart to Botany in under 30 minutes, with Flat Bush probably another 5 minutes down the track.
Bus lanes along Ti Rakau Drive, Chapel Road and others is a good idea – but you still end up with the problem of what to do once you’re at Panmure. The trek from Panmure to Britomart via Ellerslie, Greenlane and Newmarket is never likely to be particularly fast. Seems like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic to be honest.
And yes, the GPS is pathetic. Unbelievably pathetic, although ARTA have ignored it as much as possible in their planning documents which is a start.
There is not doubt there is potential around the busway stations for transit development.
Has the Northern Busway attracted any kind of transit development since it opened? Or are their any plans for such development in the short term?
It might be a bit early for anything concrete to happen Brent, and the recession has basically knocked on the head of anything that might have been proposed anyway. I have seen some amazing plans for long-term development proposals around the Akroranga station – linking it with Takapuna Central through significant growth and redevelopment of the area between the station and Takapuna.
Some good information on Takapuna here: http://www.northshorecity.govt.nz/PDFs/Takapuna-strategic-review/AWP-Display-Boards-Rev-3.pdf
Maybe I was being a bit harsh on North Shore City for not having an integrated plan after all.
The QTN route I mention is not intended to link to the CBD. The one I’m talking is to get people from the southern part of FB to the Manukau rail station as fast as possible – then on to the CBD by train from there. Yes it involves back tracking, clearly not as efficient as a direct rail line into the GI/Panmure area, but it’s (hopefully) achievable in the current climate with our current politicians. I’ll gladly call the Flat Bush-Manukau-CBD Bus/rail solution an untidy collapsible piece of furniture on the Titanic the moment the Govt/Auckland Council commit funds for a Flat Bush-CBD rail line. In the mean time I think creating a quicker and more consistent journey time for PT users between FB and the CBD with the infrastructure and budgets we have available is a good idea.
I think you should also consider the destination of commuters from the “Far-east Auckland”. Only a relatively small percentage of these residents will need to travel to the CBD for work (less than 20% of all JTW trips from the eastern zones go to the CBD from my memory of JTW spider-plots developed during the ETC project). A direct rail line to there is putting a lot of eggs in one basket. Creating quick and efficient links to the (proposed) transport hub in Manukau is likely to be beneficial to more people.
Interesting information R.Lin about destinations of journeys from that part of Auckland. I guess the advantage of a “Howick/Botany Line” is that it would link through to Manukau City – providing an excellent link between Flat Bush and Manukau.
Your suggestion is certainly a good short-to-medium term solution though. Anything’s better than what we have at the moment.