Minimum Parking Requirements
If there’s one planning rule that does more damage to public transport than any other, it is minimum parking requirements. These are the District Plan Rules that state something along the lines of “for every residential unit there must be at least two off-street parking spaces provided”, or “for every 40 square metres of office space, there must be at least one parking space provided”.…
17 Comments Government ruining electrification
There has been a flurry of activity since a post I made last week called for information on why the heck it’s taking so long to find out how the electric trains for Auckland’s rail system will be funded. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the ARC finally got around to making a press release on the matter the day after I made that post, or perhaps after reading my post they went “crikey we’d almost forgotten about that!”…
Orewa-Puhoi Motorway
Well I finally got the opportunity to get out of Auckland for the weekend, and went up to my parents’ beach house at Mangawhai Heads with Leila (girlfriend) and Amalia (daughter). It was a pleasant weekend, which also involved a couple of trips along the Orewa-Puhoi Motorway, which was opened in January this year.…
CBD Rail Tunnel – yay or nay?
I must admit I am somewhat confused at the moment with regards to the outcomes of the Regional Transport Committee’s seemingly very important meeting earlier this week. As I detailed in yesterday’s post the future of Auckland’s rail system over the next 30 years is being discussed quite vigorously at the moment, including all the kinds of lines that I go on about over and over again in various posts on this blog.…
Auckland – City of cars
These three videos have been around for a while now, as they were made back in 2006. However, I think it is certainly worthwhile for me to share them (now that I have got the hang of embedding videos!) They played a big role in making me determined to do whatever I can to improve Auckland’s public transport system and reduce our auto-dependence.…
A peek into Auckland’s PT future
The Auckland Regional Council’s Regional Transport Committee has spent most of this year working on developing the 2010 Regional Land Transport Strategy. That strategy now has a full draft, which along with some background information on the analysis of what future public transport projects make the most economic sense, certainly does make for interesting reading.…
Shared spaces video
A really interesting video on Auckland’s shared streets project. As I have said in previous posts, I’m a huge fan of this concept and I can’t wait to see it rolled out!…
Where is the funding for our electric trains?
Back in March when the government cancelled the Regional Fuel Tax that was going to pay for Auckland’s rail electrification, Steven Joyce affirmed the government’s commitment to paying for electrification in other ways. Initially it seemed like the whole country was going to pick up the bill via a 6c a litre tax, although subsequently we’ve realised that this tax will be going to Steven Joyce’s pet roads of National significance, rather than being spent on rail.…
Onehunga Meeting – reporting back
Well I attended the open evening on the reopening of the Onehunga Branch Line this evening, and it was reasonably enlightening. It was good to catch up with a few fellow public transport advocates, and in general I think ARTA must have been extremely pleased with the turnout for the evening.…
Parnell/University Train Station
There have been plans for quite some time to add a station between Newmarket and Britomart, to serve the Parnell area and also potentially the university. It hasn’t been a simple process though, with debate between Ontrack, ARTA, Auckland City Council and various local groups over its location.…
Processing...