Flat Bush: very expensive sprawl
I have written a number of posts about Flat Bush in the past. For those that don’t know, Flat Bush is a large greenfields development in the southeast corner of Auckland. Over the next 20 or so years around 40,000 people are expected to call Flat Bush home.…
11 Comments Has Banks given up on public transport?
In recent times I have been very pleased to see that all the main mayoral candidates for the Auckland Super City appear to support significant investment in upgrading public transport in Auckland, most particularly in the widespread enthusiasm for big ticket projects like the CBD Rail Tunnel and rail to the Airport (although I have noted that a North Shore Line might be a step too far at the moment).…
Peak Oil and the UK
An interesting report on the likely effects of Peak Oil on the UK has been released by the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security. Here’s a summary from Going Solar:If the UK’s transport system is considered at risk of being seriously impacted by higher oil prices, I’d hate to even think what the risk is to New Zealand’s highly car dependent transport system.…
Western Ring Route – animation
NZTA have made a pretty well put together animation of what the Western Ring Route upgrade will look like when completed, which includes the $1.4 billion Waterview Connection. A few thoughts come to mind: There’s certainly not going to be much left of Allan Wood Reserve once the motorway goes through it (this is largely shown in the first minute).…
Britomart nears capacity
By early next year Auckland’s train system should be running trains at 10 minute frequencies on the three main lines, plus the two trains per hour from Onehunga. That mean that basically we will have four lines feeding into Britomart – three with six trains per hour (tph) and one with two trains per hour (tph).…
John Roughan’s CBD rail tunnel fear
A couple of weeks back I commented on how poorly informed NZ Herald columnist John Roughan was in an article he wrote on how he “fears” the power and influence the future mayor of the Auckland Super City might have in pushing for public transport improvements.…
We could have had electric trains for World Cup
A quite interesting question that I have wondered about over the past year or so is whether we could have had electric trains delivered and operational by the time of next year’s Rugby World Cup, had the government not stepped in in March last year to cancel the regional fuel tax and then spend the next six or so months figuring out how to fund electrification.…
Giant trucks need further motorway upgrades
It has been a few months since NZTA approved an increase in the maximum weight of trucks allowed on New Zealand’s roads: from 44 to 53 tonnes. This change was made in the face of pretty overwhelming opposition to the change, from people concerned about the safety risk of such massive vehicles, but also it was pointed out that the increase in weight could lead to significantly greater degradation of our roads.…
Smarter Parking Policy
A great initiative in San Francisco to help price parking spaces more accurately so they’re easier to find. I like the initiatives of adjusting parking prices to be dependent on the level of demand, and I also like how people will be able to check online to see how heavily “parked” the area they’re going to generally is, and also the parking rate they expect to have to pay.…
Onehunga Station – photos
I managed to head out to Onehunga today and take some photos of the train station, which has now been largely completed. The site was a bit of a “mud-fest” as there has been so much rain in the last few days, but there has certainly been massive progress since I was last there.…
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