The Campaign for Better Transport, Walk Auckland, Cycle Action Auckland and Living Streets Aotearoa have created a new campaign and website looking at affordable transport initiatives the new Council can make during it’s first term to create a much better transport system for the city. It’s called Easy Transport Auckland, ETA. There are eleven projects the campaign is advocating for and hopes to get a commitment on these from as many candidates for our local body elections as possible before the election.
The eleven initiatives are:
ETA: 2014
More Half Moon Bay ferries
Project: Enjoy fast, frequent ferries to and from an expanded downtown terminal
ETA 2014: Upgrade the Half Moon Bay terminal and expand the ferry service.
ETA: 2014
Traffic priorities
PROJECT: Open Auckland’s clogged arteries for more efficient freight and car trips
ETA 2014: Plan and fund strategic corridor improvements
ETA: 2014
Far more ferries
PROJECT: Enjoy fast, frequent, friendly ferries to and from an expanded downtown terminal
ETA 2014: Expand the Downtown ferry terminal to cater for up to 500 movements, by building new berths on Queens Wharf.
ETA: 2014
Better buses South and East
Project: Provide efficient cross-city bus services linking homes and businesses across Panmure-Botany-Manukau
ETA 2014: Plan, fund and implement strategic cross-city bus services for Panmure-Botany-Manukau.
ETA: 2014
Northern busway extension
Project: Extend the Northern Busway from Albany to Orewa
ETA 2014: Plan and fund Northern Busway Extension
ETA: 2014
Plentiful bike parking
Project: Provide plentiful, convenient cycle parking at all train,ferry and bus stations and town centres
ETA 2014: Plan, fund and implement adequate train, ferry and bus station and town centre bike parking.
ETA: 2014
Safe cycle routes
Project: Enable everyday trips on a network continuous cycle routes
ETA 2014: Plan, fund and implement 50% of the regional cycle network (276km of new routes)
ETA: 2014
Local traffic control
Project: Slower traffic zones in all town centres.
ETA 2014: Plan, fund and implement initiatives for slower traffic in town centres.
ETA: 2014
Pedestrian-friendly CBD
Project: Enjoy the CBD as a walkers’ paradise — from Vic Park to Uni and K’ Rd to the sea.
ETA 2014: Plan, fund and implement wider footpaths, or other pedestrian-friendly improvements, for High, Quay, Victoria, Wellesley and Wyndham Streets.
ETA: 2014
Airport trains
Project: Fly all the way to the airport on a dedicated train line.
ETA 2014: Designate/buy land to protect the route for the Airport train line.
ETA: 2014
Budget: $1.6b (est.)
The CBD rail tunnel
Project: Swift travel, not just to Britomart, but through it — on the CBD loop train tunnel.
ETA 2014: Complete planning and funding and start construction for the CBD Tunnel
This is an exciting co-ordination of Auckland’s “alternative” (sad that anything apart from motorway, basic rail and bus advocation is alternative in Auckland) transport lobby and I hope it becomes an ongoing project to get commitment from politicians on important and practical transport solutions from election to election. The website is growing all the time and has more content than I’ve reproduced here. It is going to be well worth checking in on regularly:
http://www.easytransportauckland.org.nz/
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awesome initiative! Great to see all these groups working together. Can’t wait for the launch on Sunday 🙂
Overall I think is excellent because it is realistic… I think the two ferry goal’s require the new AT to buy Fuller’s… The Northern Busway extension should just be a designation and acquistion situation but overall really good…
This looks like a very good and very reasonable action plan, however I too question the inclusion of the busway extension. Perhaps establishing albany style park and ride interchanges at silverdale and orewa would be a good idea, but I can’t see the need to extend the actual busway in the near future.
I would love to add an investigation and protection of Joshua’s South Eastern line too. I think this is a really beauty, a transformer for Auckland, a device for realising Auckland’s true size. The separation of the spreading South East shows just how Auckland is still organised on provincial town sized thinking… I know that many Aucklanders as well as the rest of country haven’t caught up with how different AK is, and is becoming from the rest of the country but it is and it requires different thinking to get the best out of it. For all the country.
Also please when the Busway is extended can the grades and structures be future proofed for Rail. And not ‘lite’. We’ve had sixty years of pretending there will be no future, time to grow out of that one too.
I highly recommend actually having a troll around the site, it’s good and growing daily… Make sure you check it on Monday after the official launch…
My vote would be to overhaul ameti significantly, keeping some of the better components such as the bus lanes and the panmure works, but focus on planning and protecting a proper RTN rail line (memo to council, some buslanes on the street with bus stops every 400m does not in anyway meet the definition of RTN, so stop calling it that!)
I agree AMETI needs a complete rethink. Every time I examine it I find that it’s more roads-centric than I thought. There will be overpasses, underpasses, huge roading viaducts and all other sorts of structures that the rest of the world is generally in the process of removing at huge cost.
Meanwhile, the $1.4 billion cost of the project completely ignores the primary problem for the area – that there is no southeast RTN. If AMETI in its current form is built traffic is unlikely to get much better, we will have wasted all the money desperately needed for that southeast RTN and we will have probably destroyed Panmure and Pakuranga in the process.
Is there any real possibility that it will be thought through again under the new council?
Here’s a video on shared spaces.
Means of transport is going improve day by day especially in developing country. Increasing Public transport is the only solution of this problem.