Temporary pedestrian spaces
Another great Streetfilms video shows the amazing impact that pedestrianising a street over the summer months in Queens, New York City, can have on the surrounding neighbourhood: While I’m as sick to death with hearing the phrase “…for the rugby world cup” as anyone out there, I think we do have the opportunity with next year’s tournament to try a few things for the first time.…
18 Comments The delicate balance of stop spacing
A fundamental question to think about when designing either a bus route or a train line is “how far apart should the stops be?” A very useful post on Human Transit explores this matter – and points out an interesting tension between the advantages of closer spacing and wider spacing: Wider stops boost speeds and therefore probably boost patronage as catching the bus or train becomes a more attractive option – thereby improving its economic efficiency.…
Improving our bus maps
I think one thing that puts people off using Auckland’s public transport system – and in particular puts people off using the bus network – is how utterly complicated it is. A case in point: While this map shows a heck of a lot of information – in many respects far too much information – it also misses out a lot.…
Shedding some light on this $30 million “funding gap”
My previous post, which commented on an NZ Herald article relating to operating costs of Auckland’s rail system, noted the somewhat bizarre emergence of a $30 million funding gap. While my previous post asked the question of “where the heck did this funding gap come from?”…
CBD Tunnel delaying tactics begin
Interesting article on the CBD Rail Tunnel in the NZ Herald today. A few excerpts:
Auckland has been told to meet a claimed $30 million annual funding gap for keeping its trains running before the Government will seriously consider a $2 billion inner-city railtunnel.…
Seattle’s new light-rail system
The streetfilms videos that I’ve posted recently seem fairly popular, so here’s another one – on Seattle’s new (as in it opened last year) light-rail system: Sometimes I wonder whether this kind of “technical solution” could be a reasonable way to upgrade the Northern Busway.…
Should the Council start a bus company?
My post the other day about the Public Transport Management Act, and the changes that it now seems won’t be happening to it, got me thinking about ways in which we could improve the cost-effectiveness of providing public transport. While the fact that the PTMA will now not be changed sounds good, I worry that this is effectively the result of many of the bus operators’ concerns (generally that they might not be able to make huge profits off public subsidies anymore) have been met in another way.…
Why “Auckland Transport” needs to engage with the public
Last week I asked the question of whether the Auckland Transport CCO would become a “secretive agency”, like ARTA has been, or whether it would be publicly open, accountable and transparent. While my concern in that blog post was about the specific question of whether Auckland Transport will publish agendas and minutes from their Board Meetings online (and there’s still no sign that they will), the extent to which Auckland Transport engages with the public – or conversely the extent to which it undertakes most of its work in secret – will be a key factor in whether the agency becomes a success or whether it ends up being a failure.…
Copenhagen’s Pedestrian Friendly Streets
I’ve said many times before that we can learn a lot from the way Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, has remade its town centre over the past few decades to be more pedestrian friendly. Here’s a great video from Streetfilms on what Copenhagen has achieved:
As we kick-start our venture into “shared spaces” with Darby, Fort, Elliott and Lorne Streets being turned – at least in part – into exciting shared spaces, my hope is that we can expand on this start, keep up the momentum and make Auckland a truly fantastic city for people, not just cars.…
Eden Park transport upgrade – all done
By the sounds of it, last night’s first big test of the transport upgrades made to Eden Park worked pretty well. Before the Four National League games yesterday I went and had a look at how things have turned out.
Perhaps the biggest change since I was last there is the completion of the southbound bus lane along Sandringham Road:For much of the past year this bus lane (on the opposite side of the road to where I took the photo) has been under construction – and it has been a pretty tricky job as a slice had to be taken off the properties (with nice new fences and walls built for them) and even a couple of houses required removal.…
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