Joyce wants more uneconomic RoNS
A couple of days ago I discussed one of the Ministry of Transport’s discussion papers that has been prepared to inform the development of the next Government Policy Statement (GPS) for transport. The GPS is an important document because it is effectively the government’s input to how NZTA should spend the $3 billion or so that sits in the National Land Transport Fund each year.…
32 Comments Traffic calming
I’m a huge fan of the video series being put together on Streetfilms at the moment – about “moving beyond automobiles”. One recent video looks at traffic calming techniques – innovative ways of slowing down vehicles to make the road safer for pedestrians: I really like narrow streets, as I have outlined in previous posts.…
IMF: the economic impacts of oil scarcity
It’s a bit difficult to talk about “peak oil” without being written off as some sort of conspiracy theorist. I guess perhaps it’s because the supply of relatively cheap oil is so deeply embedded into the operation of our modern economy and society that people struggle to consider what life might be like with oil doubling or tripling in price within a relatively short time period.…
Transport trends and issues
One of the main pieces of transport policy released this year will be the 2012-2015 Government Policy Statement for transport. While the GPS won’t take effect until July 2012, it is supposed to be released to the public by July 2011.…
Pricing parking right
Here’s another great video from Streetfilms, this time focusing on parking – the issue that I like to call the “elephant in the room” when it comes to land-use and transport planning. It has a huge impact, but for some reason it gets ignored 99% of the time. …
Is Auckland Train Patronage about to overtake Wellington’s?
For years Wellington has been NZ’s public transport capital and one of the main things that helped it stand out was it was the one city in the country with a semi decent train service. Auckland on the other hand has been considered the city of cars and trains were considered such a joke that many people didn’t even know they existed.…
Central bus changes – an alternative option
Submissions closed last week on the proposed changes to bus routes in inner Auckland. I look forward to seeing the outcomes of the consultation and whether Auckland Transport still proceed with the proposed changes – I do hope so, as long as the changes are accompanied by necessary infrastructure works to ensure the “Outer Loop” route is reliable.…
Northern Express service improvements coming
The first step of implementing the public transport service improvements mentioned a week or so ago are about to be implemented – with a significant increase to the number of Northern Express buses proposed. Here’s the media release from Auckland Transport:
Auckland Transport extends Northern Express bus services
As public transport continues to grow in popularity, in addition to other public transport initiatives announced recently to manage increasing demand, Auckland Transport, with its operator Ritchies, is boosting the Northern Express bus service with additional buses,
More buses will run during peak hours and night time services have been extended.…
What does “multi-modal” actually mean?
Depending on how you read into Wellington City Council’s decision to support NZTA’s suggested recommendations at their meeting last night, they either folded under NZTA’s pressure or simply reaffirmed their commitment to working with NZTA on a multi-modal corridor plan between the Ngauranga Gorge and Wellington Airport.…
Electric trains suppliers short-listed to 2
The history of the battle to supply Auckland’s electric trains is long, and fairly complex – as I tried to explain in this recent post – but it seems that we are finally seeing some progress. A press release from KiwiRail yesterday announced that there are now two preferred bidders for the contract, who will now advance to a further detailed stage of design:
A further milestone has been reached in the procurement of new electric trains for the Auckland network with KiwiRail today announcing the short list of two bidders to advance to the final stage of contract negotiations.…
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