HOP begins
Despite my misgivings over the details of the HOP/Snapper rollout, it is worth celebrating the launch of the HOP card on North Star buses today. I topped up my HOP card on Friday, as sometimes I catch the 5.05pm 005 bus and it’s usually operated by North Star.…
54 Comments Could we have a CBD bus tunnel as well as a rail tunnel?
One issue that often gets raised is that bus lanes along Albert St are inconsistent. They exist on some parts then disappear again shortly afterwards, normally to allow for turning traffic at intersections. Currently most buses from both the North Shore and West Auckland use Albert St as the main corridor through the CBD and the impact on them is only going to get worse as more and more buses are needed in the future (even with the CBD tunnel) .…
NYC Subway in 1949
I found a really interesting video on the New York Subway system, filmed in 1949: One thing that’s particularly interesting is mention of the “Second Avenue Subway” as a project that was about to get underway. 62 years later and New York is finally starting to get around to completing this massive (and essential) project.…
Getting more from our PT subsidies
Herald columnist Brian Rudman wrote a good article yesterday, highlighting the need to get better value out of the amount of money we spend on public transport subsidies. This was an issue touched upon at Tuesday’s transport committee meeting, specifically in the presentation by Auckland Transport CEO David Warburton.…
Better bus signs
A good post on Human Transit highlights the usefulness of improving bus signage – and in particular the importance of naming routes by the main road they pass along, rather than by their destiation. A good example of an effective bus sign (by that I mean the signage on the front of the bus) is the 38 Geary Boulevard service in San Francisco: As Jarrett says in his post, this signage is great because it lets you know the bus runs along Geary Boulevard, while also saying that somewhere near the end of the route is V.A.…
What is Auckland’s silliest bus route?
The Auckland bus network is best described as resembling what happens when you throw spaghetti at a wall. Complex, confusing, counter-intuitive and very difficult to understand. Furthermore, there are some incredibly bizarre anomalies in the bus system that I simply can’t make sense out of.…
Auckland Transport’s first few months
David Warburton, CEO of Auckland Transport, made a presentation at the Tuesday meeting of the Auckland Council Transport Committee. The presentation was a general overview of how Auckland Transport has done in the past few months, while also identifying a few issues moving forwards into the future.…
Guest Post: A message from Bordeaux
Regular commenter Andrew W is in Bordeaux, France at the moment – and has kindly sent in this Guest Post:
I’m staying in Bordeaux, France at the moment and thought I’d share a couple of observations and comparisons.
In both Bordeaux itself and in nearby towns, there aren’t small token shared spaces here and there, instead in town the pedestrian rules – shared and pedestrian-only spaces are simply how streets work, and they are packed with people.…
The price of parking
There’s an interesting article in today’s NZ Herald, which notes that the cost of reserved monthly parking in Auckland is relatively high compared to other overseas cities.
Monthly parking rates in Auckland are more expensive than in most big cities around the world, says a global survey.…
Should we pedestrianise High Street?
In theory, I really like High Street in downtown Auckland. It has a great collection of shops (even though most of them sell products far too expensive for me to ever consider wandering into them), it has character with the collection of buildings, it is a bustling pedestrian environment and it always feels nice and vibrant.…
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