Elliott Street shared space opens
I wandered through the Elliott Street shared space today, a couple of hours after its official opening. It was really impressive: While the place was obviously busier than normal, due to it being the opening day, I started feeling a bit regretful that Elliott Street is a shared space rather than being fully pedestrianised – as it works so utterly amazingly when closed off to cars.…
8 Comments Northern Busway still under threat
A couple of weeks ago I asked why North Shore politicians seemed to hate buses so much, after a Transport Committee meeting where bus lanes came under attack from Councillor George Wood, as well as the chairs of the two local boards.…
If you’re not busy tonight…
If you’re not busy tonight and are interested in transport matters there’s a couple of events you might want to think about attending.
Firstly, I will be joining Mike Lee, Jacinda Ardern, Phil Twyford and Wayne Butson from the RMTU talking about transport matters – detailed below:
‘Keeping Auckland’s Transport on Track’,
from 6.30, 25 August 2011, at The Trades Hall, 149 Gt North Rd, Grey Lynn.…
Smart Transport Conference videos
As I noted last week, there was a “Smart Transport Conference” held at parliament jointly by the Green and Labour parties. Below are three videos showing talks from that conference.
Green Party MP Gareth Hughes: Transport Consultant (and parking guru) Julie-Anne Genter: And last, but certainly not least, keynote speaker Paul Mees.…
Why are we so mean to pedestrians?
If there’s anything that annoys me, it’s how the design of the streets in Auckland is so frequently horrifically unfriendly to pedestrians. As I have pointed out before, there are busy intersections in the city centre that have traffic lights, but no pedestrian phase to them.…
Reinventing urban planning
I’ve discussed previously that the upcoming Auckland Unitary Plan provides us with a once in a generation opportunity to reinvent how urban planning is done in Auckland. Certainly I think it’s utterly essential that Auckland’s planning documents are given a giant overhaul, as at the moment they’re horrifically complex, contradictory and outdated.…
My Outer Link regret
I first heard about the bus route that has become the “Outer Link” quite a long time ago, late last year I think – as kindly some people at Auckland Transport sought my ideas on what they were proposing. My initial response was fairly mixed: positive about the fact that the route links together so many places, provides for so many trips – particularly trips that public transport doesn’t traditionally provide for, by offering decent frequencies seven days a week and through its “loop” structure.…
What’s the goal?
The response to my post on whether we should remove the Dominion Road and New North Road interchange was quite interesting, and illustrated what I think is an interestingly varied approach to the ultimate question that we all think about: “what is the goal” we’re trying to achieve through our involvement in Auckland transport issues?…
Mees on Auckland
I went to see Australian transport academic Paul Mees talk on Friday night about transport policy issues, in particular focusing on debunking the various arguments used against Auckland having a better public transport system. He was in Auckland after giving a presentation in Wellington at the Smart Transport conference that I discussed in this post.…
Outer Link: first impressions
I caught a couple of “Outer Link” buses today, taking advantage of the new connection between Herne Bay and Pt Chevalier. Below are a few of my first impressions while there’s a good post over on the Campaign for Better Transport blog, outlining Cam Pitches’s first impressions of his trip between Westmere and St Lukes.…
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