Transport plan for weekend’s rugby tests

The All Blacks versus France rugby match at Eden Park tomorrow night will probably be the biggest test of the transport system since the debale of opening night. Auckland Transport seem to be well prepared this time around though, as well as for Sunday’s game between Samoa and Fiji which has also sold out: Extra transport for fans heading to Eden Park matches Extra trains and special event buses will be operating for fans heading to this weekend’s double-header of Rugby World Cup 2011 matches at Eden Park.…
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Transport in the Auckland Plan

I touched on the transport chapter of the Auckland Plan in Tuesday’s post, noting that it seemed to have taken a “we can’t pick this project or that one, so chuck them both in” approach. The list of transport projects proposed in the Plan is certainly extremely extensive: The numbering doesn’t really seem to indicate anything like a priority list, perhaps being more of a listing from north to south in a rather rough way.…
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Auckland Plan: first thoughts

As I discussed this morning, the Auckland Plan was notified for consultation today. The whole plan can be read here, while a list of sections and chapters can be read here. While the plan is a 250-odd page tome, it follows in the steps of the London Spatial Plan by summarising most of what the plan discusses in one somewhat complex map: A more zoomed out version of the map, showing the whole Auckland region, can be found on page 9 of this document.…
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Draft Auckland Spatial Plan

Later today the draft Auckland Spatial Plan (which seems to have morphed into being called simply the ‘Auckland Plan‘) will be notified for submission. Earlier this year a discussion document about general ideas of what should be in the plan was consulted upon – known as ‘Auckland Unleashed‘.…
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A dense city is a green city

I’m reading the fascinating book “Triumph of the City” by Edward Glaeser, at the moment. While I don’t find myself necessarily agreeing with everything in the book, its arguments are really well made – in a way that makes you take full consideration of them.…
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The transport system worked

After the chaos of last week, it was good to hear that Auckland’s public transport system worked well for those attending the Ireland versus Australia game at Eden Park on Saturday night. A Herald article today somewhat contradicts itself by saying that the buses and trains were ready but everyone drove – then noting some fairly large numbers of people who did catch the bus and train: The Herald on Sunday polled 100 fans as they turned up for the game and found a mere 22 took the train to Eden Park.…
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Better bus maps

I’ve long complained that Auckland’s bus network maps are an incomprehensible mess, so it’s nice to see that booklets on Auckland’s public transport system being given out to overseas visitors here for the Rugby World Cup include something that actually makes a bit of sense – showing a much simplified version of the inner-city’s bus network – focusing on the higher frequency routes:  There’s always an interesting balance to be found in drawing public transport maps between simplicity and detail of information.…
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