Taking a fresh look at planning regulation
For a long time it seemed to me that most of our urban problems here in Auckland, as well as overseas, had arisen through a lack of planning. At first glance, it seems as though the urban sprawl and automobile dependency we suffer from has been the result of insufficient planning rules and regulations – which have been unable to stop developers from building stuff that we don’t like.…
11 Comments Council vs Government battle continues
While my analysis of the Auckland Plan’s transport aspects tend to come to the conclusion that far too many roading projects are proposed, which contradicts with the Plan’s transport goals and targets, an article on the NZ Herald today makes it clear that the government is taking the opposite view.…
Huge PT patronage in September
The full public transport patronage report for September is yet to be released, but hidden within the general business report for the October board meeting we can see some pretty spectacular numbers – to be expected of course due to the Rugby World Cup:
September 2011 patronage was 6,634,342 passenger trips across public transport, an increase of +18.7% compared to September 2010.…
Walking to school
Here’s a good little video from Streetfilms on measures being taken in New York City to increase the number of children walking to school: It is very easy to get carried away with talking about big transport projects all the time on a blog such as this, but I do often think that the combination of many many small improvements, such as efforts to encourage children to walk to school more, can make as big a difference to congestion, reduced pollution, health benefits and so forth as many of the larger projects.…
Taking a second look at North Shore Rail
Nick’s post a few days back on looking at a Vancouver Skytrain type solution for providing the North Shore with a long-term rapid transit system (as well as other areas, but I think North Shore is the one which makes the most sense initially) inspired a lot of discussion.…
Getting the NW Busway in the Auckland Plan
Some good news came out today, with Auckland Council confirming that submission period for the Auckland Plan is being extended to October 31st – so you have a bit more time to get those submissions in! As I noted yesterday, when it comes to what the Auckland Plan says about transport, it’s quite a challenge to find a transport project which isn’t mentioned – the problem is that the Plan doesn’t undertake a tough enough prioritisation programme.…
Tweaks proposed for the 020 route
There were always going to be a number of tweaks to the bus route changes that were implemented a couple of months ago – which introduced the Outer Link and changed many routes in the Western Bays area. One of the less popular changes involved the removal of the 015/017 route and its partial replacement with the new 020 route.…
One more week to submit on Auckland’s future
Submissions on the Auckland Spatial Plan, the City Centre Master Plan and the Waterfront Plan close this time next week. If you ask me, I think it’s pretty stupid of Auckland Council to consult on all three plans at the same time, let alone do so when Auckland is severely distracted by the Rugby World Cup.…
Looking closer at motorway traffic trends
The other day I put together a post that pointed out how traffic volumes over the Harbour Bridge have actually been falling over the past few years – which really calls into question why we are thinking about spending around $5 billion on another harbour crossing.…
ART Light Metro: An affordable solution for new rapid transit in Auckland?
The transport section of the recently released Draft Auckland Plan makes for very encouraging reading, with the main priority being the development of Auckland’s transport infrastructure into a single cohesive network integrated with land use and development. The main ‘principle’ for achieving this (apart from a much needed look at revised and new transport funding mechanisms) is the development of Auckland’s railways into a true rapid transit system.…
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