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.…
5 Comments 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.…
Bogota’s TransMilenio
If you’re looking for a great example of how a vastly improved public transport system has transformed a city – Bogota, the capital of Colombia in South America – is a great example. And here’s a neat video from Streetfilms on the Transmilenio BRT system that Bogota has constructed over the past decade: While I get annoyed at people who think that Bogota is proof that BRT is always better than rail (Bogota is a pretty different place to Auckland) there are some aspects of Bogota’s system that clearly have filtered through to projects like the Northern Busway, and could be further implemented in future bus priority projects.…
Weekend street closures and bus changes
From this weekend for the rest of the Rugby World Cup there will be significantly more streets closed to traffic than had been originally planned. From midday Friday until late Sunday, the following streets will be either completely closed to traffic or only open to some traffic:
I’m quite fond of this idea, being someone who generally likes streets being for pedestrians rather than cars.…
Public Transport lets Auckland down
Hopefully this will be my last blog post on last Friday’s events. My overwhelming feeling of the events that unfolded nearly a week ago was that Auckland’s public transport system had let the city down. Aside from the overcrowding issues around “Party Central”, including the bizarre failure to close Queen Street to cars, everything else (aside from the public transport) worked a charm last Friday.…
What is the holiday highway’s BCR?
There was an interesting exchange in parliament yesterday about the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway” – and in particular focusing on the issue of whether the Minister was confident the project still represents good value for money. Here’s the video: Here’s the full discussion.…
What went wrong?
I went along to some of the Auckland Council meeting which took place today about the events of Friday. There are three reports which were produced and discussed at the meeting:
Auckland Council’s overall summary of events
Auckland Transport’s review of the transport issues
ATEED’s report into the crowd control issues around Quay Street between Queen’s Wharf and the Viaduct
The Auckland Council report summarises the two significant problems that occurred, and therefore what the reports move onto discussing.…
The plot thickens
There were some interesting developments in the response to Friday’s transport and overcrowding problems this afternoon. Stuff reports:
The Government will use special powers under Rugby World Cup legislation to take control of the Auckland waterfront set aside for the celebrations during the tournament.…
What the BLEEP?
Now back in Auckland after one year overseas and I’m generally impressed with the great leaps forward that have occurred in so many areas across the city. Got my HOP card, love it. Catch the Mt Eden b-line, love it. Visited the new extended Art Gallery, love it.…
The other Friday transport failures
In the aftermath of Friday’s transport debacle, a lot of focus has gone on the people who didn’t make it to Eden Park because of problems with the rail network. To an extent this is justified, because these people had paid a lot of money for their tickets and it’s shameful the system let them down.…
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