An Invitation/Challenge to Gerry Brownlee
This blog has been fairly critical of the transport priorities in this country as well as the transport ministers driving these priorities even though both the both the bloggers and those who read and comment on the site represent a wide range of political views.…
21 Comments Paying for Auckland’s infrastructure
Today Auckland Council released a discussion document with a range of suggested options to fund future Auckland transport development. Here is the list:
Thirteen options are raised in the report: general rates
targeted rates
development contributions
regional income tax
regional payroll tax
regional sales tax
tax increment funding
regional fuel tax and RUC diesel levy
tolling new roads
road pricing on existing roads
additional car parking charges
visitor tax
airport departure tax Conspicuous in its absence is the idea of simply using Auckland’s share of the National Land Transport Fund to fund the most important and urgent projects.…
Ellerslie Station Upgrade – Feb Update
One of the potentially most controversial upgrades happening on our rail network at the moment is happening at Ellerslie. The NZTA have narrowed down the platform by about 2m to give them enough room to build another northbound motorway lane in the future .…
The Mythical Projects of Auckland Transport
This post isn’t about the Taniwha in the way of the City Rail Link but those projects and services that have been talked about or promised by various agencies for years but never seem to come to fruition. Some may even be able to be crossed off the list shortly but until they officially happen I will leave them on there.…
What does density look like?
A few weeks ago we saw a report by Studio 4/Jasmax on the Auckland Plan looking at just how much growth can be accommodated within the urban area. This has sparked off quite a bit of debate both here and on a number of other sites.…
Waterview Connection update – Feb 2012
The NZTA and it’s partners presented an update to the transport committee yesterday on what is currently happening with the Waterview Connection project. Most of the update was pretty straight forward, explaining what the project is, why it is needed and how it will be built.…
Twyford v Brownlee – round 1
Yesterday was the first opportunity for Labour transport spokesperson Phil Twyford to question new transport minister Gerry Brownlee in parliament. The issue at stake related to a point I made in this post, from the briefing to the incoming minister, which highlighted the decline in cost-benefit ratios of state highway projects over the past few years.…
Why aren’t we building more dwellings?
There have been a series of articles in the NZ Herald over the past week talking about dire shortages in rental properties in Auckland, particularly in the inner suburbs. This article in particular highlighted the shortage in available properties there are in places where people so obviously want to live:
The shortage was acute in the inner-city suburbs, she said.…
It’s about choice, not congestion
Apparently it was Albert Einstein who said that the definition of insanity was trying the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. Brian Rudman’s excellent article in Monday’s NZ Herald highlights the fact that the insanity argument could be levelled against Ministry of Transport officials – who say that despite building more and more roads having never fixed congestion in the past, perhaps if we built a few more roads we might get a different outcome in the future.…
Auckland Plan Feedback on Transport
Friday saw one of the first council meetings of the year with a focus on working through the feedback of the Auckland Plan. Here is a high level view the feedback on Auckland’s Infrastructure and Transport.
Submissions highlighted the important role infrastructure plays in developing urban form both as anenabler and as a limitation.…
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