Portugal’s Ghost Roads
In the comments, “Handlebars Matt” provided a link to this video about how nobody is using Portugal’s motorway system – which was built at vast cost over the past decade: I often fear that this is the future for many of the Roads of National Significance that are either under construction or due to begin construction in the next few years.…
13 Comments An Alternate East-West option
Late last week we detailed a couple of options about the East-West link. The first was a suggestion by a local business group involving an 8 lane motorway between Onehunga and Highbrook which was primarily along the northern edge of the Manukau Harbour and while it is pretty extreme, isn’t overly that much different to the official Option 3.…
Photo of the day – Alice is boring
A bit of a different pic for photo of the day but Alice the Waterview TBM is now officially boring…
Time for AT to stop digging
Usually when you get yourself into a hole the best thing to do is to stop digging, and that is how I often feel I think about the rollout of AT HOP which among plenty of other things has been plagued by poor communication.…
Unitary Plan should specify minimum car sizes
One can’t help but feel that the debate over the Unitary Plan overlooked one very important question: Should we look to increase the minimum car size in Auckland? We suggest that Auckland Council should act now to protect the Kiwi way of life and stop unscrupulous vehicle investors from crushing their traditional family cars and downsizing to “shoebox” hatchbacks, even if it leaves them better off.…
Photo of the day – Fort St East
The shared space on the western end of Fort St has been particularly successful in both revitalising the public realm and encouraging adjacent businesses to invest in the area which has helped to bring it alive. We have been keeping track of the works to create a shared space on the eastern end of Fort St and it seems there are already some really positive results coming from the work.…
World Energy Outlook 2013
Each year, the International Energy Agency puts out a lengthy report called the World Energy Outlook. New Zealand is a member of the IEA, and we pay membership fees to them in exchange for policy advice and so on (although we don’t seem to listen to it).…
On Self-Driving Cars
Over on dezeen there is a really interesting post by Dan Hill called “Self-driving cars are the answer- what is the question?”
Basically you should all read the whole thing there rather than me sum it up but here’s taste:
Here we see such companies are not actually interested in genuine change, for all their bluster about “radical disruption”.…
Milford oppose intensification because there aren’t enough residents
A couple of articles in the Herald the other day about caught my attention.
First up is this piece on the environment court proceedings in relation to the proposed residential development above the Milford mall. It seems like his is a battle that has been going on for forever and the article covers of the views of one long-time resident that appear to be fairly common in not just the Milford community but elsewhere – as we saw with the Unitary Plan.…
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