The macroeconomics of transport – and should it influence NZ’s investment priorities?
In this recent post John explored some of the links between transport and economic growth.
In this post I wanted to expand on some interesting macroeconomic issues related to transport investment. These issues have been rolling around in my head for some time and John’s post prompted me to stay up late writing a blog post.…
21 Comments How CRL transforms travel in the west
It was a relief last week to see the majority of councillors vote against delaying the City Rail Link project, as part of developing the draft Long Term Plan. Add that to Transport Minister Simon Bridges comments to Newstalk ZB yesterday saying the government accepts the need for and agrees it is sensible timing for the ‘enabling works’ to take place while the Downtown Shopping Centre works are going on.…
Help Defend the Flyover Decision
From the Architectural Centre in Wellington:
The NZTA flyover and recent appeal
The NZTA have proposed building a flyover adjacent to New Zealand’s historic Basin Reserve. There are several complex aspects to the issue, but the basic chronology is: The Minister for the Environment established a Board of Inquiry in mid-2013 to decide if a flyover should be built by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) adjacent to the Basin Reserve cricket ground. …
Can public transport save households money?
People sometimes argue that we should provide more public transport because it will reduce households’ transport costs. But is that actually true?
I took a look at this issue in a recent working paper on Location Affordability in New Zealand Cities that I presented at the 2014 New Zealand Association of Economists conference.…
MoT and NZTA on Transport in Auckland
Yesterday the government released all of the Briefings to Incoming Ministers. These are briefings from the various government agencies that give an overview of what they do, what they’re working on and of course key issues related to the portfolio. They are developed prior to the election and are intended for which ever political party takes office.…
Stuart’s 100 #53: Concentrating on Corridors
53: Concentrating on Corridors What if we got serious about intensifying corridors like Melbourne does?
One of the things we hear all the time in Auckland is ‘Unlike – insert City X – we can’t do that here because – insert excuse Y’.…
Aussie apartment boom: the cities
As explained in my last post, Australia is currently in the middle of a major apartment boom. Of course, the picture changes depending on which city you look at. The following graph shows the share of attached dwellings for the “large Australian cities” – the ones which are bigger than Auckland, at 1.9 to 4.7 million people: Sydney has been building mainly attached dwellings for the last 12 years – 60% to 70% of all dwelling approvals.…
Te Ara Mua – Future Streets
Auckland Transport are currently consulting on what could be quite a transformative project for the people living around the Mangere Town centre through what is effectively a series of traffic calming measures and improved connections that looks to make it safer and easier to walk or cycle around the area.…
New Auckland valuation maps
New property valuations for Auckland were released yesterday and here are a few maps of from the council’s GIS viewer. All are just for residential properties.
Land Value per m²
Completely unsurprisingly it can be seen that urban and coastal land is the most valuable with values doing off further away from there.…
Aussie apartment boom: the national picture
It’s not something you hear much about in New Zealand, but Australia is currently in the middle of a major apartment boom. The number of dwelling approvals – what we would call building consents here – for attached dwellings is at an all-time high.*…
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