Herald’s World Class Auckland – My view on Transport
The Herald have been running a series since the middle of last week titled ‘World Class Auckland‘. It is looking at how Auckland can improve across a range of topics.
Auckland consistently ranks highly in lists of the world’s best cities but is never number one.…
27 Comments Timeframe for Additional Waitemata Harbour Crossing Announced
The NZTA have recently published information on the Additional Waitemata Harbour Crossing on their website, including all of their technical reports, which are mostly from around 2010. These reports have been available elsewhere, however most people wouldn’t know they existed so it is good that NZTA have pulled them all together on the main NZTA site.…
Sunday reading 16 August 2015
David Killick, “Christchurch needs an eco-neighbourhood like Vauban“, The Press:
PERSPECTIVE: Vauban, in Freiburg, south-west Germany, is one of the world’s most celebrated residential eco-neighbourhoods.
With its solar power, “plus-energy” buildings, and accessible streets, Vauban offers a bold sustainable vision for the future of urban or suburban living.…
The Dominant Species
If aliens were to visit earth, what would they see as the dominant species of the planet. That’s the narrative in this old film from 1985 at NZ On Screen looking at our car culture in an offbeat way.
The Dominant Species is a loopy look at the relationship between people and cars in 1975 Aotearoa … from an alien’s eye view.…
Updated RPTP consultation outcome
Back in May Auckland Transport launched a short consultation to update their Regional Public Transport Plan (RPTP) on four specific areas to reflect the work and thinking they’ve undertaken since the RPTP was released in 2013. The consultation was limited to four areas: The proposed introduction of simplified zone fares
Proposals for a new light rail transit (LRT) network on some major arterial routes
Service and infrastructure changes arising from the Ferry Development Plan which was approved by the AT Board in December 2014
Revised service descriptions arising from community consultation on the new bus network AT haven’t formally announced the outcomes of that consultation however a paper on them went to the confidential session of the AT board and that has quietly been released publicly.…
Auckland could get more housing. True Storey.
Greetings from Amsterdam, where I’m happily ensconced in a multi-storey apartment building. Just now I had a look at the New Zild Herald, where I was disappointed to read this article from Bernard Orsman. Titled “Suburbs could get more apartments”, the article seems primarily designed to whip up fear, which is something I’ve criticised the Herald for previously. …
Celebrating the 57th electric train
Today Auckland Transport celebrated the arrival of the last electric train – of this first batch. The celebration also included a visit by Prime Minister John Key Auckland Transport has officially marked the arrival of the last of the city’s 57 electric trains with a function at the Wiri Train Depot attended by the Prime Minister.…
Notes from Sydney: Light Rail
Last week I had some work in Sydney and while there I was able to grab a quick look at some aspects of that beautiful city. I want to start with Light Rail because Sydney has one line in operation, and is about to start another much bigger project next month, and one that is strikingly similar to what AT is proposing for Auckland.…
New Buildings at Britomart
Britomart has been an outstanding success, both from the train station – which is way ahead of patronage projections – and the redevelopment of the precinct around the station which has turned the area from one of the most run down and avoided into one of Auckland’s best urban destinations.…
Motor Mania
I think we’ve posted this before however it’s worth repeating. This cartoon from Disney in 1950 on how we so often change to be much more angry and arrogant when we get behind the wheel of a car. Of course lets not forget the other Disney classic, the Magic Highway.…
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