NZTA now able to consent cycleways
A good little piece of news from the government yesterday with Environment Minister Nick Smith giving requiring authority status to the NZTA for cycleways. As I understand it, previously the NZTA could only designate cycleways within their own state highway corridors while outside of that it was up to Auckland Transport or local councils to do the consenting.…
25 Comments Goodbye BMD. We’ll miss you
And now for something completely different. I was saddened to learn that the street artists BMD are disbanding:
The legendary street art collective BMD has split up.
Known for their distinctive wall markings, often including warped animals and cartoon objects, the two Taranaki artists behind BMD have announced they are parting ways.…
Light Rail lessons from the Gold Coast
I’ve just spent a couple of days on the Gold Coast after tagging along to a work trip by my wife. Other than taking a few days off one of the things I was keen to do was to check out their new light rail system given it’s likely to be very similar to what Auckland Transport are proposing for the isthmus routes like Dominion Rd.…
Cheap weekend buses in Wellington
In an interesting move Wellington City Council is paying $200,000 to subsidise bus fares on Go Wellington buses on weekends in the lead up to Christmas.
As Wellington bus users look forward to low weekend fares in the run-up to Christmas, their Auckland counterparts face a doubling of the price of new Hop cards.…
Apartments and Housing Affordability
Below is a schematic of current apartment development in a small area of Melbourne just north of the City Centre, next to the Victorian Markets. These are pretty tall; one already under construction is 88 stories. And here is a blog post from our Melbourne friends OhYesMelbourne on another City Centre adjacent development site; Docklands.…
New Onehunga Foreshore opens Saturday
On Saturday Auckland gains 6.8 hectares of new parkland and beaches within the urban area as the $30 million Onehunga Foreshore redevelopment opens.
The redevelopment follows decades of advocacy after the original foreshore was cut off by the building of the motorway in 1975 by the Ministry of Works.…
User Guidelines, Logical Fallacies, and Ideas for Future Posts
transportblog aims to foster debate on urban issues facing Auckland, most notably – but not limited to – transport.
Of course the need for transport results from people’s desire to access the city around them. The need for transport is thus intertwined with, and often determined by, the underlying urban form.…
Len’s Legacy
Yesterday Mayor Len Brown announced that he would not stand again for the mayoralty next year. Len Brown has announced that he has decided not to seek another term as Mayor of Auckland.
Mr Brown says: “It has been my absolute honour to be given the privilege to be able to serve our people as the first Mayor of a united Auckland.…
Geography and housing supply dynamics
Last week, I introduced the concept of elasticity of supply with respect to price as a useful measure of housing market dynamics. Supply elasticities measure how responsive builders are to an increase in demand. In other words, when people turn up wanting dwellings, how quickly do the tradies start building more?…
Sunday reading 8 November 2015
Welcome back to Sunday reading. This week we’re leading off with a public service announcement: regular walking is a great way to get fit and healthy. In Vox, Alasdair Wilkins writes about how he lost 100 pounds [45 kgs] in a year:
Just so we’re completely clear about how unqualified I am to tell people how to lose weight, I’ll run down how I lost that 100 pounds.…
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