Government agreements contain good wins for transport
With a new government we expected to see significant change to transport in New Zealand. Yesterday we got the first glimpse of that with the signing and release of Labour’s agreements with New Zealand First and the Greens. Of the two agreements, the policies outlined in the Greens confidence and supply agreement are most relevant to the issues we talk about the most so I’ll start with that
Greens
Under the section of “Sustainable Economy”, one of the listed goals is focused on transport.…
82 Comments National’s Top 10 Urban Achievements
I think it’s fair to say that we’re pretty excited about the potential of the new government to deliver a significant change to urban issues in New Zealand, and particularly in Auckland. It still feels really weird to think that the government has actually changed.…
Where to now for the East West Link?
It’s often difficult to link elections with major transport decisions. City Rail Link is happening, even though the previous government took a long time to be talked around to supporting the project – maybe it would have happened faster if some elections played out differently, but we’ve got there.…
Video – the high cost of free parking
We have talked about the stupidity of parking requirements for as long as this blog has existed. Here’s a recent good video from Vox that runs through the key points through an interview with parking guru Donald Shoup. We should soon be hearing about where the Environment Court landed in relation to an appeal by retailers against Council to reject applying minimums for retail activities.…
Sunday reading 22 October 2017
Welcome back to Sunday reading: The first edition since it’s been confirmed that we’re getting a new Government. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about!
The first article of the week is some new research into house prices from the US: Issi Romem at BuildZoom has published an insightful new analysis of why prices are high in some places but not in others: “Paying for dirt: Where have home values detached from construction costs?”…
Change coming to transport in NZ
Huge news last night with Winston Peters announcing that he’d chosen to a coalition with Labour to form a new government. So far, all the talk from the various parities is that this new government will represent a significant change for New Zealand. …
Western Victoria Quarter Part 1: Introduction
This is a Guest Post by David R, and the first of a series about the need to improve the Western Victoria Quarter.
After arriving back from a stint in Vancouver and Amsterdam, my partner and I decided we wanted some outdoor space and another bedroom.…
More PT ridership milestones
It’s been a year for milestones on public transport and Auckland Transport are celebrating another one. We’ve now passed 90 million trips within a 12-month period. That follows us hitting 20 million trips on rail and 5 million trips on the Northern Busway in August.…
Battery train plans go flat
Back in July, the council was pushed by Auckland Transport to make an urgent decision to approve additional funding to buy much needed new trains. Primarily this was to provide additional capacity on the network by enabling all trains (except Onehunga ones) to be able to run as six-car sets.…
South Auckland’s missing bus lanes
Back in December last year, newly elected Mayor Phil Goff looked to assert some authority over Auckland Transport through a Letter of Expectation. It included clear expectations about the need for more bus lanes with comments such as:
We invite you to broaden your perspective beyond transport models and engage with Council, its plans, and the other CCOs.…
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