Aladdin and the Magic Modeshift
Accelerating Modeshift was the subject of a workshop for Councillors last Friday. (Credit: Cathy Casey, via Facebook): Modeshift away from private car use is important, for reasons of health, sustainability, safety, urban form, liveability and access. But private car use is both large, and rapidly increasing (due to road building).…
90 Comments Flashback Sunday: Peds Rule
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Kent was originally published in July 2013. Changing the road rules to favor pedestrians at intersections is something that will transform city life. It will allow people to move around more freely, access services and conduct everyday activities with less intimidation and inconvenience from marauding drivers.…
Mar-19 Ridership
When it comes to tracking public transport ridership in Auckland, finding out the results for March is one of my favourite times of the year. March is usually the busiest month of the year thanks to a number of factors, such as: Universities starting up again with students keen and eager to learn – before some start dropping away
Workers taking fewer days of leave with man having often just taken it over summer
Fewer instances of people being sick as the cold and flu season has yet to kick in
As traffic and the ensuing congestion increases, more people deciding to give PT a go – before some get frustrated at seeing multiple full buses travel past their stop.…
Are ramp signals fundamentally flawed?
Ramp signals – those traffic lights on motorway on-ramps that are designed to limit the number of vehicles that enter the motorway and thereby help keep traffic flowing, have long been a controversial transport initiative. They were first introduced on Auckland’s motorway system between 2006 and 2009, and are now present on nearly all busy on-ramps.…
New E-Scooter trial and rules coming
At the end of last year and beginning of this year e-scooters dominated the news cycles. I’m still not entirely why they got so much attention but media were absolutely obsessed with them. Perhaps this is a reflection of how Auckland is said to have had one of the strongest uptakes of e-scooter use of any city – a clear sign there’s a demand for more mobility options.…
Getting Light Rail to the Northwest in three easy steps
On Saturday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford held a public meeting in Henderson about transport in West Auckland and I was one of the speakers. At the event there was lot of discussion about rapid transit on the SH16 corridor where the government policy is for light rail to be built.…
Drury Structure Plan still not quite right
Back in January I highlighted a major risk that the Council was ruining the Drury growth area by preferring the position of a few landowners over years of previous technical analysis and common sense. Key to my concern was the location of train stations to serve the southern greenfield growth area – the largest area of sprawl currently being planned, but also an area with a train line running right through the middle of it.…
Flashback Saturday: Benefits of Rail Transit
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post was originally published back in October 2009.
In my searching for interesting academic studies into transportation issues I came across an excellent analysis of the benefits of rail transportation by Todd Litman, a Canadian transport academic.…
The Huapai Gyratory
In Auckland Transport’s letter to the NZTA about the disarray the latter is in, one of the projects mentioned is one I haven’t been paying much attention to, Huapai Road Improvements. As a reminder, ATs letter stated:
Huapai Road Upgrade; this project was included as a priority project in the RLTP at a cost of circa $36 million.…
Wind, Water, Heart!
Some news recently bought a smile to my dial. Mercury Energy has pushed the “go” button on a major new wind farm near Palmerston North; work begins in August and the farm will start operating from late 2020.
Mercury has committed to the construction of the first 33 of 60 consented wind turbines at Turitea near Palmerston North, representing a key milestone in New Zealand’s renewable energy development.…
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