Here’s our weekly collection of smaller pieces.
Otahuhu station works
Over the Christmas/New Year period works were undertaken to enable the third platform at Otahuhu, which is being done as part of the City Rail Link. A timelapse of the works is below.
Electric Bus MoU
Auckland Transport’s current plans to roll out electric buses with them specifying all new buses be electric by 2025 and all buses electric by 2040 is simply not ambitious enough. So there was some slightly good news this week that AT have signed a memorandum of understanding with Vector to look at what is needed to convert the bus fleet more rapidly.
Auckland’s 1360-strong bus fleet is one step closer to becoming fully electrified after Auckland Transport (AT) and Vector announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the impacts of a full implementation.
Commencing immediately, Vector and AT will carry out a feasibility study to assess the impact of a fully electric bus fleet on the Auckland electricity network, and to identify opportunities where innovative energy technologies could be used to assist the transition and help avoid large network upgrade costs.
…..
Two reports will be produced as part of the MoU, the first exploring a route and service profile, which will model the electricity demand that a fully electrified bus fleet will require. The second report will provide guidance on the electricity network infrastructure upgrades required at each bus depot, as well as likely timings and costs. These 2 reports are expected to be delivered by June 2020.
More bus lanes for the CRL
Late last year among the myriad of things AT consulted on at the same time, was a plan for bus lanes in the city centre to help cope with the disruption caused by the City Rail Link works. This disruption will see the Albert St/Wellesley St intersection closed for 9-nine months and as soon as that reopens the Albert/Victoria St intersection will close for 18 months.
AT have now released the results of that consultation, confirming it will go ahead. A summary of the feedback is below and positively there was strong support for it.
- Overall sentiment for this proposal is positive – 80% of respondents gave feedback to endorse or to improve the proposal (with 64% stating their explicit support and 16% suggesting ways to increase bus priority or improve active transport in the city centre). Two people (3%) said they did not support this project; the remaining 17% gave feedback outside the scope of this proposal.
- Nearly a fifth of you (18%) suggested seamless 24/7 bus lanes to match the rerouting map to improve the proposal; all those who expressed mixed support suggested this to give buses even greater priority.
- Almost a tenth of you (9%) suggested extending the 24/7 bus lanes along at specific sections of the re-routing map to give buses priority through heavy congestion points.
- A number of you said the bus lanes need to be enforced using cameras to be effective; to deter non-compliance and fine vehicles using the bus lanes (7%).
- A small proportion of respondents want the proposed bus priority measures retained after the City Rail Link (CRL) works are completed (6%).
- An equal proportion of people want more city centre cycling lanes as well as the bus priority measures, to improve both active and public transport options (6%).
- A significant proportion of respondents (17%) provided feedback on other projects or issues unrelated to the bus priority measures proposed to support the CRL works.
Ferry woes
We’re in the height of summer and that means we’re getting lots of cruise ship visits. In past years there has been some disruption caused to ferries as a result of those ships but this year it has seemed more significant than usual.
An Auckland ferry service provider has asked authorities to urgently intervene following service disruptions caused by cruise ships.
Cruise ships berthing in the harbour at downtown Auckland have meant four Fullers 360 ferry services have been cancelled in the past week, preventing hundreds of commuters from getting to work on time.
There has subsequently been plenty of discussion thrown around as to who’s at fault for this but one thing is certain. Like buses and trains, we need ferries to be reliable if we’re going to get a lot more people using them.
While we’re on the topic of ferries, it would be interesting to know why AT think it is acceptable to still be running some ferries to a holiday timetable.
Housing and Transport costs
A couple of interesting articles out of the US about the relationship between housing and transport costs.
The first out of Texas highlights that Houston, famous for its lack of planning rules which has seen the city sprawl massively across the countryside, is now more expensive than New York once you also consider transport costs.
For decades, Houston has been a city with one of the nation’s most pragmatic sales pitches: Move here for big-city opportunities at a small-city price. Not a fan of swarming mosquitoes, punishing hurricanes, and soul-melting moisture? What if I told you that you could barricade yourself away from all three inside a sprawling single-family home on one acre near good schools and golf courses for under $200k? Still not sold? Two words: “backyard grotto.”
Though we don’t have up-to-date grotto figures, several million people found Houston’s sales pitch compelling enough to move to the Bayou City in recent decades, with the region gaining 1.1 million residents since 2010 alone, according to the Greater Houston Partnership. Outside a few ritzy pockets intimately tied to oil prices, the city evolved into a sprawling mass of suburban affordability—a Levittown on steroids for the new American South.
Unfortunately for prospective Houstonians, a crucial downside to all that sprawl has arisen, one that has nothing to do with catastrophic flooding. While the seemingly endless suburban growth has traditionally offered the city the veneer of affordability, the sprawl has also spiked transportation costs, so much so that the city’s combined transportation and living costs now place it on par with New York City (cue the early nineties Pace Picante sauce commercial).
The second article looks at some of the hidden costs of suburbia that people don’t often think about and that includes having to buy petrol more, in part because it’s often the only way to get around.
I’ve lived most of my life in the suburbs.
I was raised just outside Washington, DC, in Alexandria, Virginia. My wife and I settled in Glendale, California, a few miles from the center of Los Angeles, and now we live in a suburban neighborhood a short train ride from Manhattan.
If living most of my life in suburban areas adjacent to major cities has taught me anything, it’s that suburban living can be extremely expensive, and often in unexpected ways.
Travel Map
This week an interesting web-app showed up in some social media feeds which allows you to quickly map out travel times of various modes and at different times of the day. This presumably uses PT schedule information as well as some so way of estimating driving/cycling/walking times. I pulled this quick map together from the app showing public transport, cycling and driving distances within 30 minutes if you left from outside Britomart at 5pm.
I suspect the driving distance is a bit too long with the cycling and even PT distance a bit too small but it does highlight well the general issue we have. If we’re going to get a lot more people on public transport we will need it to be much more competitive with driving.
SH20B upgrade starts
The NZTA have started work on widening SH20B which is part of the overall project to get a fast and reliable bus connection between Manukau and the Airport as the first stage of a busway that will ultimately extend to Botany and maybe beyond.
Construction is starting on improvements to the SH20B road corridor that will benefit people using public transport to get to Auckland airport and the surrounding area.
The $70 million SH20B Early Improvements project, led by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, will provide additional bus and high occupancy vehicle lanes and new walking and cycling facilities between Pukaki Creek Bridge and SH20.
The lanes will support a new bus service every ten minutes between the airport, Puhinui Station and Manukau. Work to upgrade the Puhinui rail and bus interchange is already underway in a separate project led by Auckland Transport.
NZ Transport Agency Senior Manager Project Delivery, Andrew Thackwray, says the new lanes are expected to open in 2021.
“The priority lanes will integrate with improved transport facilities within the airport precinct, along Puhinui Road and at the upgraded Puhinui Station interchange to provide people with more reliable and timely travel choices to and from the wider airport area.”
The biggest issue I have with this is the lanes will only be transit lanes and not dedicated bus lanes. The risk with this is that buses may still get held up once they reach the Pukaki Creek Bridge just before the airport as a bunch of cars and taxis ahead of them try and merge with all the general traffic. Allowing these cars to share the lane seems like a classic case of slavishly following the model instead of doing what’s right.
The other issue with that is these lanes are being paid for out of the public transport budget but longer term the intention is to replace them with a dedicated busway, at which time those lanes will become general traffic lanes, a case of the NZTA using the PT budget to ultimately pay for more roads?
St Lukes Cycleway upgrade
Construction starts today on a series of upgrades to the St Lukes Cycleway to improve safety.
The main improvement is four new raised crossings which will make it safer for people on foot and on bikes.
The Transport Agency and Auckland Transport are designing a transport system to protect people from death and serious injury. In this case, the raised crossings significantly improve
safety by slowing traffic down. The safety improvements also include:
- a Copenhagen-style raised bike lane southbound from the overbridge to Duncan MacLean Link
- cycle phasing at the controlled crossings
- extending the traffic island by the westbound motorway off-ramp
- improved lighting.
That’s for another week and if you’re in the upper North Island, enjoy the long weekend, but be safe.
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This week AT shortened the cycle traffic light timing again on Nelson St at Wellesley St to prevent any chance of a partial green run. It’s really terrible now going down – you basically stop and wait at every single intersection and with the adjusted timing at Wellesley a complete cycle every time as the lights now go red just as you arrive. The vehicle phases are super extended too so it isn’t a small wait…
What would be great is if they had 2 short bike crosses there rather than the old long one.
AT clearly have someone trying to optimise the lights for cars. Have they ever looked at how inconvenient Hobson St is on the cycleway?
In early October, I asked AT about the phasing at an intersection in Pt Chevalier, which they replied about. But I had also said:
“I’m noticing longer phases in other parts of town, too.
My second question is: Could you please advise if AT is experimenting, or if it has changed its practice on light phasing?
I’m sure you’re aware that NZTA advises that in urban areas, pedestrians should not have to wait more than 30 seconds. It’s a safety issue, and “Safety is AT’s Top Policy”.”
I never had a reply about whether they are experimenting or if they’ve changed their practice. I guess I need to follow it up, because I’m hearing comments about changes in several places to assist traffic flow and hinder cyclists and pedestrians.
That is a great advice from NZTA, could you let me know where that comes from? I would love to ask AT about some pedestrian crossing phases.
It was probably in this… https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/research/reports/440/docs/440.pdf
There’s great stuff in there.
It mentions “the international recommended maximum of 30 seconds”, explains the reasons, details the situation in our cities. And Auckland seems to be the worst.
Of course, it’s fairly old, but we know that our pedestrian DSI per km travelled is second worst out of the countries studied by the OECD… and it’s worth having a look at the Road Safety Business Improvement Review to see what it says about AT’s dire and continuing practice of trading pedestrian safety for traffic flow at traffic signals, and how trying to improve this puts staff directly in conflict with AT’s powerful Executive and Legal Team:
“Review signal optimisation for safety priorities
Signal phasing is a powerful tool to achieve safer traffic operation, by prioritising non-motorised traffic in specific locations, but signal optimisation activity has led to tensions at ELT level, e.g. over cycling treatments at signals and priorities.”
Heidi, I think ELT in AT’s context is the executive leadership team, ie, the people right under the CEO.
Auckland is the worst because of the particular sites selected, which is not a representative sample and thus pretty arbitrary. Not reflective of Auckland as a whole per se. Having said that, it probably isn’t that far from the truth. Auckland has more traffic and thus runs higher cycle times resulting in higher pedestrian delays. Auckland also typically runs more phases than Wellington/CHCH so you naturally have higher cycle times.
Those recommended maximums are nonsense because it is not achieveable at most intersections. Even at Auckland’s busiest pedestrian intersection Queen/Customs, the worst case theoretical delay for law abiders is probably around 120s. I haven’t timed it myself recently, but it is probably around that. In practice the average delay is far far lower because of average arrival rate and breaking the law. Perhaps 45-60s because people might arrive just before the barnes dance starts or they illegally run across in the last 10s. So in reality the average delay is probably closer to the 30s level.
At some other spots in the suburbs with multiple crossing, it could take you several minutes to get across the road.
It doesn’t follow that a higher population in Auckland should result in lower pedestrian priority, of course. That only happens under a dysfunctional transport model. You’re right there are some obnoxiously long delays at intersections. We need to fix that.
A 30 second delay is always achievable if required. If through no other means, it just means providing a Barnes Dance after every traffic direction.
The example you gave of Queens and Customs is a good one. That’s a location where pedestrians should be receiving the top priority. Any delay for pedestrians above 30 seconds is bad planning. 120 seconds would mean AT is flipping the bird at their commitment to safety.
If AT’s TE’s have a problem with providing this level of pedestrian amenity, they should speed up Access for Everyone and get some of that unnecessary traffic out.
Presumably Auckland’s larger population means it has more pedestrians than other cities. Why would they be less of a priority because they live in a city with more people?
Sometimes I laugh at statements here. You get 30 sec max delay from some obscure guide then jump up and down that it is not applied.
Agree that AT need to improve traffic phasing to both improve traffic flow as well as other users.
However a max of 30 sec is not achievable in the real world. As for it being safety issue. Why? Do we pedestrians self destruct after that time?
Laughing’s good, Stu. So is actually bothering to read the links. 🙂
“if delays are perceived to be too long (ie greater than 30 seconds), pedestrians are likely to violate the signals and use their own judgement to cross”
Walking isn’t just a mode to be accommodated, it is the fundamental unit of movement. All other modes need to defer to walking. What’s actually funny was a location in the central city being used as an example of why 30 seconds is unrealistic. The reality is that city centres are being pedestrianised in many places, and the people are loving it: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/car-free-cities-pedestrianisation-cycling-driverless-vehicles-york-oslo-birmingham-a9299856.html
“a max of 30 sec is not achievable in the real world” … What’s the real world, Stu? The current unsafe, unsustainable transport network, or the network we need to be implementing?
Imagine if AT’s official performance measures changed from the flow of cars and trucks to that of peds and cyclists.
Instead they have a funded function dedicated to improving the former at the expense of the latter.
Dinosaurs need exterminating. Where’s our comet?
Being a frequent user on those cycle lanes, that is a terrible news.
I noticed the cycle phasing on Wellesley st/ Nelson st gets become frustrating long for cyclist after the New Zealand International Convention Centre fire.
“Auckland currently has three electric buses” – really? Only three? Is that true?
Conversion of buses to be Electric is a major issue – worldwide – as the technology is still evolving, although not fast enough. We can’t just throw buses away, so they need to be upgraded / power unit changed, although I’m not sure that we have the capability for that in NZ. Most of the electric buses are being made by one supplier in China and there is a massive worldwide desire for their buses – including from places in China itself. Auckland (and NZ in general) is going to be pretty far down the list.
What really urgently needs to happen is for a NZ company to step up and take over the conversions itself. That would include not just the buses themselves, but also the installation of the recharging stations – as Vector is undoubtedly already looking at. The placing of the recharging stations (we have a couple of these already in Wellington) is going to take a lot of work. It’s good to see that AT and Vector are starting this work – it can’t happen quick enough.
There are many battery electric buses in china. They have been around more than 10 years, some certainly show their age. Looking at them in different cities, I’d be pretty sure there are multiple companies building them.
Yes, there are multiple makers (Wikipedia lists 52 companies making electric buses worldwide, with just 7 of them based in China), but by far the biggest is the leader BYD – in China and worldwide. BYD is a company based on a business that specialised in battery technology, and one of their leading buses is the K9 (i’m not sure if there is an intended dog / Dr Who reference in there or if that is just a coincidence…).
The BYD K9 bus is currently being used by NZ Bus, and many other places around the world, but as a demonstration of the scale of the problem, BYD has delivered over 2000 K9 electric buses to Hangzhou, although this is a city with (apparently) around 500,000 buses in use. Clearly there is a long way to go to convert the world’s bus fleets to battery power.
My point is, however, that trying to solve the problem by buying new electric buses from an overseas supplier is going to be an expensive and long-winded process, especially as the rest of the world is also trying to do the same. We used to have a NZ-based bus business, DesignLine, although they have been bought out by an overseas competitor which has since gone bankrupt – and so we no longer have that bus-building ability in NZ.
What we do need, urgently, in NZ, is the ability to convert our own bus fleet to electric, by companies based in NZ. It is certainly easier (and cheaper) to buy and import 1000 batteries for NZ to install here, rather than importing 1000 new battery buses. I would argue that this needs to be a NZ Government initiative – setting up a company, perhaps with the remnants of DesignLine, to convert NZ’s old diesels into electric.
Or else we will never get there….
Makes good sense, Guy. If it’s something you’d like to research some details about, Guy, I’d love to see a post on the subject.
A lot of the bus building in NZ involves bodying imported chassis. Bus building still happens in NZ: Kiwi Bus in Tauranga & Global Bus Ventures in Rolleston (ex-Designline under new ownership).
TranzUrban’s electrics are all bodied here: KiwiBus coachwork on imported CRRC-TEG chassis. Some of their 3 axle diesels are also Kiwi Bus (look for a stylized kiwi pressed into interior metal panel near rear door).
Thanks GK – good to hear that remnants of Designline are still operating. I wonder if they are listed on the stock exchange? Because they are going to have a massive amount of work to do over the next few years….
Thanks GK.
https://www.kiwibus.co.nz/about/tauranga/
https://www.globalbusventures.co.nz/who-we-are/
“Only three? Is that true?”
3 in AT service + 1 commercial (AUT’s shuttle, operated by Transit)
6 on order for AT Waiheke services, due mid year
Other centres:
Tauranga – 5 in contracted service
Christchurch – 3 contracted (currently running route 29 airport)
Wellington – 10 Metlink/TranzUrban + 1 commercial (Airport Flyer NZBUS)
– 10 more double deckers this year, 12 more next year (TranzUrban)
– (apparently) 50 or so single deck for NZ Bus eventually, replacing clunky old junk (believe it when I see it…)
Charging stations: except for Wellington double deckers, all charging done at depot overnight.
Also electric harbour ferries: Wellington’s under construction currently, in service mid year. Business cases for Auckland & Christchurch, potential delivery next year if orders happen soon.
I thought the Citylink route was meant to be fully electric by the end of 2020 as well. Haven’t seen anything on that in a while though….
Two thoughts – CRL Bus Lanes – AT had feedback from fewer than 100 ppl! I’ve worked with them on stakeholder engagement programmes before so I do understand the apathy, but that’s appalling and sets it up for motivated minorities to totally skew the results.
Travel Map – Was this a Sunday? Good luck leaving Britomart at 5pm in a car and getting to Kumeu, Dairy Flat or the Airport in 30 minutes. Totally bogus results massively favouring the car
The problem with this consultation is that AT appears to be treating it as some kind of voting system. Consultations are an opportunity for interested parties to raise issues, bring arguments for or against projects etc. They’re not meant to be about whether a project has majority support or not.
Not just this consultation, either… that seems to be a pattern.
It’s not really a consultation when there are only 69 responses
I’d say it is a consultation. It’s just that you should consider what the responses were, not look at percentages – they’re meaningless.
Like most consultation it is just a tick box exercise. They cherry pick the stats to suit their predetermined plan.
Let’s face it. Only motivated people (like GA or AA) respond to most so you get extremes. Many of ATs consultations get hijacked by motivated groups skewing the results (e.g. Bike Auckland).
In this case 69 people had spare time to bother responding to something that really shouldn’t need consultation on.
I submitted on this but it was short and sweet as it was right before Christmas along with about 10 other projects so I think this was a big factor in the low response rate.
So SH20B is road widening paid for from the PT funds.
Creative way to allow business as usual to continue under a new government.
Plus I also note in the attached graphic a severe lack of amenity to one particular mode – pedestrians only have 2 points of crossing Bottom and at Right. Why is that? Is it slowing vehicular traffic down too much?
Double legless.
Yes, it’s about traffic flow. Because AT has good staff working on safety, but they seem to be powerless. The overhaul required to get rid of the dinosaurs hasn’t happened.
Heidi
Despite all the talk AT/NZTA are very much working towards a car based transport system in Auckland. The split of the $28 billion to be spent in the next 10 years very much continues to leave PT, walking and cycling as the poor cousins.
However, leaving that aside it should be a relatively easy exercise for an organisation to change focus. I well remember attending a meeting of managers of a major corporate. The meeting was latter to be known as the “on the bus” meeting. The ceo in direct language told everyone that the focus of the business had changed and you were either, on the bus, or you weren’t. Very quickly everyone knew their focus had to be in the new direction. That business was characterised by strong leadership and so the change was quickly embedded. Sure there was a period with some disaffected employees, but the organisation quickly moved on.
I suspect much of the transport organisations’ problems are external. In at time when clearly Aucklanders have to drive less to reduce emissions we have Nikki Kay complaining about commute times. Clearly commute times could be reduced by seeking alternative transport options as the city undergoes transformation. When even seemingly intelligent people cannot see that Auckland needs to embrace a different way of travelling, to reduce emissions as well, then the transport organisation’s face an even greater battle.
I note that one of Kaye’s opponents at the last election uses an electric scooter to move around the inner city – all is not lost.
Concern about delays should lend support for the sort of quick changes that Ghent implemented. Meanwhile, Kaye has some suggestions. Are they practical?:
Better management of timing between private development consents and Auckland transport or utility works. – I imagine coordinating timing between public and private developments would be possible if the city wasn’t rushing towards the deadlines of some major events. You can’t shift projects forward, you can only shift them back, so unless the stars aligned, I’d imagine intervention on timing would end up just delaying things. But I’d love to hear of others’ experience where this sort of thing is successful.
Ensuring better enforcement mechanisms where there are private development delays. – I think enforcement mechanisms are useful for minimising effects and ensuring development quality. But I’m not sure about being useful to prevent delays. Most developers, once started, just want to finish the job. Won’t enforcement mechanisms just push costs up?
Consideration of some additional night works that have minimal or low impact such as road marking, moving trees and small pavement improvements. – What are the realities of any job being quiet in this mechanised age? Night works have their place, but they should not be implemented in the most densely populated part of the country just to minimise delays to people who continue to insist on driving to the centre city. Not if we’re using an equity focus.
Future investment in co-ordination systems across central, local and private utilities. – Ah, yip. Wonder if she’d commit to sorting this in the first two years of parliament. Chuckle.
Road widening and the removal of existing cycle lanes as well all paid for by the public transit budget.
Yes interesting that one.
Re electric buses, Trade Me has ex Wellington trolley buses for sale at $10 K each.
What a waste.
Yes. New electric buses would cost – what? – about $300-$600,000 each? (depending on whether they are single decker or double decker). Massive loss of value – all due to incompetent leadership from Greater Wellington Regional Council head Chris Laidlaw. There should be a lawsuit against this guy. Seriously.
Please tell me that they are going to install Give Way signs along with the raised pedestrian crossings on the St Luke’s cycle upgrade. Vehicles exit and enter the motorway ramps at unbelievable speeds. They have firmly removed the ambiguity that existed at the Carrington Road crossing and made it immensely safer to cross on a bicycle.
Back in 2017 Mayor Goff represented Auckland at the Together4Climate event and participated in the signing of the C40 Fossil-Fuel-Free Streets Declaration to procure only zero-emission buses from 2025 and to ensure that Auckland’s city centre has zero emissions by 2030.
So all those diesel buses that are indicated to still be in use will have to be on routes that avoid the city centre. To comply I don’t this we should be buying any more significant numbers of diesel buses, and should already be ramping up electric purchases.
Good point about the C40 declaration. Here is the full pledge:
“Procuring, with our partners, only zero-emission buses from 2025; and ensuring a major area of our city is zero emission by 2030. To meet this commitment, we will:
Transform our cities through people-friendly planning policies.
Increase the rates of walking, cycling and the use of public and shared transport that is accessible to all citizens.
Reduce the number of polluting vehicles on our streets and transition away from vehicles powered by fossil fuels.
Lead by example by procuring zero emission vehicles for our city fleets as quickly as possible.
Collaborate with suppliers, fleet operators and businesses to accelerate the shift to zero emissions vehicles and reduce vehicle miles in our cities.
Publicly report every two years on the progress the cities are making towards these goals.”
I have a question , what happens when the bus/buses run out of power on their run ? . Either through not being charged properly over night or through a power cut, and if they have all these Usb charging points on the bus sucking the life out of the battery .
Will the bus compaies have a tow truck powered by diesel with a recharging unit on the back spewing large of amounts of pollutents or will it carry a large recharge pack . And will the bus companies have an emergency generator installed as a backup sorce for any problems with power as the hospitals do ?
They have holes in the floor so the passengers can push it Fred Flintstone style.
What happens when a diesel bus runs out of fuel or suffers a mechanical issue? (Yes running out of fuel has been known to happen: https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/105939489/one-wellington-bus-driven-up-wrong-road-and-abandoned-another-runs-out-of-fuel )
Yet to have an issue with electrics, get one most days. In fact this post made from the top deck of one.
Also, the fact that you’re overly concerned about the possibility of pollution from a very occasional tow truck or generator, but apparently unconcerned about endless parades of diesel buses belching fumes makes me wonder how genuine your concern is …
GK I remember back in the late 70’s it took 3 buses to get out of the Britomart Bus Station as that was the time the drivers union was on strike and there was no fuel being delivered to no-one .
I just asked that question as a matter of interest . But Miffy had the right solution tho , just go back to the days of the Flintstones .But there will be times it may happen through power failures or faulty connections .
It’s just that the Mayor wants it done by 2040 and with tthe polluting diesels dose not worry me as we still will need them for different purposes , i.e the equipment that builds the roads that your/my bus travels on .
Same thing as when other buses run out of fuel, break down or catch fire. They load the passengers off and tow it back to the depot.
Oh and the USB ports are inconsequential! A battery electric bus has about 400kwh of capacity. A USB port is 2a at 5v, so 10w.
I.e the bus would have enough charge to run ten usbs simultaneously for 4,000 hours non stop.
“Publicly report every two years on the progress the cities are making towards these goals.”
I must have missed this – maybe because there was no progress to report, so they didn’t?
Couldn’t find anything on the net either.
It is reassuring that Auckland Council in the face of an emergency are not panicking and taking hasty action.
It’s good to see KR and On Track getting to the end on the upgrade of Otahuhu station and I hope Matt L has more on the works at Mt Eden . I was there Tuesday and Wards have done alot more demo since I last saw in November .
I took this in November ;-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43R8nbesf2o
and this the other day ;-
The platform nearest to the road and with easiest access was built 2 or 3 years ago when the new station was built. But with no track installed it has lain idle. A long concrete path was built to the north end for people to walk over to the middle platform but was removed. For some strange reason only the middle and the far platforms were used rather than the easiest closest one for for customers.
Now CRL is laying the tracks at this platform and connecting them at the south end so that it will be possible to make use of this platform soon. Using this one would provide a much better service for commuters
I’d agree that the new platform next to bus stops would be a lot more convenient. It’s those three flights of steps to get up to the concourse that are the real issue. There should have been two pair of escalators the same as Henderson station.
Signaling diagram on the CRL website suggests that platform will become the main southbound platform.
The shocking thing about that ap is just how much worse public transport is than cycling. They shouldn’t be allowed to use the term ‘rapid transport’.
It’s good to see progress being made on electric buses. I wonder if the abatement cost of accelerating the changeover would be particularly low – if so I think it should be a candidate for priority government spending.
And if the modelling indicates any problems with using electrics they could also look at hydrogen.
The NW RTC business case had information on relative car vs PT travel distances that gave a similar impression to the app results, but not sure if it was exactly the same.
I’d like to see something giving a breakdown on the US$1200+ per month that people in some US cities are spending on transport. That’s US$300+ per week – it seems high.