It’s Friday again so here’s our latest roundup of stories that caught our eye this week.
The Week in Greater Auckland
- On Monday Heidi returned with a guest post about the Auckland Transport Board dropping the ball on TERP.
- On Wednesday we ran a post from Darren Davis looking at a history of Perth’s rail network.
- On Thursday, Matt asked if it was time we updated parking enforcement fines.
Parking Strategy goes live
Yesterday Auckland Transport officially launched their parking strategy.
Auckland Transport has released Room to Move – the latest version of Auckland’s Parking Strategy, which has been approved by the Auckland Transport Board.
AT Chief Executive Dean Kimpton says Room to Move transforms how the limited space on Auckland’s roads is managed and prioritises making it easier to travel across our city.
“Room to Move will enable AT to make quicker, cheaper, less disruptive changes on our major roads to address congestion as we move about our city, make bus services quicker and more reliable, and reduce Auckland’s transport emissions,” Mr Kimpton says.
“One of the biggest changes Aucklanders will see from Room to Move is more bus and transit lanes along our most important roads.
“We’ve all seen this year just how important it is for Auckland to have a resilient transport network where our more than 14,000 bus trips a day can run as reliably as possible and don’t get deadlocked in traffic even in moderate rain.”
We’ve covered the contents and discussion around this a few times, most recently in a post about AT’s May Board meeting. By and large we believe the strategy is okay, but it is a bit of a downgrade from the 2015 parking strategy it replaces. The real issue is that just as with the previous strategy, there’s no guarantee AT will actually adhere to it – as the same people who deliberately ignored the last one will likely do the same with this one.
Also AT, why don’t you put your press releases on your own website anymore?
AT can do the right thing
The Spinoff has highlighted that AT can do the right thing sometimes even when a few people oppose a change.
Auckland Transport loves a consultation. And based on form, it’s easy to believe that these public consultations largely end up delaying, watering down, or outright cancelling proposals that cause any inconvenience to car drivers.
So when I received the email titled “Te Atatū Peninsula Bus Priority/T2 Lanes feedback report”, I warmed up my eye-rolling muscles, preparing to vent about the cancellation of necessary improvements to the single road in and out of our MDRS-crammed peninsular suburb.
[…..]
Sure enough, around 65% of 331 responses (the suburb had a population of 13,000 at the last census, probably more like 15,000 now) to the official feedback process said they either “oppose” or “strongly oppose” the proposed transit lanes on Te Atatū Road:
Imagine my incredible surprise then to read the email that accompanied the feedback report. Firstly, Auckland Transport points out that the majority of opposition came from people who never ride the bus:
“While there was opposition to bus priority/T2 lanes on Te Atatū Road, the feedback showed that 59% of people who strongly opposed the proposal never use public transport and 17% used it monthly or less.”
It then notes that mode-shift is the most logical way to ease the congestion respondents are complaining about:
“The bus priority/T2 lanes, along with the additional bus priority lanes along SH16, will improve bus journey times making public transport a more attractive option than driving. As bus patronage increases, as we expect it will, fewer cars on the road will make it easier for people who need to drive around the peninsula.”
And completing the slam dunk, a final paragraph that I can only translate as “A majority of people who bothered to submit were strongly opposed to the T2 lane but looking at the actual evidence and forecasts, we’re going to do it anyway.”
If only AT listened to the evidence more regularly.
Traffic Inevitability
A good explainer from Strong Towns on the battle against traffic.
Related, an article about Carmaggedon versus traffic evaporation in the wake of the collapse of a chunk of I-95 on the East Coast of the United States. This line leaps out:
The traffic we observe at any point in time is not a fixed and inexorable amount that must be “served,” but is simply the behavioral response of humans to the set of transportation choices available to them.
Debunking Bike Lane Myths
A good piece from Toronto debunking three big myths about bike lanes and noting:
- Bike lanes do not increase congestion
- Bike lanes are good for business
- Bike lanes improve safety and reduce collisions
This line also leapt out: “An anti-bike-lane mayoral candidate [or, say, transportation executive] is as useful to the city of Toronto [or, say, Auckland] as a flat-Earther would be at NASA.”
Related, this is accurate – it’s by the great Dave Walker, from his book The Cycling Cartoonist. (More cartoons here)
Driverless cars aren’t ready yet
A few years ago, the prospect of driverless cars was constantly being pushed as the future and often used as arguments for not investing in things like public transport. The noise has died down but the technology is still around. The Spinoff has a first hand experience of a driverless car ride in San Francisco and it is terrifying.
The robot experience at the top of my list for my recent visit was to be driven around a busy city in a driverless car. Lucky for me, Kelly had been made it to the top of the waiting list to use the Cruise driverless taxi service but hadn’t tried it yet – she just needed an enthusiastic visitor to get her excited enough to download the app and make a plan to use it.
[…..]
Our ride started off well. After pressing the “Start Ride” button on the app, the steering wheel turned to pull out and we were off. A female voice gave us some instructions over the speaker system: keep our seatbelts on, press the “Stop Ride” button on the roof of the car to end our ride early, enjoy our ride. At first it was very weird to see the steering wheel move unassisted, as the car pulled up to four-way stops, paused, and continued when no hazard was sensed. We went up and down hills, gave a wide berth to a pedestrian who was standing on the road, and turned left at a traffic light without too much fuss. I mean, there was fuss, but it was from Kelly and me laughing as hard as we have in ages at an experience that was really unlike anything we’d had before. Every time we spotted a hazard, we asked ourselves if the car would also “see” it and react in time. And it did! It was fine. The feeling I can most equate it to was a rollercoaster, where it’s scary and fun but you know you’re most likely going to be safe.
That feeling changed when, about two-thirds of the way through our ride, we entered a busier part of town close to the central business district. For no reason we could ascertain the car suddenly did a fast swerve towards parked cars before correcting itself. Our mood turned from giddy excitement to a feeling of “oh shit, what did we get ourselves into?”.
As we were closer to downtown there were more cars and people around, meaning more cars and people to act in myriad unpredictable ways. Our car sped up at weird times and did another handful of swerves towards the parked cards on the side of the road. It was legitimately freaky, and I started getting on edge and panicking a bit, telling the car to slow down at least twice and getting stressed at other cars not indicating when turning corners. At one stage Kelly exclaimed “I feel like we’re being held hostage!”. We considered pushing the stop ride button, but stopping on a busy street felt like it might be an even worse idea than continuing.
Meanwhile, driving autopilot is both deadlier and more stressful than simply driving yourself (which is also pretty deadly and stressful).
Tesla's self-driving capability is something like 10 times more deadly than a regular car piloted by a human, per an analysis of a new government report. @ryanlcooper has it:https://t.co/QwsNL4S698
— David Dayen (@ddayen) June 14, 2023
More evidence the city centre is back in business
The Auckland CBD is coming back to life after years of pandemic slow down and disruption caused by construction works.
The work from home trend hit the CBD hard, and that was on top of the City Rail Link, and lower Queen Street improvements.
But Heart of the City – the city centre business association – said foot traffic had bounced back strongly and downtown had enjoyed the return of cruise ships.
With a cruise ship parked in the Waitematā Harbour on a sunny Auckland day, the city was humming.
Tourists stepped off to see the sights of Auckland.
However, this rings very true.
Sightseers from Europe told RNZ they were not so keen on what they had found in the city.
“I’m not a huge fan of the city but there are some nice spots where you can hang out or just have a drink,” one said.
“It has it’s nice spots but compared to Europe there are a lot of cars so it’s very busy and not very cozy,” said another.
Many tactical urbanists make light work
A great reminder of the benefits of quick, adaptive projects that shift our streets towards the kind of outcomes we know are better for all of us.
Tweets and threads of the week
We should use bollards more to transform parts of the city centre into people havens for much of the day.
Is Brussels the capital of retractable bollards?! They are everywhere in the city centre. They lower automatically at certain times of the day and raise up again as per a schedule. Some exceptions are permitted such as for loading and servicing. pic.twitter.com/uHR4AlD6Z7
— Richard Hart (@NzRoo) June 14, 2023
Seoul’s version of the High Line?
https://twitter.com/_dmoser/status/1669012231483162625?t=9ypDTyAef0AzaMsknjfIzA
A very useful public service sticker from the capital’s advocacy group Cycle Wellington.
Look for the stickers. Avoid locking here. pic.twitter.com/hVgIh3JtrB
— Patrick Morgan (@patrickmorgan) June 14, 2023
Going by the evidence, it’s time for concrete separators for all cycleways, including the off-road ones.
https://twitter.com/hhb442/status/1668527431681200129
Also via Twitter: an accurate cartoon for those keeping track of alarming graphs of the various climate indicators. We are here:
PS Hoping for a change of scene? Auckland Council’s looking for a new Chief Sustainability Officer (closing 2 July), applications just closed for Auckland Transport’s Head of Sustainability and Climate Change role, and AT is seeking a new Chair (closing 25 June), to guide the organisation in delivering “reduced travel time on all modes of transport, convenience, safety, accessibility, choice, response to climate change and environmental outcomes.”
Processing...
I’ve often thought about the lack of separation between the motorway and cycleway at that point. Its on a bend and looking at barriers elsewhere on the motorway its clear that not all cars make it around them.
The data on Tesla autopilot crashes has come via the Washington Post. Not surprising considering how flakey “self driving” is outside a well marked motorway environment. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/10/tesla-autopilot-crashes-elon-musk/
And yet it doesn’t worry me a single bit. There’s so many thousands of places around Auckland where some barriers would be much more urgent. This at least has a good bit of space between it and the road. You just don’t see those kinds of places when you travel around the city highlighted like this because there isn’t even a FENCE in all those other places where drivers when across the footpath or bike lane.
And VZ is clear that the separation of just a few metres of space does not constitute the protection required to have vehicle speeds above 30 km/hr.
I have been very disappointed to learn that 3 or 4 of the Sth Auckland local boards, Otahuhu, Otara, Manurewa and Papakura have decided not to support separated bikeways. The area is low lying and will be one of the first to be affected by sea level rise. The emissions and pollution there is high and is harming the health of people. There are very few bikeways or bus lanes in the area and car ownership is very high, by world standards and families are locked into owning a couple of cars costing them several $100 per week. We often hear of people in Sth Auckland struggling with the cost of living and the best way to help them is by reducing their transport costs.
JF – where have you found the Local Board info?
Keen to start a “Plant a Bollard” foundation to get more bollards in the ground and save our pedestrians!
Heh. Yeah. Practical on-the-street tactical action? Or just donations to fund it? If the latter…
The more direct way would be for AT to divert funding from hugely wasteful projects to it directly. Being, you know, part of the toolkit for delivering a sustainable system. 🙂
Te Atatū Peninsula Bus Priority/T2 Lanes feedback report”.
What this means is we have exhausted all the means of facilitating vehicle flow and none of them have worked,so this is the only option left. When congestion is a real problem,most people don’t want see reduced road space for themselves,they just want the vehicles impeding their progress to “get out of the way”.
Of course,that means providing alternatives,car pooling,PT,but don’t want people who choose those options, to have any advantage over themselves.
Those stickers for the insecure bike stands are great. The U-stands that simply bolt to the poles sticking up from the foundation are hopeless.
Interesting range of topics this week.
At are now turning 1 of their EMU’s into a mobile Bil boards as seen over the last view days ;-
And after seeing this on Reddit , there are a large number of Exec earning big Dollars in an organisation that is suppose to be broke ;-
https://i.redd.it/snsj0ti5n46b1.png
What happened to the policy for providing cycleways around schools? https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/canterbury/300906320/cyclist-rushed-to-hospital-in-critical-condition-was-knocked-off-her-bike-by-a-car-door
Terrible.
At least the wording of the article was changed. Initially both title and text were saying the “cyclist hit a car door”.
This week, is farmers week, along with it comes the two political parties, National dnd Labour. Just had field-days and had National go to Helensville to meet with farmers about their concerns. Imagine one of the concerns is transport. As you know it, people up from Kumeu-Huapai have been long pleading for any kind of transport solution for their issue around congestion. Think it’s time to bring back the ‘Kumeu Bypass’ again. But this time do things differently, only have ‘bypass’ and cycleway and takeout plans for rapid transit. That’s costing more and don’t need as of now, that can come in-future.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123561371/kumeu-bypass-feedback-sought-on-suggested-route-to-ease-congestion
Getting from point A to B is becoming difficult in Kumeu-Huapai as many motorist, residents or regular visitors know, their main on-terroir route SH16 is always congested no matter time of day coming in or out of the big town. Already at a point where critical investment in a transport project is needed! So commuters or motorist have no worries getting to places they need to be.
Farmers play a big part in a Kumeu-Huapai ‘Bypass’. If you haven’t been paying attention this week, you would have noticed National had visited Helensville to meet with farmers about their concerns. 100% bet congestion on SH16 at Kumeu would be on the farmers minds right now. Only way to fix it would be to build a Kumeu-Huapai’ bypass’ to ease their concerns!
Many of us here up in Auckland right now is feeling the punch in inflation when they go to the supermarket, farmers aren’t having it easy, one of the reasons is lack of Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’. If people don’t know, Helensville has heaps of farms of crops of vegetables and fruits. Also vegetable and fruit are perishables, so they need to be transported out to distribution sites immediately as possible. A lot of the farms around Helensville or nearby Kumeu-Huapai have to travel on SH16 into Auckland and to the distribution sites, they can’t deliver the perishables in good condition if investment in roading infrastructure isn’t being invested and they’re clogged in traffic all the time! It drives up cost of your groceries, cost time and money! Building a Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’ would be key to brining down prices of groceries at the supermarket.
One more lane!
I agree, whenever I have been there, which was only on weekends, it was bad enough already. What they would need is bus or rail rapid transit into the city, airport and Albany. Only building the bypass would bring more cars on the road and SH16 would fill up even more creating a longer traffic jam for more users. There needs to be an alternative to driving.
” Only building the bypass would bring more cars on the road and SH16 would fill up even more creating a longer traffic jam for more users. There needs to be an alternative to driving”
Completely utterly wrong JohnBGoode, SH16 Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’ would fix all the the current problems with the existing Sh16 route, SH16 Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’ route brings more efficiency for businesses, commuters, more lanes, no congestion and faster commute to anywhere.
To your point about rapid transit, no need for a rapid transit corridor when not enough patronage travel by public transport to keep it running sustainably.
John, be good now, don’t be naughty!
If there’s not enough “patronage” there must be insufficient demand for the roading, too: people can take public and active transport if safe and functional infrastructure and services is provided.
What is it about the SH16 bypass that has you thinking traffic wouldn’t be induced? Additional road capacity leads to additional traffic.
Ah yes Helpful Farmer; yes to more roads, no to rapid transport. Let’s do that. And we’ll see you back here in 5yrs complaining about the traffic and needing another new road…
Hints:
– you need options for people to get out of their cars.
– you can’t say there isn’t the demand for good PT if you don’t provide good PT first to validate that.
– if you want your transport options to be sustainable, I have news for you about highways….
As you say, the Huapai bypass would fix all the current problems. It would, however, do next to nothing to help all the future problems arising from increased car use generated by said bypass.
A rapid transit route in Kumeu-Huapai should be looked into in future, not in present times. Patronage is key to sustaining public transport service. Now’s not right time to be thinking about a rapid transit for Kumeu-Huapai. Already got bus services 122, 122X and 125, when the bypass (without rapid transit) get built use it and use it frequently first before thinking big money project like rapid transit! Not a charity folks!
“Not a charity folks”
Lol. It never is when its a road, is it….
You mean, in the future, when the development that is already happening now has happened? And then, let me me guess, it will be “but there won’t be any more development!” like it was in East Auckland for years. The bus service that sits in the same traffic as everyone else and will do so for years isn’t exactly how you build a frequent service.
Driverless cars aren’t ready yet
The FSD software in for example the Tesla is a Beta version.
Noun. beta version (plural beta versions) (computing) An early version of a program or application that contains most of the major features, but is not yet complete. Sometimes these versions are released only to a select group of people, or to the general public, for testing and feedback.
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Check out the new vidoe for Britain’s new high-speed rail network. HS2
https://youtu.be/M9q6bVY7YDA
This week, finally opened the new stretch of SH1 motorway! Yay! Now let’s build more motorways to ease the pain for our farmers right now and commuters too! As you know it, people up from Kumeu-Huapai have been long pleading for any kind of transport solution for their issue around congestion. Think it’s time to bring back the ‘Kumeu Bypass’ again. But this time do things differently, only have ‘bypass’ and cycleway and takeout plans for rapid transit. That’s costing more and don’t need as of now, that can come in-future.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123561371/kumeu-bypass-feedback-sought-on-suggested-route-to-ease-congestion
Getting from point A to B is becoming difficult in Kumeu-Huapai as many motorist, residents or regular visitors know, their main on-terroir route SH16 is always congested no matter time of day coming in or out of the big town. Already at a point where critical investment in a transport project is needed! So commuters or motorist have no worries getting to places they need to be. No need for a rapid transit corridor when not enough patronage by public transport likes of 122, 122X & 125 to keep it running sustainably. We’ve seen the effects when a new motorway comes into a town, creates free flowing traffic, quieter neighbourhood and less cars in town!
Farmers play a big part in a Kumeu-Huapai ‘Bypass’. If you haven’t been paying attention this last week or months, you would have noticed National had visited Helensville to meet with farmers about their concerns. Congestion on SH16 at Kumeu would be on the farmers minds right now. Only way to fix it would be to build a Kumeu-Huapai’ bypass’ to ease their concerns!
Many of us here up in Auckland right now is feeling the punch in inflation when they go to the supermarket, farmers aren’t having it easy, one of the reasons is lack of Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’. If people don’t know, Helensville has heaps of farms of crops of vegetables and fruits. Also vegetable and fruit are perishables, so they need to be transported out to distribution sites immediately as possible. A lot of the farms around Helensville or nearby Kumeu-Huapai have to travel on SH16 into Auckland and to the distribution sites, they can’t deliver the perishables in good condition if investment in roading infrastructure isn’t being invested and they’re clogged in traffic all the time! It drives up cost of your groceries, cost time and money! Building a Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’ would be key to brining down prices of groceries at the supermarket.
‘SH16 Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’ would fix all the the current problems with the existing Sh16 route, SH16 Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’ route brings more efficiency for businesses, commuters, more lanes, no congestion and faster commute to anywhere. Should be considered as a ‘Road of Significance’. Main priority, get constructing on SH16 Kumeu-Huapai ‘bypass’ without rapid transit!
Alot of your congestion problems on SH16 is because during the last upgrade, rapid transit was ignored.
Do the same thing, get the same result…