The latest bus strike

After a particularly difficult year, parts of our public transport network are finally starting to recover as more and more bus drivers arrive from overseas. Just over a week ago Auckland Transport said: Auckland’s bus driver shortage is now below 170, down from a peak of 570 at the end of last year.…
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Weekly Roundup 7-July-2023

Welcome to the first Friday in July; a bit of a midwinter breather with school holidays and Matariki around the corner. Here’s our latest roundup of some of the stories that caught our eye this week – with a strong focus on good vibes, to help get us through the darkest bit of the year.…
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Government encourages illegal parking

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how it’s time to update parking fines. The maximum fines allowed are defined in legislation and are so outdated that they’ve been unchanged for nearly a quarter of a century. Because infringements are set at a national level, the existing low level of fines is particularly bad for cities like Auckland where the demand for parking and the impact of inconsiderate parking is much higher.…
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The inter-regional rail inquiry report

Last year Parliament’s Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee held an enquiry into the future of inter-regional passenger rail in NZ. You can read our post about it here, and our submission here. Yesterday they released their findings on it. In total the inquiry received 1,752 written submissions and of that, 97 percent expressed support for new inter-regional passenger rail services. …
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Liberating a Lane stacks up

Trying to get across the harbour by bike or on foot has been a long and frustrating saga. In recent years we’ve seen the citizen-led Skypath proposal get all the way to resource consent in 2016, only to be replaced in 2019 by a Waka Kotahi concept for a walking-cycling addition to the city-side of the bridge (which turned out to be unbuildable)… followed in 2021 by an out-of-the-blue proposal for a dedicated walking and cycling bridge (which was quickly shelved after unfavourable coverage about the cost).…
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