Yesterday Auckland Transport were celebrating, as the most recent Sunday was the busiest Sunday they’ve ever had.
That’s a great outcome and I’m sure the recent car parking issues at malls has probably helped encourage a bit of use too.
The previous busiest Sunday was November 24 2019, which was also a Santa Parade day. Even so, for some time now – even outside of special events – public transport use on weekends has been at or near pre-COVID levels.
To me, this once again highlights something we’ve been saying since well before the pandemic. Which is, that AT should be putting more effort into making public transport better for a wider variety of trip types in more locations, rather than their often single-minded focus on weekday peak-hour trips to and from the city centre.
This issue was somewhat highlighted yesterday in an interview with AT CEO Dean Kimpton by the Herald’s Simon Wilson, which came in part in response to the mall car parking issues of the last week.
But as with congestion problems everywhere, Kimpton knows there’s no easy fix. The problem isn’t practical, it’s emotional. People want to drive to the mall.
Newmarket is on four of the city’s five rail lines and has at least a dozen bus services. When it comes to good public transport, Newmarket is what that looks like, isn’t it?
“Yes,” says Kimpton.
So is the lesson that even when you build it, they still won’t come?
“I’m not a believer in ‘build it and they will come’. There’s a cultural resistance: we love our cars. And I think there’s an immaturity around Auckland growing as a modern city.”
True, Newmarket has lots of buses and trains (hosting two and a half of the city’s three and a half train lines), but I wouldn’t call it an example of “good”:
- Off-peak and weekend trains still only run once every 20 minutes on the Western and Southern lines, which don’t even meet AT’s own definition of a ‘frequent’ service.
- Where bus priority does exist, it largely vanishes off-peak and on weekends – as highlighted on the map below. Only the green and blue sections operate on weekends, and they’re far from continuous – so lots of buses will be caught up in weekend congestion.
Meanwhile, across the public transport network, weekday usage continues to hover at around 80% of pre-COVID levels. Some of this is due to issues like the ferry network crew shortages and parts of the rail network being closed down. A high-level estimation suggests we’d be back at around 85-90% of pre-COVID levels, if rail ridership had been able to recover at the same rate as buses.
All of this is important, as Auckland Transport have set themselves the ambitious target of getting back to 100 million trips on public transport by the middle of next year. That said, the actual target in their Statement of Intent is only 83.4 million trips – and they think they’re on track to achieve about 84.3 million trips.
Those goals will be made even harder if the AT Board today approves a staff recommendation to increase public transport fares in February by a weighted average of 6.2%. This is just the adult section of the proposed fare schedule:
The biggest increases will come for shorter journeys, with single-zone trips increasing by nearly 10%. AT say this is because:
Updated benchmarking against 44 international cities shows that Auckland continues to offer relatively low short-distance fares, ranking 4th place overall for affordability. Longer-distance fares (15km or more) benchmark poorly and rank 33rd place for affordability.
The big driver behind the need for this change is large increases in the cost of providing services, due to inflation and wage increases. AT describes these increases as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘unparalleled’. The total cost increase is around $107 million across all modes – about a 21% increase.
Overall, they expect the changes will increase revenue by $5.8 million, or around 4.3%. This is lower than the weighted average of 6.2% fare increases, because AT expects the higher fares will result in around 1 million fewer journeys – or about a 1.6% decline in usage.
I get that AT are under financial pressure, but raising fares right now is going to hurt. And while they did finally get around to raising some parking prices earlier this year, those should be aligned with PT price increases. Itw ould make sense to at least increase parking rates by the same amount.
One thing we may see next year is schemes to assist businesses to encourage more public transport use by employees. From the interview with Dean Kimpton:
Yes, he says, and talks about a plan to persuade corporates to shift their staff on to public transport. The companies pay for Hop cards and save substantially more by not having to provide car parks.
“We’ve done some trials, and we’ll go large on it next year.” The plan is to roll it out “corporate by corporate and precinct by precinct”. He mentions the Wynyard Quarter, East Tāmaki and the airport.
One other thing about the interview stands out: an absolute clanger from Kimpton about cycling.
“And we won’t be doing the big urban cycleway projects – we can’t afford them.”
He adds that contracts have been let for the Great North Rd and Pt Chevalier cycleways, so they will proceed. But he’s taking a good look at Glen Innes to Tāmaki.
And he has a message for cyclists.
“In that emissions reduction plan, cycling is supposed to rise to 17 per cent of all trips. But it’s still stuck on 1 per cent. We’ve got the facilities available and people aren’t using them. My message to the cycling community is this: ‘If walking and cycling are important to you, then do it.’”
Sorry, what? “The cycling community”? Is the “driving community” a thing? Does AT tell the “walking community” to use it or lose it, when footpaths are the subject?
Does “the cycling community” include the many Aucklanders who repeatedly tell AT, every time AT repeatedly asks, that they cycle occasionally and would cycle more if it were safe to do so? Does it include children, whose journeys don’t typically use the disconnected scraps of “the facilities”?
And where are these “facilities” he speaks of? Even AT’s own maps show most of the city has no access whatsoever to safe cycling facilities.
And we do know that if you build it, they will come. The network effect is well attested to, and it works – yes, even in Auckland.
Below is a video I put together a few years ago, showing the leaps in growth on the NW Cycleway over time, as the route was upgraded, extended and gained additional local connections. This is the network effect in action – and we’ll only see it strengthen and reach the levels needed in the emissions reduction plan if the transport agencies responsible keep expanding the safe network.
Kimpton is clearly a statistics guy, but that 1% comment (presumably drawn from average census stats across Auckland, now five years old) is bizarre, especially when he has more detailed statistics at hand, as well as regular explanations of what the numbers mean and what the barriers are to more people cycling.
Notably, AT hasn’t updated its own public-facing stats on cycling since June this year. AT’s data, based on a few dozen counters on key routes, shows that, as with PT, usage did drop off as a result of COVID – and that it is now recovering, and already back to above 90% of pre-COVID levels. March is always the busiest month, and March 2023 was the third highest on record.
Moreover, a quick dip into the census stats would confirm for Kimpton that the areas lucky enough to have access to “the facilities” (such as they are) tend to have higher bike-to-work numbers. Also, that some schools across Auckland are already knocking on those TERP targets – albeit this largely involves kids and caregivers biking on the footpaths, due to a local lack of “the facilities”.
You would think the head of transport for New Zealand’s largest city would quickly develop a stronger understanding of this stuff, especially as his short tenure has seen high profile examples of community calls for AT to deliver safer cycling.
Speaking of safety: the comments on the Herald interview, before they were closed, show how easily these kinds of statements can unleash and encourage hostility against the most vulnerable people on the roads that AT is responsible for keeping safe. That’s not good.
This may have been an off-the-cuff statement, but it’s an unforced own goal for the leader of a Vision Zero organisation with a mandate for encouraging lower-carbon travel.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.greaterauckland.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Kids-using-Nelson-St-600x447.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1)
Dean Kimpton has shown his true colours, how these dumb inept men end up in high profile roles is beyon me. Luckily less than 12 months left of this idiot hopefully and on to the next car loving fool. Auckland is cooked..
He’s a careerist who’s taken note of the utterances of the new government which single out cycleways as a “waste” despite being a tiny percentage of the transport spend.
Yes Dean Kimpton,another disappointing head of AT.He has followed a well trodden path,though,offering glimmers of hope ,for commuting Aucklanders. However,the moment Simeon put his hand on the book,and swore allegiance to Prince Charles,he reverted to type,and thrust the dagger,Chapeau Dean,you struck the target. Stirring up the masses,to “other” cyclists,must be a nice little bonus,you hadn’t considered. My family and future generations ,say thanks,but no thanks.
Having worked for Dean when he was NZ Managing Director of AECOM, he is anything but inept, and is merely being realistic about the challenges and constraints facing Auckland Transport. He also appears to be much more of a leader than his predecessors at AT
But is it leadership in a time of climate crisis to actively pushback on cycling as a transport option
I don’t think he sees it as serious transport option, so it’s the first to get cut.
His “cycling community” comment indictates he thinks he is building only for current cyclists, not potential ones.
What Kimpton has also missed is that even if cycling only got to 5%, it would be much cheaper to achieve than growing road capacity by 5%.
I do agree they shouldn’t “be doing the big urban cycleway projects” – in most cases all that is needed is some paint, a no parking sign, and some cheap barrier.
Cycling, like most transport modes, is an all or nothing thing, there is no point in building little bits here and there. You either commit to an entire network or you don’t bother. If that map was the Auckland road network, no one would own a car, so why does anyone expect cycling to be different?
And yet all that money has been spent and cycling still sits at 1% of trips to work. Sure it is better than 20 years ago when the control room would stand and applaud if they saw two cyclists in a cycle lane at the same time. But the Journey to Work share is still so low it is a wonder Statistics NZ count it. ‘Other’ is higher.
How many more cars are there compared with 20 years ago? The 1980s were a real war on cyclists with massive imports of used cars, flush painted medians stealing the road space used for cycling, dangerous roundabouts everywhere etc etc.
Some of these ‘cycleways’ are not safe cycling infrastructure at all. Just look at Onewa Road: It is a shared path with pedestrians, multiple bus stops with shelters, businesses with parking lots and private drive ways, lots of school kids and side roads. Add the poles for bus lane cameras and bus time tables, bins at least once a week, a stupid stationary mobile billboard telling you to remember bin day and the odd construction going on the foodpath.
It is no wonder if the creation of this path has not significantly increased bike numbers.
Poor infrastructure at potential trip ends (Highbury shops, or Symonds Street, Customs Street in the CBD) does not help, either.
Every failed policy has supporters who claim we just didn’t do enough of it. We should have spent even more etc etc.
Every policy which has been sabotaged limited and disconnected has opponents who use that to argue that it will never work. In fact, it’s one of the main tactics of how to stop change.
The fact that many other cities globally have massive cycling numbers but New Zealand does not points to two things: Either Kiwis are somehow fundamentally different type of humans – or we don’t do proper / not enough cycleways.
Failed policy is right. Just not in the way you mean it.
Perhaps we should be researching what people mean by ‘Other’ and dump the cycleway budget into that given that ‘Other’ is only the second lowest mode share.
I think people in Northcote who put their car on the ferry and commuted to work in the city would have been counted as other in the 1956 census too.
Incidentally, where is the bike-ferry that opponents of the PT and active mode bridge touted as a more cost effective solution?
All that money? lol. You mean the intentional project bloat that AT and co do to prevent a poltical shit fights around the reallocation of space?
If there was a skeleton of a network, old mates comments would be reasonable, but we are decades away from that at the current rate of construction.
Exactly.
AT are too smart to spend their own money. They get cycleways into every new subdivision by extorting developers with delays and opposition until they give in. None of them would meet even a basic B/C test..
miffy, your experience with new developments is clouding your judgment about what is happening in the rest of the city. To describe what is happening in our existing built area as “all that money spent on cycling” is offensive. The money AT are spending is on keeping traffic flowing and in making other improvements that have nothing to do with cycling. Mostly on the basis of misapplying traffic modelling, and your profession holds a lot of responsibility for this misapplication.
What is needed for cycling – road reallocation and protection – is not expensive. Furthermore, it should have been provided throughout the history of developing our city, as it is a responsibility of people driving vehicles to pay for the infrastructure required to prevent driving imposing dangers on other people.
The latest DSI stats are just heartbreaking. These are our own people being hurt and maimed by AT’s aversion to providing safety.
miffy, stop arguing against cycling investment. It’s quite revolting.
There is hardly in connected up sections of the network yet I see is the main problem.
As @JimboJones says, a lot cheaper options could be rolled out a lot cheaper & quicker even if some of them are interim facilities.
Bike infrastructure costs because of how AT, AC and central govt value free on street car parking.
Take the recent ish New Lynn to Avondale path, it cost more than $15 million per km, but half of it could have been replaced with a Tim tan lane along St George street costing less than a million. Didn’t happen tho, because a hundred ish car parks would have been lost.
A comparison should be done with Christchurch if, as I understand it, they have rolled out something that looks more like a network.
I think the lack of cycling in the central isthmus is crazy. You could easily cycle from Sandringham / Mt Roskill / Royal Oak / Onehunga / etc into the city if there was even one route to do so.
Central Auckland hardly has it bad. Try Glen Eden, literally nothing has been built by AT and nothing planned.
So glad you picked up on this interview. And so disappointed by Dean’s comments.
Very disappointing that the boss of AT has brought into the rubbish that Aucklanders are wedded to their cars and are different to people from other cities.
There’s a body of evidence that we’re just like people from anywhere else, we’ll take the simplest option. It’s just at the moment in most instances it’s driving, despite how terrible that is.
I am puzzled by Dean Kimpton’s quote , “My message to the cycling community is this: ‘If walking and cycling are important to you, then do it.’”
Most car trips that can have better potential to be replaced by bikes, are for shorter commute (15 minutes between services. Wouldn’t AT have the usage figures to know a double decker bus would give better rider experience? or is it not important to them? I am confused what AT’s objectives are for PT and road safety…
I grew up cycling the NW path (around 2007 – 13) and when I returned to Auckland with my bike a few weeks ago I was stunned by both how much it has improved, and by the volume of riders. I rode city to Hobsonville a few times over the week and there were always people around me. Removing the old off-motorway detour before Lincoln Rd has made a big difference, and the extension to Westgate is brilliant, even if Royal Rd is a b**h of a climb. Clearly Auckland has made huge progress despite morons like Kimpton.
Despite being a life long cyclist I really dislike being called part of a “cycling community.” It’s an unnecessary grouping of disparate people that in my opinion is used by leaders to try and abdicate themselves of responsibility for providing safe public access for everyone. There are cycling communities, but these don’t encompass everyone who rides.
Expect to see a lot more of the barge on the bus without paying with these fares.
Central Melbourne serves 5 million people and the average number of general vehicle lanes is roughly 1.
The rest of the road is trams, buses and yes, protected cycle lanes wherever cars are still allowed. On street parking is access, delivery and disablility.
You don’t have to spend big on cycleways if you just exclude cars and prioritize PT. I saw more cycling there in a day than I would see all year in AKL.
The inner city is the fastest growing area in NZ.
There are many apartments, 50+ ?, being built in the area from Parnell to Eden Terrace and to the Wynyard Quarter. More people are chosing to live there beacause of all the benefits and the continual feeling of progress. NZ needs such an area just as London, NY or Paris have where people want to be.
Do you know why Waka Kotahi refuses to allow bikes across the Harbour Bridge?
Because then some of us would not be reliant on AT and their constant increasing of public transport fares in the face of scientifically evidenced knowledge that the best thing you could do for a city’s people is make it easier for them to move around.
By keeping us separate they increase our chances of disliking other suburbs, other parts of our great city.
The actions of AT, the upcoming actions of the three fascists leading our country, will all lead us further down the half century old hell hole that is the neo-liberal experiment.
And we all fell for the joke! All of us, born before or after 1973 we are all idiots living in this capitalised world. Where our only value is calculated by some dumb number abacus.
Only words can save us now, because numbers, and the binary system has enslaved us and we must find salvation in art, poetry and ROCK N ROLL!!!
> the upcoming actions of the three fascists leading our country, will all lead us further down the half century old hell hole that is the neo-liberal experiment.
Well Labour has had 6 years to demonstrate the alternative. What do we have to show for it? Light rail? Affordable housing? Active mode crossing of the harbour? No, instead they wasted their time and effort on secretive constitutional change.
I fell off my chair when reading Dean’s comment about the cycling community. I was hoping for GA to call him out.. You guys did not disappoint. GA on point as always.
Meanwhile in Wellington…
“Wellington’s massive cycling upgrade is ambitious, fast, and surprisingly cheap…It’s a case study in the speed at which New Zealand cities can change their transport priorities – if they have the political will and the right strategies in place.”
https://thespinoff.co.nz/wellington/23-11-2023/wellingtons-massive-cycling-upgrade-is-ambitious-fast-and-surprisingly-cheap
Give AT a break. PT usage is not price sensitive. You can see by the change in PT usage when half price fares were introduced, and when they were taken off (not).
It is still frustrating when in the same time parking fees and fines are not increased at all and there continues to be a lot of free parking at some of the best places in the country for PT like Newmarket.
A whole lot of buses stuck in traffic is not good PT.
You are right, what I meant is potentially best access by PT given the number of possibilities to get there by train and bus.
Well the council had a choice of whether or not to approve the consent for 2,000 additional carparks in Newmarket…
If you’re frustrated you know where to direct it.
The problem was not prioritising buses 24/7 to compliment that decision.
Such excessive parking creates problems even with bus lanes. The problem is both the number of carparks AND the lack of 24/7 bus lanes.
Newmarket needs to shed parking, and it should be a bus transit mall (with bike lanes) and the traffic circulation patterns in the surrounding areas redesigned. This was well understood 70 years ago, and is having a resurgence in many cities today as low traffic neighbourhoods. But AT’s slow on the uptake.
“Such excessive parking creates problems even with bus lanes.”
The irony is that according to the rules in force when the mall changes in Newmarket were consented in the late 2000s and early 2010s, they actually under-delivered on parking, and had to apply for consent for a shortfall of some 1000 (!) or so spaces across the whole double-site mall. Shows how bonkers our parking requirements used to be.
According to the charts in this very article cancellation of 1/2 price had no big impact on the number of trips. I believe postponing due fare indexation will harm more in a longer perspective, because the longer it is postponed the sharper the next rise will be.
A large part of the rail network was shut, buses didn’t run due to no driver, ferries constantly cancelled etc etc. Given those factors it’s hard to draw any conclusions.
I don’t usually read the Herald user comments but did have a scan after reading Kimpton’s disgraceful output.
Aaaaaaand yes, my estimation of the general Herald readship mentality has been reinforced. Pathethic, short-sighted, car-centric people – all of them.
Can’t wait for petrol and diesel to be accurately priced on their environmental impact. The EV drivers can enjoy sitting in the congestion that we know will keep getting worse especially given the insane migration numbers coming in to AKL.
So sick of the majority of residents who lack any ability to see beyond their caged-in bonnet.
I think that the readers of this blog are far from representative of Aucklanders. Yes, when rates have gone up like mad large infrastructure projects needs to be put on hold. Stopping large cycle-way construction is given. Right now we cant afford any good to have projects.
A reminder that current councils finances are a blackhole and we spend more than we earn. Me paying a 7.7% increase on my rates every year going forward wont work, Aucklanders cant afford such annual increases, and the council knows it hence they need to paus every large capex project that’s not absolutely necessary and a cycleway is not a must have. Must haves are infrastructure critical to the city.
I see the fare increase as the major issue in this interview. We need to reduce fares not increase them. Currently with parking being very cheap its often cheaper for my family to drive to school and on to work than having four 16+ year olds take PT. That is a real concern to me. I prefer PT but not when it costs more than driving, Auckland isn’t a cheap city and with rates increase every saving helps. We have thus gone back to driving which is cheaper than us all riding the bus.
I hope AT can join our mayor in arguing for greater powers for Auckland. An example; if I park illegally in Takapuna my fine is 24 dollars. That’s a joke and its better to park illegally and get a ticket a week (approximately) vs paying. Saves me money. A fine in Auckland should be 200 dollars and Auckland needs powers to set the amounts they fine for traffic violations. If we get such powers, there is no need to increase the PT fares. Why is parking so cheap here?
Every other major city I have been to parking a full day in the CBD costs me 60 or 80 dollars per day, here on weekends its 2 dollars/hour. During weekdays its 24 dollars, yet the garage is more or less empty of cars on the lowest level.
You complain about PT fares compared to car costs yet put down the cheapest travel of all, cycling. The government has also cut funding, yet the projects are often for more than a cycleway. They plan to spend big on non-cycle transport projects believe me & yet cycling can provide us with good health outcomes, reduce our emissions and so much more.
In terms of not having the money, it’s a whole lot more complicated than what you’ve stated. This year’s annual budget was gutted by:
– the Eastern Busway
– an expensive business-as-usual response to the storm damage, and
– AT’s refusal to optimise the use of renewals for improvements.
AT could’ve and should’ve paused EB and redesigned it as a road reallocation project. They should’ve had climate response plans in place – they’d claimed that they did have! – to prevent the hollowing out of critical safety and cycling projects. They’ve promised a better use of the renewals funding for so long but it’s only when individuals really stick their neck out for particular projects that it ever happens.
Now, they’re pressing ahead with other road expansion projects, and putting many more onto the conveyor belt. Check out the Notices of Requirements. Depressing stuff.
It’s really important that you, and the public in general, don’t swallow this line that there were no options. AT have simply refused to follow Council’s direction to use sustainable planning following the TERP direction.
On the topic of being “representative of Aucklanders”, don’t forget that “Aucklanders” have had the media and politicians putting words in their mouths for so long that the commonly-held myths about what Aucklanders think are hugely different to what Aucklanders actually think. It’ll help to have the results of the recent deliberative poll. From previous surveys and feedback, we’ve seen an unwavering solid support for investing in a safe cycling network (65 to 70+%).
Dean Kimpton certainly seemed to think he was saying things that were representative of Aucklanders. Perhaps these were just reckons, but I suspect otherwise; I suspect he had been misinformed by the usual suspects in AT who directly and intentionally misrepresent the public sentiment data. I’ve caught individuals out a number of times doing this, and brought it to the attention of Councillors and officials.
“… There’s a cultural resistance: we love our cars….”
There’s a regulation and cost problem (driving the cultural resistance):
a) We regulate to require the spaces to be provided in the first place.
b) Given the more than adequate supply of parking there is no need to price it and nor is there any requirement to do so. Pricing control needs to stay with the transport authorities.
Charge people $10 an hour to park in a mall and see how the culture shifts.
From AT Cycle Counter webpage:
October 2023 automatic cycle counts
At 26 count sites:
A total of 3.14 million cycle movements were recorded from September 2022 to October 2023, marking a 8.1% increase compared to the previous 12 months.
272,198 cycle movements were recorded in October 2023, representing a 7.2% increase compared to October 2022.
Not bad for no new cycleways really, from a low base of course but that means potential for a lot of change.
Here’s Kimpton on the AM show this morning, yes lack of weekend bus lanes doesn’t help though the host seem to be suggesting doing the opposite to help relieve traffic:
https://youtu.be/g_wQppCHiA0?si=wcwo-4NTr4ttK-oI
Surely it says something when AT only publish these impressive counts from June to Oct only after this article mentioned they were missing and prior to your comment. If they don’t value it they don’t promote it.
Who is the sole PT user that travels 9 zones?
lol, yes didn’t notice that before…likely some urbanist nut trying to go from one end to the other.
“Who is the sole PT user that travels 9 zones”
According to an anonymous source within AT, its an AT bus driver who uses the network to get to and from work.
Cycle access through unitec, cycleways on gt nth rd waterview and Carrington rd have all been closed for several weeks.
Tidal lanes on gt nth rd waterview is currently being proposed and conculted on. This will narrow the lanes as a result of going from 4 lanes plus median to 5 lanes, and make cycling even more dangerous. The cycleway stops beside unitec accommodation so what am I going to do?
Sigh. Yes, what are we going to do?
Why the great north road ones closed? Weather event?
Late reply, but I believe it’s related to (long delayed) works to stop the shared path by BP from sliding down the hill. There’s been a barrier diversion around the problem area for a couple of years now, but they’ve only recently closed it entirely with signs telling cyclists to cross the road (where of course no safe onward route for turn exists).
I can’t find that consultation on AT’s website. Where is it, please?
Found it: https://haveyoursay.at.govt.nz/great-north-bus-lane
I have noticed recently on travelling the Bus 30 entering Broadway just before entering Newmarket there is a road sign stating where to Park in Newmarket Map.
Cause & effect of Newmarket 3-hour traffic gridlock at Westfield Mall by car park wayfinding.
Auckland Transport boss Dean Kimpton needs to address & fix the problem. Need a parking charge on Free Parking & remove Broadway car parking for 24/7 continuous bus priority lanes.
My objection is the separating of people by transport preference, and driving a trade off mindset. Without talking about the system drivers that drive each type of use (excuse the puns).
Also, preference and use are two different things. I’d prefer to walk, cycle or use PT to get to work but I drive, why?
Eastern line down = bus + train + bus 70-80mins. Driving to work including school drop off 35 minutes = driving to work.
Eastern line going + no Gowing Drive connection to GI to Tamaki Cycleway = longer walk/longer cycle/bus + train = 70 minutes. Still driving to work.
Eastern line going + Gowing Drive connection = 50 minutes. Now I’m using PT and the lad has no choice but to use it to get to school.
Welcome to the network effect.
Shows you how important cycleway connections are.
Meanwhile, in a country that know how to prioritise active modes. Weep and wail over this short video:
https://youtu.be/mnWuoVUTLhU?si=-VCcRKxSMw0RxKJ0
No reason this couldn’t be out High Street or parts of Newmarket, even without such historic buildings, same thing.
Couriers, utes and others would still park there.
What is it now?
“There’s a cultural resistance: we love our cars.” vs “Shoppers have been trapped in their cars for hours as the queue exiting the carpark at an Auckland mall moved at a crawl.” (from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/shoppers-at-westfield-newmarket-mall-stuck-in-their-cars-for-hours-in-traffic-jam/H7IZZYUPNFDOZAQIGTMAG3TBMM/)
This doesn’t make sense. If you tell me I can spend hours with the thing I love I would be ecstatic.
Either Mr. Kimpton is intentionally stupid or he is really stupid.
Very good. Perhaps they love them so much that the solution they’ll seek to the mall problem will be to add bathrooms, in addition to the entertainment centres…
Say you live somewhere that takes a 3 zone trip to get to your office. Say you and your partner both make that trip in the same car. Total cost is $24 per day.
You can park in the CBD, all day, for $13.50. We know that people don’t account for the true cost of running a car, so to most people that’s a saving of $10.5 per day.
There’s roughly 260 working days in a year, so that would “save” you around $2,600 a year. That’s more than enough to cover your WOF, Rego, Insurance and make a significant dent in your petrol bill – even more so the more efficient the vehicle gets.
No wonder people drive.
Bring on yearly passes. Though a 2 zone example is not so bad.
CEO Dean Kimptons message to the cycling community …
Auckland Transport does not have the skill or ability to achieve TERP level outcomes.
for a moment there i thought he was going to apologise for vulnerable road users being half the dead and injured due to lack of safe infrastructure.
same old same old. no change in sight
Here are some simple ways to encourage PT usage
1. Replace the current head of the “Customer Experience Dept” at AT, and replace her with someone who has PT experience
2. Rehire the experienced PT and Marketing people who were made redundant during the last two rounds of restructuring within AT
3. Stop the constant restructuring within AT that has gutted the number of staff with PT experience, who now have to be gradually replaced
4. Stop giving in to pressure from Councillors and “concerned local shop owners” who insist on having a parking space outside their dairy, wine shop or flower shop. ( Example Mt Eden Village )
Motorists are finally getting the message that driving to the mall on the weekend, or to the Santa Parade, will probably result in getting stuck in traffic for two hours.
If they can’t afford the ‘big urban cycleway projects’ what they can do is build good infra in stages, thus building up the network effect.
Most obvious gap for me is around the Southern rail line – a Southern cycleway to link up with the NW one would help link some of the existing cycleways and provide a safer alternative to Great South Road.