Weekly Roundup 14-June-2024

Another week, another roundup of things that caught our eye on our favourite topics of transport, housing and how to make cities a little bit greater.

This Week in Greater Auckland

• On Monday, Connor wrote about Kāinga Ora’s role as an urban development agency
• Tuesday’s guest post by Meredith Dale was about the NZ Housing Survey
• On Wednesday, we featured a guest post on ways to protect Te Huia, by Darren Davis
• And Thursday’s post was a guide to having your say on the RLTP (closing Monday!)

Mānawatia a Matariki

Matariki festivities get under way this weekend. Here’s a handy calendar of what’s happening around the city, an overview of the highlights of week one (15-21 June) and week two (16-30 June). The city centre has heaps going on across both weeks, including some new illuminated art works, and the return of the beautiful Tūranga waharao (gate) on Queen Street. Emerge and enjoy!

Government signals plans to speed away from the evidence

You better believe we’ll be covering this in more detail, but just noting it for the record: yesterday the coalition government signalled its intention to forcibly raise speed limits to a uniform 50km/h in cities and neighbourhoods (except for very limited times for small areas immediately outside schools, and no lower than 40km/h on streets where there are already significant numbers of people walking and biking), and 100km/h up to 120km/h on some motorways.

Bizarrely, they also claim travelling at safer speeds “drains the joy” from life, a very weird definition of both joy, and life.

The blanket-speed-increase rule – which seeks to override the ability of local road-controlling authorities to control their roads and set appropriate and evidence-based speed limits – is open for consultation until 11 July, so get amongst and stop de kindermoord.

As Healthy Auckland Together notes in a media release:

In Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, safer speed limits introduced to date have reduced road crash deaths by 30 percent, at a time when the rest of the roads in Tāmaki Makaurau have seen a nine percent increase in deaths.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is getting on with it

Worth revisiting this story from last year, on why we need a plan for children, not for motorists:

Drivers are not “under attack” – quite the reverse. For decades, our towns and cities have been designed around the car above all other forms of transport. The results of this have not been great for anyone – choked streets, disconnected communities, failing high streets, obesity and ill health. Most of all, children have (unwillingly, unknowingly) sacrificed their freedom – and in some cases, their lives.

In Europe, cities that are successfully moderating driving speeds find that – surprise surprise – it also generates a better pace of life for everyone: children spend twice as much time playing outdoors, traffic injuries fall, the number of people on bikes rises, and you can hear yourself think.

In Wales, a leading vehicle insurer notes that car damage claims have fallen 20% since nationwide 20mph speed limits were introduced last September. Won’t somebody think of the panel-beaters!

In Ireland, local elections have confirmed strong support for progressive streets policies, reports IrishCycle: “Supporters of pedestrianisation, cycle routes, and bus priority measures have won seats in most areas where the issues became local election battlegrounds in Dublin.”

In London, the first low-traffic neighbourhood in London takes stock of its successes, ten years on:

“I laugh when I think back to when I drove from Highams Park to the shops in Walthamstow,” said Maureen Barry. “It’s less than a 25-minute walk. I’d never even consider it now.”

…

Steve went on to perhaps sum up the general opinion on low traffic schemes better than anyone. “There’s two sides of my story,” he added. “As a driver it’s a pain in the arse, but for ordinary people it makes the place better.

Which brings us to Paris: you’ll never guess the ‘one simple trick’ the French capital used to reduce air pollution 40% ahead of the Olympics… Okay, you probably guessed it. Anyway here’s a taste of it:

Public transport is a public good

A good piece by Dr Tim Welch in Newsroom, encouraging feedback on the RLTP and pointing out the immense social value of a well-functioning public transport system:

Public transport isn’t just something people use when they can’t drive or won’t drive; it’s a critical lifeline for a massive part of our population, connecting the far corners of the city and services like schools, grocery stores, doctors’ offices, and work. For many, it is not only a form of transport, but upward economic mobility, for individuals and their families.

Get on the bike bus and/or bike train

A nice read from the Washington Post about the rise of bike buses, known here as bike trains, which help support a critical mass of kids to get to school in a way that’s both safe and fun.

“It’s social, people are happy, and it makes my whole day,” Charlotte Mooney, a teacher at Presidio Knolls School, tells me as her son, Sam, rides alongside her.

How did he like joining the bike bus to go to school? “It’s the best way,” Sam says, pedaling through the last of the music and bubbles.

Two great flavours that taste great together

Would you like some urbanism with your climate advocacy? Or vice versa? Then you might like this solid read (the first of a four-parter) from The Urbanist on “land use policy, how it connects with climate change, and why it needs to be part of the solution.”

With this the hottest June in Aotearoa since written weather records began in 1850, we all need to be part of the solution.

What did the mummy volcano say to the baby volcano?

“I lava you.” Related: here’s a fascinating read – and an intriguing listen – about the lava caves beneath the surface of Tāmaki Makaurau. Turns out there are way more of them than you might have imagined:

…the database is growing: over the past two years, previously unknown lava caves have been discovered at an average rate of one per month – often on construction sites, says Kate Lewis, natural features specialist at Auckland Council.

Eye-catching images from the socials

A load of bollards, via Jessica de Heij on Twitter:

“There’s understandable confusion about appropriate spacing for bollards, with many believing cars can fit through any gaps wider than 1.2m.
As the graphic [from Wheels for Wellbeing] shows, modern cars can’t fit through any gaps smaller than 1.7m without significant damage.”

And from New York, where the Governor of the State pulled a last-minute handbrake turn on congestion pricing for NYC, this striking image from the MTA’s 20-year Needs Assessment. As Shabazz Stuart noted on Twitter, “Last week the governor picked the one on the left.”

From highways to busways

This is super-applicable to our situation. Here’s looking at you, SH16.

And, just in case anyone’s still unclear about “induced demand”…

You build more roads, you get more traffic. Seems obvious, and has been observed to be true for over a century. And yet a  belief persists among many people (and indeed governments) that the trick is just to keep widening the roads. From 2022, this article on how to help people understand the paradox of induced demand is worth a re-read.

For our money, the good folk of Utopia did a perfect job of myth-busting the idea of a “Congestion-Busting Master Plan”.

There are plenty of other great explainers, images, analogies and examples out there. What’s your fave? Also from 2022, here’s one we prepared earlier…

Cartoon of the week

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