Happy Friday, welcome to another round-up of interesting stories about what’s happening in Auckland and other cities. Feel free to add your links in the comments!
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This week in Greater Auckland
- On Monday Connor looked at the government’s decisions that put us speeding towards a lethal legacy.
- On Tuesday Matt covered the news that the Auckland Rail network will be disrupted for almost 150 days in the coming 13 months.
- On Wednesday Matt celebrated the first anniversary of the Western Express and associated changes which are smashing targets.
- On Thursday Patrick looked at how cities change the use of spaces over a day through clever street management and time.
Credit/Debit card fares are here
From Sunday, you can pay for your public transport trips directly using a contactless credit/debit card.
Starting 17 November customers will be able to use contactless credit and debit cards, smartphones, or wearable devices to tag on and off AT’s buses, trains, and most ferries alongside AT HOP cards.
This initiative is designed to offer greater accessibility and opens up public transport to more Aucklanders and visitors. Until now customers were required to purchase and use an AT HOP card for most trips.
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AT would like to remind customers travelling from Sunday that the card readers on buses, trains and most ferries can now read more than just their AT HOP card. To pay the right fare, on the right card or device, here are a few tips:
Separate your card from your wallet or phone; or have your device ready before tagging on and off.
- Be sure to tag on and off with the same card or device throughout your journey to pay the correct fare. So, do not tag on with your smartphone then tag off with your smartwatch or card.
- You will pay standard adult HOP fares when using credit and debit cards, or mobile devices.
- You can still use your AT HOP cards across the public transport network.
- Make sure to keep using your AT HOP card if you are eligible for concessions such as SuperGold, community connect, accessible, student and tertiary discounts or Fareshare, or the $50 seven-day fare cap should continue using their AT HOP cards to get their concessions.
AT also say that Waiheke ferries are excluded
Sunday is also the day changes to isthmus crosstown buses takes effect.
Gowing Dr connection paused
The plans for a very useful connection from Gowing Dr to the Eastern Path has been put on hold due to the government cutting funding for walking and cycling. This was originally meant to be built last year but was delayed and funding diverted to help deal with the recovery from the floods and cyclone.
Meadowbank to Kohimarama Connections project update – Gowing Drive underpass funding and no work over Xmas
We last emailed you earlier this year and this email provides an update on the project status on 92 Gowing Drive, which is where the future Gowing Drive walking and cycling connection is proposed.
The Gowing Drive connection is the final stage of the Meadowbank to Kohimarama Connections project, for which strong community support was received during our last consultation. It is also a priority project for the Ōrākei Local Board.
We have completed the detailed design for the southern (Gowing Drive) connection and have prepared the resource consent package.
Project funding and status
The Government’s 202427 National Land Transport Programme has now been confirmed and regrettably the Gowing Drive project is no longer a priority transport project to be funded.
As a result of this funding situation, consent lodgement and construction of the Gowing Drive connection will now be deferred until post 2027. We are instead focusing on delivering NZ Transport Agency co-funded routes, such as Stage 4 of the Glen Innes to Tamaki (GI2T), during the current 3-year funding period.
When the Meadowbank to Kohimarama project resumes in the future we’ll take the opportunity to look at whether a better link to Selwyn College can be incorporated into the northern connection (John Rhymer), alongside reassessing the southern connection (Gowing Drive). While there is no funding to continue with investigation and design in the immediate future, this work is planned to resume in 2027.
We will also re-tenant the current empty Gowing Drive property. We’ll keep the community updated once the project restarts.
Improving road safety along Gowing Drive
Lastly, we had planned to consult on new road safety proposals that would support the expected increase in people walking or riding their bike using the connection, as well as slowing speed around the area. We will not be advancing these proposals for traffic calming in the foreseeable future.
Bikes are life saving
The devastating floods in Valencia a few weeks ago saw cars and much of the transport network become destroyed or disrupted. But in shattered infrastructure, the mighty bicycle is still able to let people travel and help people as Chris Marshall-Bell relays their experience.
Villages I frequently cycle through were converted into a real-life end-of-the-world film set in less than an hour, with destroyed cars, thrown-away furniture and uprooted infrastructure sitting on top of 30cm of thick mud. So much is ruined. The damage caused by the river tsunami – because that’s what it was, a river tsunami – is truly unfathomable, incomprehensibly devastating, and unbearably heartbreaking.
Over the past week, I and tens of thousands of others have been going to the affected zones every day to help with the mammoth clean-up operation. With so many bridges swept away and roads closed to allow the unobstructed passage of emergency and military vehicles, the only way to access these towns and villages has been by walking or by bike.
[…]
Without our bikes, I and many friends would not have been able to deliver vital medicine to people with diabetes. Without our bikes, we would not have been able to buy much-needed food and water supplies and then quickly deliver them to cut-off villages within half-an-hour. And without our bikes, we would not have been able to take our brushes and spades to the more isolated towns and villages that walkers from Valencia city are unable to get to due to the longer distance.
100,000 Chinese students search for dumplings – by a 50km bike ride and blocking a highway
A trend in China of students biking for dumplings at night has grown to 100,000 strong – resulting in blocked highways and authorities restricting bike hire.
The trend started in June when four Zhengzhou university students decided to rideseveral hours to Kaifeng on share bikes in search of the city’s famous oversized soup dumplings, guan tang bao. Posts from their journey gained attention on social media, launching a hashtag “youth is priceless, night ride to Kaifeng has it”.
[…]
But that evening the number of students riding rose to a reported 17,000, and then on Friday increased as much as ten-fold, with estimates of between 100,000 and 200,000 students jamming the road.
Joel MacManus reaches the end* of his bottom to top public transport commute
Joel has ended his trip, making it to Kaitaia* after 42.5 hours and $978.02.
Catch the final day here, or the rest of the writeup:
Day one: Oban to Invercargill
Day two: Invercargill to Dunedin
Day three: Dunedin to Christchurch
Day four: Christchurch to Wellington
Day five: Wellington to Auckland
Day six: Auckland to Paihia
Bikes on Buses
Around the country, bikes on buses have suddenly been banned:
Minister of Transport Simeon Brown has asked the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to “find a fix as soon as possible” after bus operators nationwide instigated a complete ban of bike racks on public transport buses.
The decision, announced on Thursday, has been met with frustration and disappointment from commuters who have described the move as a “total overreach”.
The move came in reaction to an “industry alert” issued last month by the NZTA about the use of bike racks on buses at night.
The document urged public transport bus operators to check their visibility when using bike racks at night as carrying bikes can partially obscure the headlamps. “If the headlamps can’t provide enough illumination to drive safely, the bus won’t comply with the Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Lighting 2004,” the alert stated.
The document suggested a number of solutions including moving low-beam headlamps below the bike rack to prevent bikes obscuring them, fitting brighter headlamps to increase the illumination, or fitting auxiliary headlamps to the bike rack that switch on when the bike rack is deployed.
However, bus companies across New Zealand said they would refuse to carry bikes both day and night, according to statements issued by councils around the country, including Environment Canterbury (ECan).
This is absurd, especially during the day when the lights aren’t being used and it’s good to see the minister calling for it to be fixed.
Meanwhile, it seems Auckland Transport is quietly conducting a closed trial allowing bikes inside NX1 buses
We are trying new and different ideas to make public transport in Auckland more convenient and enable more travel by active modes.
We are doing a closely monitored study to understand some of the practical complexities of having bikes in buses in Auckland.
How the trial will work
- A two-week trial of two different types of bike racks, situated inside two double decker buses servicing the NX1 route.
- Each rack is designed to hold two bikes. This means space for two cyclists to park their bikes on each bus.
- Only pre-selected volunteers will be using the racks during the trial. Because of the level of co-ordination and monitoring needed during the trial, unfortunately it is not open to everyone. Volunteers must be registered with AT, undergo safety briefings and scheduling, and be in constant contact with project managers during the trial.
- The Northern Express has been chosen as it uses double decker buses and provides a high service frequency, therefore using only 2 buses for the trial will have a small impact on the overall level of service.
- An online survey is below, for regular customers on theses buses to have their say. Feedback from operational staff and volunteers involved in the trial will also be gathered.
Funding improvements in the City Centre
There have been a lot of improvements to the city centre over the last few decades and there is often a misconception that it is all funded by general rates from the region. In reality, a large portion has been funded by the City Centre Targeted Rate and the council have just released the latest annual report about how it is used.
Occupying a compact 4.3 square kilometre area, Auckland’s city centre is the largest employment centre in the country and home to a thriving residential population.
It plays an outsized role in the region’s economy and culture, generating around 20% of Auckland’s GDP.
At the core of this success is the Auckland Council city centre targeted rate (CCTR) which plays a vital role in supporting the city centre’s economy. Auckland Council recognises that investing in the city centre is an investment in the region’s future prosperity.
The City Centre Targeted Rate Annual Report 2023 / 2024 highlights key investments in projects and developments that are transforming public spaces, enhancing high-value urban living, supporting its place in providing high-quality education and ensuring the city centre is a competitive business location.
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“The city centre targeted rate investment has vastly improved the quality and attractiveness of the urban environment and residential living, improved stormwater quality, tree cover and biodiversity. Key developments include the shared space programme and laneways, improvements to parks, plazas and the waterfront development.
“We encourage people to read the report to see the huge breadth and depth of projects the rate has supported in the 2023 / 2024 reporting year. We’re proud to say that this investment has made the city centre a better place to be,” Jenny Larking says.
The curse of inventing the modern kitchen
In an interesting piece of architectural news, this article came out about Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky who invented the prototype for the modern kitchen. But its invention followed her through her very interesting life as an architect, activist, and resistance fighter.
“I never ran a household, never cooked, and never had any cooking experience prior to creating the Frankfurt Kitchen.”
Instead she interviewed housewives, conducted time-motion studies and drew inspiration from kitchen galleys on trains. The result was a narrow space where a woman could turn from sink to stove without taking a step, and every utensil and ingredient had a designated space.[…]
Her convictions didn’t weaken with age. When she was offered the Austrian Medal for Science and Art in 1988 – only one of the many honours she belatedly received – she refused it due to the then president’s complicity in Nazi war crimes. And at the age of 98 she sued the rightwing politician Jörg Haider for trivialising the Holocaust. “There was no retreat,” says Zwingl. “It was always, ‘What can I do? How do I do it?’ And then she did it.”
Yet she could never escape the long shadow of the Frankfurt Kitchen. At the age of 101, she testily exclaimed: “If I had known that everyone would keep talking about nothing else, I would never have built that damned kitchen!”
Wholesome encounter at the Waterfront!
Pearl Jam guitarist Eddie Vedder charms superfan Hugh Allan in the Viaduct who had zipped over on the ferry to get a chance of meeting him. Bonus? Seems he had been having a good time riding around the harbour!
“We were initially in some bad light and he grabbed my phone and insisted on moving around to find some better light. He took three photos of us and then I gave him a big hug and then he was on his way”.
Vedder was on a red bike with his security guy in tow. You can see the red bicycle in the background of the photo the singer took.
Later today, Kid’s obstacle course & bicycle drive in Waterview – 3.20pm!
Have a great weekend
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The Parnell rose festival last week was very busy. On a hillside there was music and the first items were presented by the local school. Their teacher played the guitar and they were well received by a crowd of 100 or so. There were no speakers and they set the atmosphere for a lovely day.
After them came the next groups and the MC kept calling for the crowd to “make some noise”. They turned up the volume of the speakers to full and the people dispersed. The sound was far too high for me. I spoke to the man on the controls.
The music could be heard in the nearby suburbs and harmed the reputation of the event.
Last week it was reported that 300 000 people in NZ (including me) have some hearing impairment and doctors have called for the volume to be turned down
No comment about Wayne’s plan to ditch AT next year…?
The article on the modern kitchen reminded me of a great movie – Kitchen Stories from Sweden https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323872/ “In post war Sweden it was discovered that every year, an average housewife walks the equivalent number of miles as the distance between Stockholm and Congo”
Waka Kotahi may be the most conflicted unit in our nation. They continue to prevent non motorised traffic from crossing the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and then intimate that a Hikoi is making the Bridge sway, when metres away massive trucks are honking their horns in support.
They are dedicated to movement, to preventing people jumping off their bridges to their deaths, and no doubt are using this philosophy for the panic alert for bikes on buses at night.
We need to stop moving, stopping rushing about, and relax a little. Take a walk, a gentle bike ride. But Waka Kotahi will continue to actively work against us.
For decades we have been attempting to allow pedestrians over the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and for those same decades, only one entity has stopped us.
Walking with the Hikoi was amazing, the first time I have crossed that bridge on foot, after crossing it on bike when the last official bike event happened.
It is a steel maunga, a fantastic piece of infrastructure in our city, and vastly undervalued.
Our future steel Christmas tree will be another fantastic addition to our city’s infrastructure.
Engineers are wonderful for ensuring things do not fall down, architects make things beautiful. Our city is a strange combination of these two professions, but somewhere within there the essence of Tamaki Makaurau. The most beautiful city in the motu.
Haapi Raamere
Anyone know if iphone Express Transit Card feature will work? So you just have to swipe phone no need for Face ID?
I set it up on my phone a couple of days ago so I guess I’ll find out on Sunday.
I expect so; I just turned mine on. I’m going to continue to use HOP for a concession but I would like to try it. Be interesting how much fun it is if some people have multiple cards including hop in the their physical wallet and hold it up to the reader. Or have a debit card in a phone sleeve
Don’t have too many cards or devices in one wallet (physical or digital) or you may not know which you are paying with, eg. keep ATHop and Debit/credit cards apart.
I don’t have an Android device now but seems they don’t ever need to enter a PIN or biometric data to specifically pay anyway:
– If you haven’t already, add a debit or credit card to Google Wallet.
…wake up your phone.
– Hold it to the card reader.
– Wait until you get a blue check mark.
So it’s good concessions are planned to work eventually with the NTS via contactless:
But that’s not all. We’re also working hard behind the scenes so we’re ready to join the National Ticketing Solution (NTS) in 2026. The NTS is a partnership between the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi and 13 Public Transport Authority partners across the country which will provide a range of easy-to-use payment methods for all public transport in Aotearoa New Zealand. You’ll be able to pay for concession fares using contactless payment devices and the NTS will also introduce a prepaid transit card (similar to your AT HOP card) that you can use to travel on public transport across New Zealand.
https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/aucklands-ticketing-system-transformation
Also pilot in Dec:
The National Ticketing Solution (NTS) Motu Move will pilot its new contactless payment technology on the Route 29 bus from Christchurch Airport to the city from December 2024.
“The end of NZ’s public transport system is a KFC”
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was prophecy… and the restaurant at the end of the Galaxy is a KFC.
How abjectly mundane.
Time for a pangalactic gargleblaster and some Vogon poetry.
The Vogons all work at Auckland Transport so you will be safe at the end of the galaxy.
Beware of the leopard!
Have the dolphins left already?
Yes.
They took the last train to Clarksville.
Only android dolphins left. IOS not available.
It’s gutting to see the Gowing Dr connection to the GI2TD path get the chop yet again. This should have been built at the same time as the rest of the path, then last year, and now another whole school generation of kids in half of the local school zone miss out on the opportunity of safe active route to school…. and are often driven around a much longer route instead, adding to traffic congestion and limiting their independence.
And this after numerous and strong community support – I can count at least 4 rounds of feedback and submissions arguing for support in various plans, and that’s just me.
While the majority of the blame lies with the governments anti-active modes finding cuts, AT are to blame as well for both the many delays that have now seen it ditched (sorry -“delayed until after 2027”), hiding the delays from the community, and for ridiculous over-spec’ing of the design that leads to it forever being deemed too expensive. The photo above shows the curving path; what it doesn’t show is that every other property in that stretch has one straight driveway down the same gradient to beside the rail line. At this point, if they would only install a concrete culvert under the rail line, I’d happily organise a community working bee to spread some gravel to get to it, and we’d at least have access!
What seems to always be missed is how much this would unlock the area for the short local trips that are best done by bike or foot – its currently like having a motorway missing half of the on ramps.
Sorry, but – getting the culvert/underpass designed and consented has taken a lot of effort. Finding a time (having missed the block closure for track bed renewal) has also been a problem.
Also, a design objective of the cycleway has been to make it accessible for recreational enjoyment by all – which accounts for the switch-back ramp.
Faster progress might have been possible if the opportunity of the Gowing to John Rhymer connection had been identified and added to the scope sooner.
GPS change by the Minister against Auckland has kicked this down the road for no good reason.
I understand that the original agreement was that Waka Kotahi would fund the cycleway and AT the connections to the cycleway. The connection to John Rymer and Gowing Drive were identified as requirements by the community right from the initial consultations. The John Rymer connection happened as Watercare allowed easement close to its asset at the bottom of John Rymer Place. The Gowing Drive connection was always the most complex, TBH I don’t see this connection happening at all, a shame as riding to get to the cycleway scares the bejesus out of me. The closest connection is on Fancourt St and that is just unsafe for bikes, narrow (7m) so only 1 lane when parking on both sides, on a bus route, steep downhill/uphill, 50kmh zone. We walk it when we go as a family.
As Dwayne has said; the need for local connections to both sides of the valley was highlighted in community feedback from the very start of the GI2TD project, so completing the design and finding a time for it in the (many) intervening years shouldn’t have been a problem. Throughout, the community was assured that though it wasn’t built at the same time as the rest of the path, it would happen during the rail shutdown – right up until we were several months into the BOL, and it became obvious that there was no work underway and local community members started asking questions (and even then it took months to get AT to respond and acknowledge that the work wasn’t going to happen, and remove the incorrect information from their website).
For the majority of users, doubling back on yourself on tight switchbacks that triple the length of the connection doesn’t add enjoyment, it adds frustration. It has certainly added huge cost to the design over the most basic functional requirements, and considering that the project keeps getting deferred due to the cost…….
Dwyne – good on you for walking to the path as a family. I have to say, we end up doing what probably most do, which is driving to the Gowing Dr area the 3-4 times a week kids have activities to go to there, which is immensely frustrating when access to the path from Gowing Drive would afford them the ability to get there independently by active means. I find Fancourt too dangerous to be comfortable riding as an experienced adult road rider, and certainly won’t let the kids – who are both teenagers and ride independently elsewhere – do this route.
And AT’s advice that they won’t proceed with any of the sorely needed on-road safety improvements in the area because they are not adding this safe connection to the path is insult to injury…. surely these are needed even more when there is still no way of actually getting off the road?!
Gowing Drive is such an obviously good project with really low cost. It’s staggering that we can’t get things like this over the line
I must have been part of a pre-pilot trial taking bikes on the NX1 – one evening after missing the last ferry back to the shore the driver let me take my bike on the bus from downtown over to Akoranga. That driver was a boss!
That 64 bus route seems very short and almost pointless unless the frequency is very high?
I’m surprised there’s not more positive feedback on the bikes on buses trial. This would be a huge win and unlock a far greater area of the north shore for cycling than a bike bridge (not to mention a bike ferry). I’m personally very excited at the car free opportunities to visit people and places on both sides of the bridge.