Another Friday, hope everyone’s enjoyed their week as we head toward the autumn equinox. Here’s another roundup of stories that caught our eye on the subject of cities and what makes them even better.
This week in Greater Auckland
- On Monday, Connor took a look at how Auckland Transport has failed on Mercury Lane – and the lessons that should be learned.
- On Wednesday, we ran a guest post by Peter Bisley about the potential for walking and cycling to Western Line stations, especially once the CRL opens.
- For Thursday, we reported on the rising pressure on the new Minister of Transport to allow communities to retain safe speeds, with a particular focus on Auckland which has been disproportionately impacted by the new rule.
This post, like all our work, is brought to you by the Greater Auckland crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and fans. If you’d like to support our work, you can join our circle of supporters here, or support us on Substack!
Rising pressure on safe speeds continues to rise
Since yesterday’s post, more headlines about the unwanted impacts of Simeon Brown’s speed rule, which now sits on the shoulders of new minister of transport Chris Bishop. The residents of John St in Ponsonby are appalled at the prospect of their narrow street reverting to 50km/h, which they say is “illogical” and will worsen existing rat-running and casual speeding.
Speeding on Ponsonby’s narrow John St is “an epidemic”, says resident Kruno Ivancic.
“Everyone fangs it up here.”
Ivancic said lifting the speed limit on the villa-lined street from 30kph to 50kph is “illogical”.
“The street is super narrow, it’s being used as a rat run, and they’re going too fast. What’s the implications? It’s bloody dangerous for kids walking to school, for people putting kids in cars.”…
[Resident Dave] Hewitt questions why John St should be faster than Ponsonby Road, which will stay at 40kph. “It feels really arbitrary.”
…
“We’ve had street meetings for years,” said long-time resident Mary Paul.
At one point, years ago, they considered putting up their own 30kph sign, she said.
“After years of advocacy, we were really pleased when they dropped the speed limit.”
And on RNZ Checkpoint last night, Lisa Owen spoke to Rob Wemyss, the principal of Clifton Primary School, a small Nelson school fighting a government-forced speed rise on SH6 outside its front gate:
“Little people’s lives are worth an absolute fortune, and we just can’t afford to see someone be stuck under a truck. It would be an absolute tragedy if someone in an office far away made a decision to change a speed limit from 60 to 80 and put kids at risk. [The route] is incredibly dangerous. Everything comes past our gate.
A lot of [our] kids are walking, a lot of kids are riding – and we’ve just put in a mountain bike track here, so the kids are pretty excited about bringing their bikes to school. We want them to bike to school, we want our kids to be active, and if we suddenly change the road speed [to 80 km/h], that just means it’s that much more dangerous.
…I suspect if the speeds go up, parents are more likely to chuck their kids back on the bus or put them back in cars… which then puts an extra burden on the roading system, which would actually make things worse. So it’s just a no-brainer to keep it as it is.
We had over two hundred people turn up [to a community meeting on this topic two weeks ago], and there wasn’t one person in that room who thought it was a good idea to raise the speeds back to 80.
It’s not just around the school, it’s a couple of km either side that the kids use to get to school.
I’m really hopeful that [the government] will listen… [while] there’s always a little bit of me that says maybe they’re just going through the process of being heard, I’m really hopeful it will stay at 60.”
Killing development on Karangahape Rd
News landed this week that planning commissioners have rejected plans for an 11-storey office building on an empty site just a few hundred metres from the new Karanga-ā-Hape station which will open next year. National’s Urbanist Minister – who is also in charge of reforming the Resource Management Act – has called this “insanity”.
As the Spinoff’s Hayden Donnell says, Nobody is as creative as Auckland Council at saying no.
If the developer was thinking that way, it didn’t bargain on the Picasso-esque creativity of Auckland Council when it comes to stopping construction. Last month commissioners denied resource consent for the new building, citing its “more than minor” effects on the environment.
To arrive at that conclusion, they relied on submissions from council’s planners and the Waitematā local board, both of which raised concerns the development would “dominate” the streetfront. So true. Why would you want new retail or restaurants dominating the streetfront when you could enjoy the urban feng shui of some gravel with a fence in front of it instead?
The Da Vincis of denial weren’t done. They said the new building would compromise the heritage of the local area. When confronted with the reality of the site currently being an empty lot whose immediate neighbours are a carpark and a Mobil station, the council’s urban design expert Chris Butler argued the “real world” context of the development extends down Karangahape Road and through the southern end of Ponsonby Road. Why only that far? Surely the real world setting of this building is all of New Zealand itself, which broke off from the supercontinent Pangaea, which in turn was formed out of the dust flung across the galaxy by the Big Bang, and if you think about it that way, nothing should ever be built anywhere ever.
In a final splash of colour, a submission on behalf of the local board from the allegedly Green-aligned member Alexandra Bonham raised concerns about a lack of carparking in the building, which, again, is situated on a new cycleway a five-minute walk from a new train station.
The developer plans to appeal the decision – let’s hope they are successful.
The longest bike tunnel
How great is this. It’s also a excellent example of getting more out of infrastructure with just a little bit of extra investment. (Albert Park Tunnels, anyone?)
Meanwhile, some research out of the Netherlands highlights that reallocating space to cycling makes minimal if any difference to traffic congestion, but massively increases cycling rates. Conversely, removing cycling from the equation would dramatically increase commute times, congestion, with a negative impact on wellbeing:
This study examines the impact of cycling on urban spatial structure and welfare through the development of a quantitative spatial model that incorporates mode choice and car congestion. We apply this model to the Netherlands, which is known for its extensive cycling infrastructure. Eliminating cycling increases commuting times and distances by 14% and 30%, respectively, exacerbates car congestion, and results in a significant reduction in worker welfare.
We also show that removing dedicated cycleways leads to similar, though less pronounced, changes in the spatial economy. Therefore, promoting cycling can help create more compact cities.
Here in NZ, RNZ Checkpoint spoke to Teau Aiturau, aka Mr Tee, and other community cycling champions in Māngere who are thrilled to see safe cycleways going in after at least a decade of advocacy.
Māngere locals are on a mission to promote cycling in the south Auckland suburb – aiming to make the area the cycling capital of the pacific.
A new cycleway was in the works in the area, which would connect Māngere town centre to the Māngere bridge township and over the Manukau harbour.
The local cycling hub hopes once that is finished it will get even more people using two wheels instead of four.
The Māngere Bikefit Community Hub helps fix up bikes, and then donates or lends them to people who need them, and organises group rides.
Teau Aiturau, or Mr T, runs the hub and has seen cycling grow in Māngere since he first started his charity TTT, or Time to Thrive, in 2014.
“More people are wanting to get on a bike. A lot of kids are riding. Just need to get their parents riding too.”
One of the biggest hurdles in getting people biking was their concerns for safety, Aiturau said.
Tesla vs kids
Mark Rober took a look at how well self-driving cars handle emergency situations. The answer for Tesla, which doesn’t use LIDAR like other vehicles, is cartoonishly bad. Literally. (Related: Tesla has just recalled every single Cybertruck due to bits falling off. Talk about a metaphor.)
New Life for Old Papatoetoe
1News, via Local Democracy Reporting, reports on developments in Old Papatoetoe, whose town centre is located conveniently close to the train station and has been ripe for renewal for decades.
Old Papatoetoe’s makeover is taking shape with new homes, green spaces and a new laneway under development.
Eke Panuku – Auckland Council’s development arm – is carrying out the redevelopment of the South Auckland suburb, which aims to bring new life to the area.
…..
Although locals have told LDR they welcome the changes, it has brought some disruption to the streets too.
Ōtara Papatoetoe local board chairman Apulu Reece Autagavaia spoke about a new road extension being created to Cambridge Tce.
“There’ll be a new road there, directly linking up to the car park where New World is, and a proper road will come. At the moment, it’s just car-park grade, but a proper street will be created to link into Wallace Rd.”
Of the new housing developments, Apulu says Auckland had not grown upwards for a long time.
“It’s grown outwards, urban sprawl. And so, a lot of people are used to living on quarter acre or a bit smaller than that, but [in] single-level residential housing.”
But the council needed to build up as the city was bursting at the seams, he says.
Less honking with NYC congestion pricing
Turns out fewer people are complaining about car honking, with the arrival of New York City’s congestion relief zone.
Christchurch in miniatures
A neat story from Christchurch about an artist who has created highly detailed miniatures of some of the city’s lost buildings.
A line-up of miniature replica buildings from Christchurch’s past has gone on display at the city’s cathedral, featuring well-known haunts meticulously crafted by an artist known as Ghostcat.
The exhibition ‘A Ghost on Every Corner’ was created by scratch build artist Mike Beer, who recreated scale models of 10 buildings using raw materials, rather than commercial kits.
Beer said the buildings were chosen after talking to people in Christchurch about places of significance, some of which were destroyed in the 2011 earthquake.
“It’s called Ghosts on Every Corner. It’s the fact that something can go, but the ghost of that memory can still exist. For instance, I used to love hanging out with friends at Java (a cafe on the corner of High and Lichfield Streets).
“That place is gone now, but the memory is still there like a ghost, so that’s what the project represents,” he said.
Brisbane Metro Bus
Here’s a good video looking at the history and issues with Brisbane’s metro
Relatable personalised plate
Spotted in the wild, and felt in the heart of everyone who’s just trying to get places in Auckland (and who doesn’t have access to the alternatives).
That’s us for the week – feel free as always to add your own links and stories in the comments, we know we don’t always get to everything! And have a great weekend.
Processing...
So if we put those Brisbane buses on Dominion Road with 24×7 buslanes, is that really much worse than LR? Sure it may not have the same capacity (~170 vs ~300), but will we need that capacity any time soon? Or can you get that capacity by doing multiple roads (e.g. Mt Eden Road, Sandringham Road) for way less cost?
It would be an interesting business case – spend a couple of hundred million on bus lanes and double articulated buses, or a minimum of $4 billion on LR. Hard to see how the latter can win unless you look a very long time into the future. And we could get the benefit of buses in a couple of years, LR is realistically decades away.
67m, 420-450pax LRVs was the capacity looked at for light rail here
Dominion Rd moves 2000 people/hr in the peak direction at rush hour, assuming all-double decker buses and the current 3 minute schedule; and at 2 minute headways was crowded and experiencing bunching pre-pandemic. At the same frequency with biarticulated buses that’d go up to 3000-3400. Light rail would be lower frequency – every 4-6 minutes, but would be moving 4200-6300 people per hr. Don’t forget that the advantage of light rail isn’t just capacity, but moving the same or greater capacity a buses at lower frequencies and less intensive operation.
You do make a point about multiple routes though, I believe the Mt Eden Rd buses were experiencing greater crowding than the Dominion Rd buses pre-pandemic?
if KiwiRail are dead-set on having the Avondale-Southdown link built, I wonder how much impact citybound services from Mt Roskill and Wesley to the city would have relieving the bus services on Dominion/Sandringham/Mt Eden. Especially with ALR cancelled, should there be a second look at building the western half of the ASL as a passenger branch?
Or even using the whole line as a crosstown route and then into the city. Not least providing improved resilience in the system – and incidentally creating more of a “network” for the city. I’m sick of hearing committed car drivers complain that “PT doesn’t go where I want to go” and given that getting to the city from almost anywhere is a breeze these days, the priority IMO has to be thinking about how we can improve crosstown connections.
I’m iffy on the current ASL alignment and the proposed 4tph Henderson-Glen Innes service pattern; as it doesn’t offer any interchange opportunities with the Southern Line or Onehunga Line, and only complexities the transit situation in Onehunga – 3 separate transit hubs; the ASL station near Onehunga mall/Grey St intersection, the bus interchange on the Municipal Pl loop, and the Onehunga Line station on Princes St/onehunga Mall; each a ~5 minutes walk away from each other. Would make transferring from a crosstown train to an airport-bound bus indirect and inconvenient.
A 2008 plan proposed splitting the passenger line from the freight line past Hillsborough, with the freight track on the winding inland route to Southdown and the passenger tracks on a steeper grade beside SH20 to join with the current Onehunga branch, which I think would be better interconnectedness. Being able to fit a Hillsborough Rd station too would relieve some demand on the Mt Eden Rd buses, and theoretically at their design speed a Hillsborough-Mt Albert-CRL train would be a few minutes quicker than the direct off-peak bus.
Not to mention the benefit of triple-tracking the whole route to separate freight from passenger and allow higher passenger train frequencies on the ASL than the 4-6tph on shared passenger/freight double track.
Fascinating how only a few years ago, anyone (myself included) who suggested that anything that resembled light rail on tyres was pilloried in these columns (viz the Zhengzhou driverless “tram”). That was back in the days when many people seriously thought we would be getting light rail, and to suggest anything else was akin to treachery.
Yes, light rail would have been great (and maybe still will be one day) but the benefits of a system that can more-or-less use existing infrastructure are not insignificant. Perfect for Dominion Road, and even on the busways. And nothing rules out later conversation of these routes to LR in future, redeploying the vehicles onto other worthy routes.
A week or so ago I had 24 hours in Brisbane and watched these vehicles cross the Brisbane River from a distance. Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to ride one, or even get up close. Pity.
I don’t think criticism of buses should count as “pillorying”. Tyre particulate air pollution, higher frequencies + more pressure on infrastructure and intersections to run the needed capacity, space to turnaround and layover – these weren’t and still aren’t unjustified criticisms, even in the face of biarticulated buses/BRT-lite’s faster rollout and lower CAPEX.
The trick to fix the turn around issue is to not turn around. Run them from Roskill to Silverdale.
As for tyre particulate, I’m sure we could find a much better way to save the environment for $4 billion.
As for the extra buses vs trains, sure that’s an argument for one corridor, but if they spent $4 billion on larger capacity buses around the city I’m sure we’d end up with more capacity for same number of buses than spending $4 billion on one line.
the last point – that is undermined if a single corridor alone – e.g. Dominion Rd – does need the extra capacity. Not convinced that many people from Wesley or Three Kings dogleg to Dominion Rd to catch the 25B/25L
reply meant for JimboJones
Isn’t the issue with adding additional busses the fact that the CBD cannot handle more?
In other words, you can increase the number of busses through Dominion Road, however you run into issues when you try to find space for them in the CBD.
I believe there is the suggestion of using Queen St as the BRT trunk for Dominion Rd services – basically running the LRT route without laying tracks. That would still get 20 buses per hour off Symonds St and Wellesley St.
But you still would have to run buses 3-4 times the frequency of light rail for the same capacity; would intersections handle a bus every minute in each direction?
Nah, because the lights all run on two-minute cycles, and there are a lot of lights, which makes the buses bunch up at the reds, and go again together at the greens.
So instead on a bus every minute, you end up with two buses ever two minutes. Or sometimes three buses, and occasionally four when things get interesting.
The stops would need to be able to handle two or three at a time, that’s maybe ok with double deckers but if you did those double bendy things you’re talking about very long stops to take two.
“Isn’t the issue with adding additional busses the fact that the CBD cannot handle more?”
Bit late to the party on this one, been busy and didn’t want to distract from the newer posts but… yes, this is a big issue.
LRT can just reverse back the other way, buses have to turn around. To be clear, I would prefer light rail on Dominion vrs some sort of busway as it helps drive ridership even more due to it’s better “train” ride quality amongst other things. It would be cheaper to run as well having less driver wage costs.
You could to the probably cheaper setup to run articulated nicer bigger buses with station tagging, 24/7 bus lanes through the Isthmus end but at the city the only way I could see it working is run them through Queen St and Albert St to the Northern Busway.
Issue is the length of the trip would be so long it may defeat the purpose as you would have to have a timing stop in the city. You could even change drivers here if need be (have a driver facility nearby is there one already?). You could just run 5 min headways all day and night (through the core) apart from peak run some more “short runners”. This maybe how long you would take to transfer in the city anyway if things were kept separate still.
Start with Dominion Rd, but the four isthmus routes could be configured similarly to match demand and with the Northern Busway end. eg NX2 instead of terminated in some expensive Grafton Gully terminus could simply carry on from Wellesley St, Symonds St/Grafton Rd, Newmarket, Manukau Rd to Onehunga as per the current 30 route.
Didn’t think I’d see Mr Tee mentioned on GA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufXXamyz16Y
I play this while reading that part
Teau is a great fella, happy to see TTT still going so well. Keep the wheels spinning
It turns out not all crashes are bad.
Yee, had watched that, what a missed opportunity.
After watching Train”129″ passing through Newmarket why don’t the use the new spur extension from the Up line [West] to Down main [South] after seeing this happen ;-