On a very wet Friday, we hope you have somewhere nice and warm and dry to sit and catch up on our roundup of some of this week’s top stories in transport and urbanism.
The header image shows Northcote Intermediate Students strolling across the Te Ara Awataha Greenway Bridge in Northcote, courtesy of Auckland Council via Our Auckland.
This week in Greater Auckland
- On Monday we highlighted the fundraiser in support of advocates fighting the speed limit changes in court
- On Tuesday we had a little April Fool’s fun with government transport policy
- For Wednesday, we ran a guest post from Nicolas Reid asking if we should demolish Spaghetti Junction.
This weekly roundup, like all of 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 subscribe on Substack!
You couldn’t make it up
Sharing this in the light of the pending judicial review of the speed limit changes – which makes the point that it is “unreasonable and perverse” for the government “to require permanent speed limit reductions to be reversed in circumstances where… its purpose or one of its purposes was to protect school children” (emphasis added).
(Edited to add: if you’re curious about the “pedestrian safety upgrade” spurred after a child was struck by a car, that story is here.)
This is the front cover of today's East Auckland Times edition.I wish I was making this up#nzpol #transport #tamakimakaurau #auckland
Explaining better cities
Here’s a really good quick and clear explanation of how to build better cities and the benefits of doing it.
And on the local scene, Auckland Council highlights the changes to Northcote over the last decade as “a shining example of smart growth”:
Inside a decade, Northcote has become a residential community that exemplifies smart growth, in line with Auckland Council’s long-term vision for Tāmaki Makaurau.
The ongoing renewal of Northcote is enabled by the Auckland Unitary Plan, boosting housing capacity and delivering more choices including apartments and townhouses near public transport hubs and town centres.
This proximity is giving Aucklanders easier access to jobs, parks and schools, and Northcote is becoming a model of the vision in the Plan.
A network of rebuilt streets now flourishes with landscaped terrace housing and apartment buildings, a partly daylighted Awataha Stream sees the sun, and tuna (eel) and kaka have returned – indicators of the stream’s growing good health.
Locals stroll along walkways lined with foliage, children play on new playgrounds, mana whenua expression is woven throughout, a market garden has been re-born and local schools are thriving.
The story includes this comment from the principal of Northcote Intermediate, outlining the holistic benefits of regeneration:
Our beautiful new school building has come about because of roll growth,” Mr Muir says.
The growth of the school roll reflects not only the school’s strong leadership but also the broader impact of the community’s renewal, with more families having the opportunity to live closer to the school, thanks to new housing choices.
“The change in the health of our children is like chalk and cheese. They used to live in dusty old wooden houses. Their new housing is sustainable, warm and dry now and the children are sick less often. Attendance is now over 90%.
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He speaks also about the reduction in crime recorded in the area, a by-product of the new compact, quality housing and restored natural environment. The change has enabled the school to remove the bars from school windows.
Travel corner: those trees!!!
Our friend and occasional contributor, Tim Adriaansen has released another video from his trail as he rides from Alaska to Argentina.
Road Safety Leadersh…..
During a meeting of Auckland Council’s Transport, Infrastructure and Resilience committee yesterday Mayor Wayne Brown provided his feedback remotely on the Time of Use Charging item …. while he was driving.
Commuting challenges and aspirations
Stuff reported last week that Waiheke commuters are encountering cancellations, with the added difficulty of switching between the two operators – which run outside of the public transport network:
Another passenger posted on social media that on top of the $400 she paid for an AT Hop monthly pass with ferry operator Fullers360, she had paid extra to travel on the next ferry to the city at 6.45am which is run by a different operator – Island Direct.
The monthly pass can only be used with one ferry company, not both, according to the AT website.
…
Auckland Transport’s Stacey Van Der Putten said the transport agency is concerned about the overall performance of Fullers360’s ferry services, “especially in light of the recent cancellations and delays to the Gulf Harbour ferry service”.
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Asked whether AT is looking at making the monthly Waiheke ferry pass usable with both operators, Van Der Putten said that is “something AT would support and encourage, as it would also give Waiheke Island residents a greater choice”.
The NZ Herald reported sceptically on the prospect of time-of-use charging, interviewing a mother of two (who also appears to be the newspaper’s Personal Finance Editor) about the cost of her peak hour commute:
Mother of two, Tamsyn Parker, spends 90 minutes driving to work from Kumeū to the CBD on weekdays and an hour heading home.
Most weeks, she spends about 12-and-a-half hours stuck behind the wheel.
Parker said the AA’s 31-minute figure doesn’t square with the hour-long crawl it takes her from Westgate to the CBD, leaving her stressed and exhausted.
She was also unsure about charging motorists on sections of the city’s choked roads.
“If charges reduced the traffic and made it faster to get to work, I would pay a congestion charge.”
But she said a congestion charge would penalise people twice – not being able to afford a house closer to the city and paying more to get to work.
She was willing to pay $10 daily in congestion charges but would expect her 90-minute morning drive to take less than one hour.
Time is money, and also money is money: this commute looks to be over 50km each day, which IRD puts at about $300 a week in petrol and vehicle expenses.
Meanwhile in Canterbury, local leadership is resisting, inasmuch as it can, the government’s push to raise public transport fares. Note how “aspirational” seems to apply to dollars but not to the quality and frequency of the services.
Canterbury’s regional council continues to push back against Government pressure to raise bus fares.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) voted for a gradual increase in bus fares over the next three years, despite Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) pushing for sharper fare rises.<
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The council’s public transport services general manager, Stewart Gibbon, said NZTA wanted the council to be ‘‘more aspirational’’ but the agency’s proposal was not ‘‘achievable’’.
Frills that thrill
Former Transport Minister Simeon Brown often talked about taking a “no-frills” approach to building infrastructure, and even included that stipulation in his Government Policy Statement, with the de-frilling extending even to the most affordable and democratic infrastructure:
Investment in walking and cycling is expected to make a contribution to economic growth and productivity. To achieve this, project specifications should take a “no frills” approach and funding should be directed to reducing congestion and/or improving pedestrian safety.
So it’s notable that the new SH1/SH29 roundabout includes one big beautiful frill – or feather, as the case may be. As the Waikato Times reports:
It’s pointing the way to Taupiri, it’s 12 metres high, it weighs 12.5 tonnes and you simply can’t miss it.
The stunning new sculpture at the intersection of State Highway 1 and 29 in Piarere has been turning heads since its installation last month – but there is more to this mighty avian’s story than you might expect.
Designed by world-renowned Waikato artist Fred Graham, Te Manu Rangimaarie (Bird of Peace) celebrates a powerful story of heritage, unity, and peace and reflects the deep connection between ngaa hapuu o Waikato (the sub-tribes of Waikato), the land, and the many waterways that run through the region.
Made of weathered steel, Te Manu Rangimaarie was built by Frankton-based metal fabrication firm Longveld, which worked with mana whenua on several of the large sculptures on the Waikato Expressway, including the Cambridge section and on Hamilton’s Resolution Interchange.
The total cost of the sculpture was $609,000 – which includes design, build and installation. That figure represents around 1.4% of the total $57 million cost of the roundabout project.
Bridging the gaps for wildlife
Related, in a way: an intriguing piece from the NY Times (gift link) about wildlife crossings, aka green bridges in Colorado, which are re-connecting desire paths for creatures, reducing harm to nature and people alike. Road safety and environmental uplift in one go, what’s not to like?
Entire herds of mule deer and elk use the structures, as well as bears, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and foxes.
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Wildlife crossings, when combined with long stretches of fencing to funnel animals to the right location, have been found to reduce vehicle collisions with large animals by more than 80 percent.They are expensive, but research has shown they can save money when installed on stretches of highway with at least an average of three collisions between motorists and deer per mile per year. For collisions with elk and moose, which are bigger and therefore cause more damage to vehicles and people, that threshold goes down to less than one collision per mile per year.
Of course, this stuff should be funded from highway budgets, as it’s about remedying the messy and dangerous side-effects of motorway building. Maybe our next Government Policy Statement could include this wisdom – and after all, homo sapiens need green bridges too.
New Zealand leading the way… to the bottom of the chart
As electric vehicle sales continue to grow worldwide, New Zealand gets a special mention from EV Universe, which tracks sales in 58 countries:
New Zealand: 6,364 EVs sold in 2024, -69.8% YoY growth, 5.00% EV market share.
Winner, in the steepest EV decrease category this year, is New Zealand. We already saw the sharp drop right at the beginning of the year, after growing 29.8% in 2024. The EV market share difference is wild: 14.50% (2023) → 5.00% (2024).
This kind of drop can usually only be due to one thing — (dis)incentives. The government scrapped the Clean Car Discount policy, and introduced the Road User Charges scheme for EVs in the turn of the year, where EV owners pay nearly twice as much in road tax over a non-plug-in hybrid and 23% more than a gas car.
Here’s a look from our friend James that runs the evdb.nz database:
When the car industry whitewashes its greenwashing
As reported by The Guardian, it seems if the car industry can agree on one thing, it’s that people don’t need to know if its products are green or not:
Ten leading car manufacturers – plus two automotive trade bodies – have been fined more than £77m by a UK regulator after admitting breaking competition law in relation to advertising their green credentials.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation after a tipoff from Mercedes-Benz, which allowed the German marque to avoid financial penalties despite also being involved in the cartel.
Its rivals – BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot Citroën, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Vauxhall and Volkswagen – “illegally agreed” not to compete when advertising what percentage of their cars can be recycled at the end of the car’s life, the CMA found.…
The CMA added that most manufacturers took part in this practice from May 2002 to September 2017, with Jaguar Land Rover joining in September 2008.
The agreement was set out in a document called the “ELV Charta” – sometimes referred to as a “gentleman’s agreement” – and sought to “avoid a competitive race” among the manufacturers in relation to advertising claims of this kind.
How to focus attention on urgent solutions?
Over on LinkedIn, a striking example of how (and how not) to spark discussion around decarbonising our daily lives, including transport. As shared by Prageeth Jayathissa, GM Sustainability at Vector, a post about climate action plans gets crickets, while a post about working from the train sparks joy. A useful example for communicators in our field! We totally tautoko Tim’s response, too.
Ask smarter questions, get smarter answers
Also on the Linked-place, a fascinating example of how (and whether) AI understands road safety and how to make it better – and what the real “radical” position is. Two big takeaways: never accept the first answer; and it’s important to stay one question ahead of every answer. We are the teacher and the machine is the pupil.
CRL insights from Electric Bike Team
The good folks at EBT on East St were invited to a tour of the CRL Karanga-ā-hape Station, which happens to be right on their doorstep. Along with some great photos, they share a few thoughts on the (missed) potential for epic trip-chaining in the European fashion:
There are of course lifts running from street level to the platform, so taking your e-bikes to the train will be straightforward enough. As the services become more popular, it’ll be harder to take a bike on the train during peak times.
Unfortunately there was no real investment in bike parking as part of the new train station builds, in comparison for example to the Sydney Metro new station bike parking facilities. Therefore, riding to Karanga-a-Hape station and leaving your bike at the station while travelling elsewhere is a high risk activity for your e-bike!
When it’s running, you’ll be able to take a train with your bike from Hamilton right to our door step and everywhere in between. If only there was a way to continue that trip North as well…
A fresh bite of the Big Apple
A new version of the iconic NYC subway map has people talking. (If you’re on Bluesky, there’s a good thread here by the MTA). As the NY Times reports (gift link):
Two of the biggest alterations address the legibility of transfer points at some of the busiest hubs and the depiction of the system’s accessibility features, said Shanifah Rieara, the authority’s chief customer officer.
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As a centerpiece of the M.T.A.’s recent face-lift, the new map is likely to invoke a range of responses from riders and armchair cartographers alike.
Karen Hedju, 57, a resident of Morningside Heights in Manhattan, was one of the first to lay eyes on the latest design.
“Meh,” Ms. Hedju said, as she squinted at the design on a color printout. “It looks cluttered,” she added.
Terence Richardson, 56, a home health care supervisor, was more enthusiastic, praising the more detailed legend in the top-right corner.
Others noted the design’s similarities to London’s transit map.
And, belatedly but in honour of Women’s History Month, a re-up of this classic (you can see the original here).
#WomensHistoryMonth: The City of Women Map is a fascinating visualization of women’s history and urban transportation. Created by Molly Roy, Rebecca Solnit, and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, the map renames subway stops after notable women with links to that area, offering an entirely new way to view #NYC.
— New York Transit Museum (@nytransitmuseum.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T16:00:14.098Z
That’s us for the week. As always, feel free to share any links and stories in the comments. And have a great weekend!
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“Unfortunately there was no real investment in bike parking as part of the new train station builds, in comparison for example to the Sydney Metro new station bike parking facilities.”
I submitted WAAAAY back during the consent process for the CRL on the fact that the stations seemed to pay no attention to bike parking. Not even some lousy bike racks at the time.
I did this as part of my submission on the CRL for the Transport Group (Auckland) of IPENZ (now Engineering NZ) – a submission which I had written for and with agreement of the Auckland Committee of the TG. And which of course was massively supportive overall.
We had a meeting on the submission with the applicant’s transport team. Instead of constructively engaging on the bike parking, the lead transport engineer on the other side – a director of an (at least in the industry) well-known transport consultancy – lambasted me as to how I felt I had the authority to make such submissions representing IPENZ.
This was many years ago now, but I still remember it as so unnecessarily aggressive and missing the point. No wonder no real bike parking was part of the picture – there was a massive “this is all scope creep, go away” attitude.
To be fair, some would have blamed the cost increase on that.
Also to be fair the way the city is these days if you put a lousy bike rack in your bike wouldn’t last 5 mins left alone.
They could ask all the private developers if they could have all the unused bike rings the Council has required them to put in. Most would be glad to be rid of the ugly things.
Thanks for helping make the point. Lets do a crap job – add some bike hoops and call it “cycle infrastructure” – and then point at the minimal disjointed efforts you have made and say “Look, nobody wants this”.
For what it’s worth, neither the blog above or I were hoping for a few bike hoops alone, but for something much more substantial. Separated bikeways. Proper bike parking stations with security. etc.
Can you call that “scope creep”? Sure, it won’t come for free. But acting as if train stations don’t need to integrate with the city – except by affecting car parking as little as possible, and slapping some Park & Rides nearby – well, that won’t work.
Remember the bike parking discussion very well.
CRL, why are you not planning for secure, undercover bike parking as part of the station design?
CRL: We are just delivering AT’s requirements
AT, why are you not requiring CRL to include secure, undercover bike parking in the station design? (have you heard of e-bikes?)
AT: no one will want to leave a bike at the new stations to continue a journey as they are not terminating stations. Riders can take their bikes on the train!
Upshot – CRL is only required to deliver a bunch of basic stands across 3 stations.
Such an Auckland story of shortsighted planning.
Thanks for the background Pippa. So, if AT are saying we should just take our bikes on the train, do you, or anyone else reading this, know if the lifts at the CRL stations are going to be bigger than the ones at Henderson? ‘Cos if they’re not, getting bikes down to platform level will be extremely difficult…
And of course if we are to take bikes on trains those ones at Henderson will need to be updated to cope.
I dont know about the lift size (presume the same size as Waitematā/ Britomart station which takes a bike)
But I doubt anyone now at AT, CR or Kiwirail wants to see commuters taking bikes on the train. The secure parking option is still needed at the stations.
I think Pippa is right here bikes take up far too much space on the train. Anyway I think with all the E bike and E scooter fires maybe we should re-evaluate whether or not we want to take the risk in the deep CRL tunnels. We should probably make a very secure parking and charge people like we do parking in the city at some point we have got to stop putting costs on to the ratepayer.
Also adding to the discussion Max started. It was around the same time that Bike Auckland’s Barb Cuthbert proposed using the void under Te Komititanga created by the tunnels and the development of Commericial Bay as a secure bike storage garage (that could perhaps have been a paid facility). Of course the computer said no!
The rate of E bike fires is 1 in 15000 – compare that to the rate of fires in hybrid cars (1 in 28), petrol cars (1 in 67), and BEVs (1 in 4,000). Yes, battery fires are more spectacular and harder to put out, but the statistics don’t lie, they happen rarely. Per 2019, the rate of lithium battery fires in the US was one every two days – out of 360 million devices or vehicles with lithium-ion batteries. That’s a 0.00005% chance.
If you ask me E-bike and E-scooter battery fires are dramatically overstated perhaps as part of the pro-car, pro-fossil fuel establishment’s agenda against environmentally friendly city-friendly transit.
E bike/Scooters/Hoverboard fires are far more common than their car counterparts due to cheaply made batteries untested from China (bikes probably aren’t as bad as the scooters and hoverboards) . On a busy train with nowhere to move this could be a serious safety issue given how fast and ferocious battery fires are. I don’t think they are dramatically overstated at all due to the relative risk of where the application is used. For example a scooter charging in a multi storey hi rise building and exploding could do a lot of damage to many people/property. Most ICE car fires tend to happen on the road in the open air and are easier to put out. I don’t think something that causes a huge fire like a big battery should be allowed in a confined space like a train especially in the deep CRL tunnels.
Fassifern i just cited statistics that say they are less likely to catch fire than EV cars, and I believe that does take into account the fires caused by inept charging.
Please back up your claim with proper evidence to directly refute my points and the statistics I have cited.
Yeah but how many of the EV fires come from Crashing etc stats are great and all but it ignores the problem of battery fires in a confined crowded space like an underground train. I utterly reject/refute the premise of your evidence and believe you’re trying to play down the danger of battery fires.https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/e-scooter-explosion-victim-critical-days-after-unstoppable-battery-fire/6SH4RDFQBFDBPP5YSZR6NIST5A/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIf%2520the%2520batteries%2520are%2520abused,a%2520journalist%2520for%252010%2520years.
Then by your logic we also shouldn’t allow phones on trains. Hell, ban them from pockets entirely; that’s a confined space isn’t it?
You’ve fallen for the media’s fixation – likely driven by pro-fossil fuel bias – on reporting on every battery fire and framing it as this “awful, common problem that’s happening everywhere”. Very unfortunate. You act like a single occurrence in a single NZH article outweighs actual evidence gathered from around the world. The Netherlands has over 5 million e bikes in use, and on average 20 or so e-bike fires per year. 58% of the 161 e-bike fires in London in 2022 had evidence of ‘post market conversion’. And deaths from e-bike fires in New York declined from 2023 to 2024. Doesn’t sound like this impending doom, now, does it?
if you were to argue the case for not taking bikes and scooters on trains for reasons of space on board, as was your initial opening argument, that would be sensible. If you were to discuss the issue of cheap, poorly made e-bikes, careless charging practices or DIY attempts at fixing, that would be sensible too. What you are doing is subversive, “I’m only asking questions!” fearmongering without seeking a solution that isn’t us all going “Yes, you’re right oh wise one!”
And then think about the number of phones and laptops and tablets on planes!
There is a lack of shops with the underground stations – 7-eleven, quick service food & beverage, magazine/book store, hairdresser, pharmacy, ATM’s, etc. I’m not even sure if there will be a ticket/station office at each of the stations.
There is also a lack of development above all stations. There should be hi-rise apartments, offices, hotels and shops.
Many of the above could manage secure bike parking.
In future I’d likely be popular enough to be a standalone thing.
There is also a lack of entrances.
Space should have at least been reserved underground, rather than being backfilled or wasted with poor layout.
I have never understood why we such squat structures above our new stations? What do those upper levels hold? Why were the air rights above the station not sold, and had (say) 15 storey developments rise up?
Yes, recently had my bike stolen that had just had some fix up’s done to it. I now are a bit more cautious where I lock up and search out a Locky Dock https://www.lockydock.co.nz/ but there is a real lack in the City Centre, seems only on the fringes. Out of interest now sure how those are funded as they are free to use. I think businesses, councils etc help pay for them.
They are great to use in that your AT Hop card can be used to lock and unlock them or you use the app.
Believe their advertising boards also help with the funding of them. Agree they are a great secure system, need more across the city and bigger set up in some locations.
That roundabout sculpture coming in at 1.4% of the total construction cost is pretty sizeable. I know it is hard to quantify the benefits of things like this but given just about every public service is seeing funding cuts it isn’t a great look.
Removing the clean car discount was a complete own goal for the National party. They were pinning all their hopes on EVs, and then they let that absolute muppet take away the clean car discount.
They will need to make much tougher decisions to meet their climate targets now. And if they don’t meet them and we lose out on trade, it could spell the permanent end of their party. Utter morons, all so farmers get cheaper utes.
I think NACT will soon move to a “who cares?”, “but China/US/..”, “can’t afford during economic downturn”, “make NZ great again” or a combination of these official policy approach. 100% green NZ will then represent the colour of rivers close to new mines.
Even idiot Luxon knows that pulling out of our agreements that are linked to our FTAs will be 1000% worse for our farmers. He’s happy kicking the can down the road and commiting as little as possible to meet our agreed targets for as long as possible till he’s long gone
Do I remember a promise to put EV charging stations ‘everywhere’ as the real incentive in place of the RUC break for EVs? Now there’s a good excuse for not spending on that because nobody’s buying EVs.
JimboJones got fix that last part “Utter morons all so petrol huffing suburbanites get cheaper utes”
On the issue of the CRL and bikes, this quote pricked up my ears:
“There are of course lifts running from street level to the platform, so taking your e-bikes to the train will be straightforward enough”.
After recently taking my bike to Henderson to bike along the wonderful Opanuku Stream path, I discovered that my bike din’t fit in the lifts at the station without standing it on it’s end. This was particularly difficult, especially as I had a rear bike seat for my child.
My point is, I just hope the lifts for the CRL stations are larger than those at Henderson!
Yeah I don’t know why they think this. Even without the difficulty of taking bicycles on lifts, it just isn’t possible to fit a meaningful number of bicycles on a train. Most people who ride a bicycle to a train station are going to park it there.
Which means you can’t use an e-bike as it wouldn’t survive a week without being stolen
On the frills couldn’t they just plant a no-frills, frilly tree or something if trying to keep costs down? Probably cost what a few hundred bucks. i mean the sculpture looks cool and no doubt great for those businesses..
Or something could have been trimmed in relation to the other 98.6% of costs that made up the work.
This is why in NZ we can’t have nice things. Unless its a road.
*tin foil hat on* it’s the establishment’s agenda, destroy the rest of the environment but at least the roads and the back gardens of the wealthy’s McMansions will look green and pretty!
Not being a facetious at all, but would the scultures be a quid pro quo for minimal resistance/agreement by the mana whenua during the resource consent process?
I get it, as having a representation of the local iwi is important, and denying this would be very poor optics. Basically, what is the smaller slice of political capital you will lose by retaining it in the project.
That is, would you rather have a bunch of WASPs moaning about the extra cost of this, or an ongoing protest by iwi that will stoke criticism that you and your party/organisation are racist?
Not only did the mayor dial in to the call while driving, but he’s clearly holding the phone in his hand, aka breaking the law, aka endangering all other road users. Someone should report him to the police
Video record should be good enough for a conviction?
Although Brown’s age is itself not a cause for concern, if someone who is elderly is consistently driving something dangerously (whether it’s a car or a local government) perhaps it would be wiser for them to let someone else do it for them.
Reporters – the mayor has volunteered himself for some pointy questions from you.
should we allow the use of phones on congested motorways
whens it ok to break the law – a perenial
how can Aucklanders take any transport safety decisions you make seriously ?
why dont you have a hands free kit in your car.
Do you have burner phone ?
Northcote Timeline
Old state housing “Tonar Street – just don’t go there”
Helen Clark – start to redevelop with high quality social housing
John Key – stop doing anything in Northcote
Jacinda Ardern – Let’s really get going in Northcote
Chris Luxon – what can we sell instead of investing?
Fortunately, a heck of a lot got done, somewhere in there.
Working around the corner, until a couple of years ago, saw all those transformations
Some of my family lived on Tonar Street and at one point I looked at a place there pre-redevelopment, hint I didn’t end up living in that house. So can confirm that first part of timeline. I’m loving it for Tonar and Northcote sadly because of the more spread out of KO housing won’t expect an unlock TotraVale or Glenfield anytime soon
Yes, great just some of the outcomes you see/experience with this sort of thing when you look at the comments from the Northcote Intermediate principal.
Yet another case for grade separation, but also not to drive through barrier arms:
One dead after train and vehicle collide in Penrose, Auckland.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/collision-between-train-and-vehicle-in-penrose/VLILFLVYZBE2XLER6GESC6KBOU/
Thoughts with the friends and family of the victim and the train driver.
lol that video of Wayne was hilarious and worrying at the same time, I see Wayne is advocating for the reversal of the cellphone policy. What’s next seatbelts? Helmets?
Radio Silence from mainstream media.
Wayne apologising for criticising Lamborghini owners made the cut.
Nothing about a teleconferenced traffic violation
re Waiheke ferries. I actually wonder if AT should move out of having anything to do with subsidising any of the ferries except the profitable ones (which wouldn’t be subsiding but maybe for capital expenditure), like, I presume Devonport. Just let the businesses run the other, setting the appropriate price, but align timetables with buses and help with port side infrastructure. Put the funds into more general PT, buses and such. I enjoy a ferry ride but it is kind of luxury mode of travel.
A cycling suggestion – if they are unwilling to provide bike storage/parking at stations or let people take them on trains and buses, AT should really be starting up its own ebike and escooter sharing service integrated with the public transport fare system.