It’s Friday once again, here’s some things that caught our attention this week.
This week on Greater Auckland
- On Tuesday we had a guest post from Stu Donovan asking what we might do to strengthen our urban core.
- On Wednesday a guest post from Christina Robertson asked why AT has commenced rolling out mass speed limit raises in Road Safety Week, when other cities have found a way around them.
- For Thursday, Connor took a look behind the curtain of AT’s Project K switcheroo.
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!
Calling on the Minister for moderation on Auckland’s mass speed limit raises
An alliance of advocates – including Brake, the Road Safety Charity; Living Streets; Walk Auckland, All Aboard and Bike Auckland – along with school principals and local communities, are calling on the Minister of Transport to let Auckland keep safe speeds.
The goal is to keep 30km/h streets, especially where there’s community support and evidence they’re working. And as noted this week, other cities are managing to do this, so why not Auckland?
You can add your name and/or your organisation’s support here.
Te Hā Noa
The Eastern side of Te Hā Noa – the Victoria St Linear Park – has opened and looks fantastic.
The tree-filled linear park at the northern entrance to Te Waihorotiu Station has reached another big milestone on its journey to completion.
The eastern section of Te Hā Noa from Lorne Street to Albert Park is now open to the public, with widened footpaths, fewer traffic lanes, wooden seating, new trees and landscaped resting places, all reflecting its te reo Māori name.
Te Hā Noa is a name gifted by mana whenua. Te Hā is about life’s essence – to breathe – and Noa is about being free in the journey to experience your surroundings.
Four trees were crane-lifted from trucks into new street-side seating areas earlier this month, watched over by the ancient trees of Albert Park.
The new trees – pūriri, pōhutukawa, titoki and rewarewa – and around 600 new plants underneath are another milestone in the transformation of midtown’s station neighbourhood.
Auckland Council’s midtown regeneration programme is ensuring the area will be ready when the City Rail Link (CRL) and Te Waihorotiu Station open.
And here’s a timelapse of the transformation
AT’s network optimisation
A few weeks ago AT revealed some plans to improve buses on Dominion Rd. This week they’ve announced plans to improve buses in Epsom and Greenlane by extending transit lane hours.
Auckland Transport (AT) wants to make time changes to both T3 lanes along Manukau Road and Pah Road in Epsom, and a bus lane on Great South Road in Greenlane, to keep our city moving.
These changes will make journeys more seamless and congestion free for the growing number of bus passengers along these routes. We are asking for feedback from the public on these changes.
Chris Martin, AT’s Road Network Optimisation Manager, says more people on buses need to travel through these main arterial routes, which together make up Auckland’s second busiest bus route following the Northern Busway on the North Shore.
“These are our two busiest arterial routes in central Auckland, and extending the hours of both existing T3 lanes on Manukau Road and Pah Road and the bus lane on Great South Road is one way we can help alleviate afternoon congestion.
“AT is proposing that we open these traffic lanes an hour earlier at 3pm, instead of 4pm. They will continue to be active until 7pm.
“Our network optimisation team has conducted a thorough investigation and found that congestion on these roads begins at 3pm, coinciding with school pick-up hours,” Mr Martin says.
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AT is also proposing to extend the length of the existing bus lane on Great South Road by 40 metres, installing no stopping yellow lines on a section of Manukau Road near Owens Road, and implementing an afternoon clearway on the northbound side of Manukau Road between Epsom Girls’ Grammar Sports Centre and Alpers Avenue.
This optimisation project is open for feedback from the public until 1 June 2025. Please take the survey here to share your thoughts.
Meanwhile around Mt Wellington, one more lane should fix it.
Auckland Transport (AT) and the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) are collaborating to tackle congestion in Mt Wellington.
AT is planning to create new transit and heavy vehicle lanes on two major roads that feed vehicles to and from State Highway 1 (SH1) in the afternoon and is now seeking public feedback on the proposal.
The lanes will make travel quicker and more reliable for delivery vehicles, buses, and people carpooling, says AT’s Road Network Optimisation Manager Chris Martin.
“Our analysis shows that 11 percent of vehicles moving through here are heavy vehicles or trucks carrying goods, which is higher than normal in Auckland. It would be fantastic to get these vehicles that are essential to our economy out of traffic and moving more efficiently.”
“On Sylvia Park Road, the road is wide enough for us to add another lane, but this will require painting broken yellow lines on the other side of the road so that one or two parked cars don’t block the road for everyone else,” he says.
“On Mt Wellington Highway, we are at the point where we need to reallocate the lanes on both sides, so that we can improve productivity and essentially move more people through the same road space.
“These roads are already very busy with more people living and working in the area. We expect these roads to get busier once IKEA opens, so we’re planning now to get ahead of the congestion crunch,” Mr Martin says.
AT’s proposals will link existing transit lanes on Great South Road and Atkinson Road and tie in with NZTA’s work.
NZTA is currently making changes to improve the traffic flow onto the motorway and reduce congestion at the Mt Wellington Highway interchange. The improvements include expanding the current two-lane onramp into three lanes on the southbound approach to SH1 as well as converting the existing give-way controlled left turning southbound slip lane into a signalised pedestrian crossing. This will allow three lanes of traffic on the on-ramp to reduce the number of vehicles queueing on this busy road.
The motorway improvements will ensure that unless a pedestrian wants to cross the road, the slip lane will aways be green to allow a free-flowing left turn, plus a third on-ramp lane will let vehicle movement to continue even when double lane traffic is turning right from the south.
12 Problems
The introduction of the new 12 service, was meant to result in improved travel times over the old 120 but has been struggling to achieve that. One news reports:
Major delays have plagued an Auckland bus line after changes made some peak services “substantially slower”, even though they were meant to speed buses up.
Passengers have been left fuming as some buses ran up to 30 minutes late with the changes on the route 12 bus going into effect last week.
The popular route, previously known as the 120, is the main line linking West Auckland and the North Shore, running through Massey, Hobsonville Point and Greenhithe.
Last week, the service had a route change and a renaming, which also included the introduction of new electric double-decker buses and a new operator.
But frustrated commuters soon took to social media over the delays, describing the situation as “a joke” and a “dog’s breakfast” in local community groups.
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The change in route number came with a promised boost in frequency and faster journey times along the Upper Harbour Motorway, SH18, instead of using local roads.
But Auckland Transport (AT) public transport operations group manager Rachel Cara said trip times on the 12 had been “substantially slower than expected” in the morning peak.
The upgrade in frequency to every 15 minutes, outside of rush hour, was also delayed from the April launch of the new route.
Cara said the change to a shorter and more direct route on the motorway was designed to reduce travel times throughout the day.
“This was expected to have the additional benefit of freeing up buses and drivers to run more return trips,” she said.
“Unfortunately, the journey times for the changed bus route have been substantially slower than expected for some of the busiest trips during the morning peak.
“The slower journey times, particularly heading along SH18 towards Constellation, are leading to flow-on delays and cancellations throughout the morning.
“This congestion is leading to the issue of buses running but not showing up in the app or on the passenger information signs because the trip started too late to be tracked.”
Build it and make cities better for children
Paris was once notorious for speeding traffic and a parking technique involving gently nudging cars to squeeze into a spot – but now it has topped a European ranking of cycling-friendly cities for children, leaving Amsterdam in second place and Copenhagen in the dust.
Analysing 36 European cities in terms of their cycling infrastructure’s suitability for children, the report found that the French capital had raced to the top thanks to investments for the 2024 Olympics and a €250m (£210m) initiative to build 112 miles (180km) of cycling lanes under Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Using data on segregated cycling lanes, low road speeds of 30km/h (18mph) and “school streets” on which traffic is limited, the non-profit Clean Cities Campaign (CCC) put the Belgium city of Antwerp in third place, before Brussels, Lyon, Helsinki, Barcelona, Bristol, Oslo and Ghent.
“Among the leading cities, some – such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen – are widely recognised as longstanding pioneers in progressive urban mobility, having started the re-design of transport infrastructure decades ago,” the report said. “Others – like Paris, Brussels and London – have achieved remarkable progress in just the past 10 years. This demonstrates that meaningful change is possible within a relatively short period of time.”
Te Huia to Tauranga?
A Green Party policy for a passenger train between Auckland and Tauranga is a “no-brainer” commuters say, as a “cheaper, safer and faster” alternative to the worst traffic in the country and soaring airfares.
Policy announced on Wednesday proposes extending the existing Te Huia train service, between Hamilton and Auckland, building additional stations in Tauranga, Morrinsville and Waharoa.
The trip between Tauranga and Auckland would take two-and-a-half hours, and could be established in two years, according to the proposal.
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A briefing to National’s former Transport Minister Simeon Brown, released under the Official Information Act, reveals a public desire for inter-regional rail routes, including Tauranga to Auckland.
The coalition government’s transport policy has focussed on roads.
Investing in a strong rail passenger network for the Golden Triangle could shift cars off the road, reduce emissions-intensive flying, reduce travel costs and create stable jobs and economic opportunities throughout the rail line, says Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
“The Auckland to Hamilton link has a 99% customer satisfaction rate, is meeting or exceeding nearly all of its targets set by Waka Kotahi, and (beyond its seed funding) its annual operating cost is only about $5m.
“In terms of subsidies: taxpayers currently subsidise roading projects to a massive extent. The National Land Transport Fund, funded by road user charges and tax paid on petrol at the pump, is topped up by about $3.4bn from central government, and about $1.4bn by local government.”
Why we don’t build enough transit
A great article from The Transit Guy on why much of the US and Canada struggle with building transit projects, much of which applies to us – Auckland Light Rail ended up falling into many of these traps.
No single issue threatens the proliferation of public transit in the U.S. and Canada more than the time and cost it takes to build it.
Projects like California High-Speed Rail or New York’s Congestion Pricing face fierce backlash not just because of what they are, but because people no longer trust our ability to execute them. Our institutions have lost credibility.The truth is, we haven’t been able to build transit efficiently at scale since the 1970s. The costs are staggering, and the timelines are embarrassing. And while there are many reasons we’ve reached this point, the first one I’ll tackle is simple:
We overbuild. Dramatically.
Petition for a safer Symonds Street
A University of Auckland (UoA) student’s petition calling for the 30km/h speed limit on Symonds Street to be better enforced hit 1000 signatures on Sunday.
The petition was created on 4 April, less than a fortnight after the crash that left UoA professor Dr Vinod Suresh critically injured.
Creator of the petition and Craccum managing editor Lewis Creed says the crash was a call to action for him and others at the student magazine.
“We felt the best way to make a real difference was to use our platform to start a petition to at least try to make our campus safer and help prevent similar accidents from ever happening again.
“It’s more than just a one-off tragic accident; Symonds Street poses a constant health and safety hazard running through the heart of our campuses.”
In 2020, Stuff reported on a transport engineer who found that within a half hour period 95 per cent of cars on the street exceeded the speed limit.
Have a great weekend.
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Interested to know whether there’s any more detail on why the 12 has been much slower than anticipated?
Presumably there are no bus lanes on SH18 so they get caught in traffic? *shocked pikachu face*
NZTA figured that SH16 needed to be rebuilt so that its primary purpose was to act as a second connection between North-shore and the rest of the country rather than a commuting motorway between the west and the shore. This despite the Northwest being the fastest growing area in New Zealand. Management by ostrich strategy.
To make it really fantastic they used a 1975 LA motorway design that maximises the motorway footprint while not reducing congestion. Fantastic work that I am sure they are proud of. Did I mention that the new road already sees queues from the Constellation offramp back up onto the motorway causing a substantial hazard as well as traffic delays. This less than 2 years after opening. Amazing foresight. Who would have thought that commuters would continue to commute towards the city and not away from it…
The managers for this project used to be consultants for certain companies and surprise surprise the same companies had plenty of work during this project. My guess is that due to it being such a poorly thought out design, the same companies will will soon get more work so we build ourselves out of this mess. Incompetence or ‘bro corruption’?
The fact that they forgot to add buslanes despite knowing that the 12/120 bus would be a frequent service is not surprising. Its better for their businesses if they can finish the first part and later revisit the project.
I dont know who is in charge at NZTA, but there must be someone that can do the job so much better and at least have basic understanding of traffic flows.
Re: The Transit Guy article; I didn’t see something that I always see in the comments here re: any new infrastructure project, and that’s the mantra “Do It Once, Do It Right”. I.e. insisting that any solution has to last 25 years and if it needs adding to before then it’s a failure and a waste of money.
There’s a difference between doing something, then changing it and doing something then adding to it. Staged delivery can work, but we need to beware of suppressed use if the function of the first stage is not complete in itself – eg. building only one end of a bridge.
Auckland to Tauranga in 2.5 hours? That would be amazing! But isn’t that almost the current travel time to Hamilton alone?
I still love the idea but I don’t see this being possible in 2 years at all. If the ride took 4 hours from Britomart/The Strand to central Tauranga, it would still be a pretty good deal, especially if you need to leave during rush hour.
Yes, seems to be based on the GA Rapid Regional Rail proposal, which is years away.
A most important point is that the Greens proposal allocates $2b dollars of upgrades to the Auckland – Tauranga line, with a further $1.5b on the Auckland – Hamilton section, and the another $1.5b on the Hamilton to Wellington section.
So yes, after five billion spent on North Island rail upgrades, stations, new fleets etc, you’d expect the times to be much much faster.
Absolutely, and I think with a good plan you could easily justify that compared to 14 lanes to Northland. But no matter how much money you throw at it, it is not going to happen in 2 years.
I think that is the journalist being brief and conflating two things. The service could be started in two years, with a Te Huia extension as the first phase (It could probably be done this year if they really wanted to). And it could get down to 2.5 hours in the final stage, after a lot of investment.
The Greens budget doesn’t say anything about what the travel time would be at each stage, from what I can see, so presumably they got some comment directly.
For people submitting on Epsom/Greenlane: please include a comment that the T3 lane on Manukau Rd should extend all the way to the 5-way intersection at Newmarket. Currently it stops at Owens Rd, and buses get stuck behind traffic turning left into Alpers.
I also suggested that northbound on Manukau Rd, the left turn at Greenwoods Corner should be closed and the T3 continued all the way through the intersection. I hardly ever see anyone use that left turn, and there are alternatives to get from Manukau Rd to Pah Rd. This would also make the route slightly safer for cyclists.
The T3 lane should go all the way THROUGH Newmarket and out the other side towards Kyber Pass and Parnell. Broadway is one big traffic jam at the moment and the lack of bus priority is a major part of the problem.
Yes I did also include that. The fact that there isn’t a bus lane through Broadway is unbelievable. There was a guest post here a while back on a traffic circulation plan for Newmarket which should have been implemented yesterday.
Manukau Rd mihgjt need dynamic lane control between Owens Rd and Alpers Ave to enable the flush median to be used to relieve peak congestion with a bus lane.
Just one more lane, this time with dynamic lanes so people crossing face much more danger? Chuckle. It’s only increased traffic everywhere else AT have done it.
No, as everywhere else, congestion is relieved through traffic reduction. Giving traffic more space simply encourages more traffic. It may initially ease congestion here, but the extra traffic created by doing so increases traffic and congestion elsewhere. Eventually no benefit is discernible where the change is made.
What Newmarket and Manukau Rd need is for a reworking of the traffic circulation over the whole area, including a full low traffic neighbourhood plan, and space reallocated to create liveable arterials plan.
It’s all in the TERP. And it’s the best and cheapest way forward.
That Transit Guy article suggests (among other things) that a major force driving over-building on projects are the self-interested concerns of elected officials.
We saw this in Auckland with Labour’s dreadful tunnelled metro attempt.
But it’s tricky, Auckland Council and the Crown – to their credit – has attempted to reduce this risk by setting up Auckland Transport at an arms length from (very petty) immediate political concerns.
In terms of elevating expertise and good town planning above self-interest, this hasn’t really worked either (Cross Street is a good recent example).
Can anyone work out where some of this “Data” comes from? I work on Sylvia Park Road and getting along there from 4 – 5 pm is often a 10 minutes journey (apart from Fridays) and never less than 5 minutes after 3pm. Very congested due to all the Heavy Vehicles heading south from Onehunga, Penrose etc.
I can never fathom this road – they often have a speed camera along here as well as police enforcement however in the morning they’re happy for several trucks to park on the Median strip which causes all sorts of issues. Also are they really removing car parks if a car never parks there? All this must mean any grand vision for the East-West road is cooling fast!
This positive piece of news from Dunedin is missing in this roundup.
Inland port at Mosgiel receives $8m government investment
“The Southern Link Logistics Park was expected to remove 19,000 truck movements from Dunedin streets every year, moving freight from Port Chalmers to Mosgiel by rail.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/561223/inland-port-at-mosgiel-receives-8m-government-investment
I saw that, thought it was great. Perfect spot at the junction of SH1 and SH8, and a private initiative so far more likely to happen. Mosgiel could have its own freight terminal by Fonterra, but the bulk of out of town traffic doesn’t even need to go to Dunedin at all.
You’re thinking of the Milton one from a couple of days ago: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/560948/3-billion-otago-inland-port-proposal-revealed
Mosgiel one is separate (closer to SH1 and SH87 junction)
Oh, I didn’t realise there were 2 of them doing exactly what is ideal.
Great.
Some good stuff happening.
Sylvia Park area, interesting the NZTA 3 on-ramp lanes. Hopefully this will help as things back up easily back to the shopping centre. All the rest is just lane mark changes by the looks so not widening the carriage way which is good.
They could improve walking cycling around here mainly with squeezing in shared paths, knowing that anything greater would be almost impossible to hope for currently. Could run all the way from Mt Wellington /Penrose Rd intersection to Otahuhu.
I gifted them the name ‘Wider Footpath’. But they didn’t go with that one.
You got the soul of a poet.
That term was taken around about 2012, about the time people started to twig that AT doesn’t do enforcement. It means ‘carparks for utes’. Language is a living, breathing thing, though. In recent years, ‘wider footpaths’ has come to mean ‘carparks for utes that don’t get turned off’.