Flashback Saturday – Housing affordability and sprawl
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post was originally published in December 2011.
The good old ‘compact city’ versus ‘urban sprawl’ debate has been reignited – with a Productivity Commission report on Housing Affordability pointing the finger at land-use regulation as a major cause for reduced housing affordability over the past decade: particularly in Auckland.…
22 Comments Flashback Saturday: Re-analysing the City Rail Link’s benefits
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post was first published in November 2011.
It has been frustrating to see the assessment of the City Rail Link’s benefits become so politicised over the past few months. You would think that something like undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of a transport project would be a fairly objective task, but as we have learned there are so many assumptions made when assessing transport projects – that the objectivity of the process has really become something of a myth.…
Flashback Saturday: How should we allocate transport funds?
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post was first published in August 2011.
With a general election later this year there should hopefully be some good debate about transport matters. A lot of this will inevitably revolve around projects: City Rail Link of Puhoi-Wellsford?…
Flashback Saturday – Removing the Dominion/New North interchange?
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post was first published in August 2011.
As a kid I was always fascinated by the bizarre interchange between New North Road and Dominion Road, between Kingsland and Eden Terrace. You know the one – it looks like this: From Dominion Road/Ian McKinnon Drive, the interchange looks like this:
You can see from the above photos how “out of place” the interchange is with its surrounding area.…
Flashback Saturday: Our street network working against us
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Matt was originally published in August 2011.
The City Rail Link (CRL) is a vital project for the city however as we know the government commissioned review has rejected the business case for it.…
Flashback Saturday: High Density Sprawl – not an oxymoron?
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post was originally published in August 2011.
The most commonly cited characteristic of urban sprawl is its low-density. In fact, density is often used as the sole way of determining whether a city is sprawled or not – and (following on from that) whether a city’s urban form is conducive to public transport or not.…
Flashback Sunday – Isolated in the quarter-acre pavlova paradise?
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Peter was originally published in June 2015.
The other week, the NZ Herald reported on some new research into Kiwis’ sense of social connectedness. The results, unfortunately, are fairly dismal:
New research has found that New Zealanders are losing touch with their neighbours – and it’s affecting our wellbeing.…
Flashback Saturday: Driverless cars – What about the Pedestrians?
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Matt was originally published in June 2015.
An interesting article on Citylab highlights something I’ve been saying for a while when it comes to the hype around driverless cars – what about the pedestrians?…
Flashback Saturday: Airport Rapid Transit isn’t really about the Airport
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Matt was originally published in October 2017.
The idea of providing Airport rail through a short spur from Puhinui is one of those ideas that continues to pop up. It emerged again in an opinion piece the NZ Herald ran just over a week ago (which was oddly a repeat of a piece they ran exactly a month earlier).…
Flashback Saturday: The cost of space (for cars)
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Peter was first published in June 2015.
Earlier this month, urban policy researcher Todd Litman published a useful summary of some of his new research into the cost of sprawl:
Our analysis indicates that by increasing the distances between homes, businesses, services and jobs, sprawl raises the cost of providing infrastructure and public services by 10-40 percent.…
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