Penlink To Start
Waka Kotahi recently announced the construction partners for building Ō Mahurangi Penlink, a massive new $830 million, 7 km road through farmland and coastal environment to the Whangaparāoa Peninsula. This comes after the government gave their final approval to the project at the start of the month.…
Would AT Rethink the Eastern Busway?
Auckland Transport could start reallocating road space as a standard design solution – but may need the Board’s help.
Waka Kotahi, Auckland Council and the Auckland Transport Board have all directed Auckland Transport to improve active and public transport options by reallocating roadway space.…
A Proposition for East Auckland
I cycled along the Eastern Busway from Panmure to Pakuranga on Friday. It is a nice cycleway: comfortable, intuitive, and with some nice views, particularly from the bridge.
The busway looked inviting, too – smooth and efficient. I love buses.
It was all surprisingly… short, though.…
A New Commissioner for Active Travel
Waka Kotahi’s leadership have been defending the need for investment in cycling. Good on them.
At the Waka Kotahi Annual Review, MPs asked about the high per km cost that Auckland Transport uses for cycling infrastructure. In reply, General Manager Transport Services, Brett Gliddon, gave an excellent explanation of the difference in cost between reallocation of road space and building new infrastructure:
cycleways are delivered in two key strategic ways.…
The East Tamaki Industrial Area
People who work in and visit the East Tamaki Commercial and Industrial Area will soon be able to choose from a vastly better offering of travel options. The first project on the books – all the way to Botany – is the Eastern Busway.…
A Safer Course
Image Credit: Boating Safety Mag
Waka Kotahi CEO Nicole Rosie recently penned an article on Stuff, about the tragedy of our road safety crisis, in which she reminded us that safety needs to be approached from several angles. She made the excellent point:
why isn’t this massive public health issue in the spotlight throughout the year, not just during the holidays or after a “bad weekend” or a high-profile crash?…
Turning the Waka Around
HMNZS Taranaki, Otago, Waikato, Canterbury Credit: National Museum of the NZ Navy
This year should see a lot of changes at Waka Kotahi.
At the end of May, the Ministry for the Environment intends to publish its Emissions Reductions Plan (ERP), which will lay out the policies and strategies for meeting the first emissions budget.…
Let’s Discuss Priorities
What is Auckland Transport spending our money on? Resolving our challenges or exacerbating them?
It’s nothing short of a transformation that we need, as the CEO has talked about for years, with people “at the heart” of the changes: Auckland Transport have adopted Vision Zero, which:
places responsibility on the people who design and operate the transport system to provide a safe system.…
Liveable Arterials
Imagine we stop driving cars so much. Imagine having traffic levels like those in Level 4 Lockdown, when only essential journeys were taken by car – as a normal traffic environment. Put on ice for a moment any doubts about whether we could or should do this… and let me paint a picture of our streets if we managed to do so.…
Yes! We can do all those sorts of things.
“We can close the road, we can divert traffic, we can do all those sorts of things.”
That’s Auckland Council’s finance and expenditure committee chair Desley Simpson, speaking to Newshub on the Saturday of Labour Weekend, 2021. She’s right. These ages-old engineering measures are easy.…
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