My Car-free (Personal) Life
Over summer I worked hard to get fit because I knew what my goal was for the year – to give up my car. This I did over a month ago now and as I have settled into a daily pattern I feel I can talk about the experience.…
25 Comments Will Heavier Trucks Last?
Something has been bugging me (okay a lot of things) about the announcement of heavier trucks by Steven Joyce last week and today I realised what it is. Once we get them they aren’t going away, at least not through political channels (unless a Green MP is Transport Minister).…
Planning for rail expansion: Phase 2
Last month I wrote a post about how we could expand our rail system in a cost effective manner on the isthmus and East Auckland over the next twenty years. Some of the comments and reading I’ve done has lead me to rethink the possibilities for the Airport Line and how to expand over to the Shore as Phase 2.…
LA and Auckland: Shared Histories
Both Los Angeles and Auckland are remarkably alike in many ways, but not in the only ways that you might think (sprawled, auto-dependent cities). In actual fact, both cities are relatively dense (new world) cities and both developed around rail (in particular tramways).…
I’ll put in for the ticket
This is William S. Lind, he is the Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism (sounds like someone I wouldn’t get along with usually) but he is one of the biggest conservative supporters of public transport in America and co-author of, Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation, here he is talking about some of the points made in the book.…
Supercity Bonus?
While the Supercity is shaping up as a anti-democracy nightmare, one side effect is we may see the back of some of the transport dinosaurs who spread misinformation about Auckland’s transport system, such as Rodney Mayor Penny Webster who made the news earlier this week moaning about opposition to the “Holiday Highway”.…
Better know your Public Transport provider: DART
What DART? I hear you say. Surely he means Project DART? But no, I am referring to Auckland’s least know public transport provider; Dial A Ride Transport. You may have seen one of these around town: Dial A Ride Transport was established in 1982 to provide on demand, door to door disability transport services.…
Celebrating Auckland’s PT improvements
Last week Jon over at Auckland Trains wrote a post entitled Cheer Up! prompted by a post at Silver Machine about how the negativity of the public transport forums is driving people away and causing politicians to say, “stuff the PT advocates, they are never happy”.…
Planning for rail expansion: Phase 1
How should we roll out Auckland’s rail expansion? How can we do it as cheaply as possible but ensure we get good quality and also maximum ridership?
Here is my proposal for expanding Auckland’s rail system, I’ve included diagrams of the lines that differ from the current plan, the expansion is in two phases, Phase 1: The CBD tunnel, it is absolutely crucial for any further expansion, the reasons for it have been covered extensively on this site as well as others.…
Thinking along regional rail lines
Every now and then a new enthusiastic person joins the ranks of the PT advocates and soon their thoughts turn to HSR (High-Speed Rail). Why can’t we have HSR between Auckland and Wellington, they ask? Politely it is explained that the fact we are a hilly, low population density island means it is not practical.…
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