Destroying Public Space
Not to focus too much on Wellington as this is an Auckland Transport Blog, however decisions made around the country give an insight into what we can expect in Auckland.
Here is what’s in store for Wellington Central, as part of the Wellington Airport to Levin road of National significance announcement:
Yup, that’s the good old Basin Reserve cricket ground (heritage listed by the way), with a flyover right next to it.…
36 Comments Where to now for Snapper/Infratil?
This is the last in an arc of Snapper stories we’ve done regarding the announcement that Snapper would be introduced in Auckland, firstly we looked at what they were doing, why they were doing it and now finally what they (Snapper, Infratil and NZ Bus) should do next.…
Car Dependency
I thought the wikipedia article entitled Automobile Dependency was so interesting and well written I would share it in full:
Automobile dependency is a term coined by Professors Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy to capture the predicament of most cities in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and to a lesser extent, large cities in Europe.…
Motivations of Snapper
A few days ago I did a post entitled Snapper Shocker where I expressed my disgust at Snapper’s announcement they would be introducing the Snapper card on the buses of their sister company NZ Bus. I reflected on the seriousness of using such words without clarification, I actually started to wonder if I had gone too far in my frustration that is until I saw yesterday this story in the NZ Herald and realised if anything I didn’t go far enough:
Snapper chief executive Miki Szikszai, whose card is now used only on Wellington buses and at some retail outlets but which is based on a multi-modal Korean system and will soon be extended to taxis, says he would have no difficulties feeding it into “back-office” facilities supplied by Thales.…
Is New Zealand Falling Behind the US? Part 2
Earlier this week I did a post about how the US is moving forward in their thinking regarding the place of roads in the hierarchy of their cities and the greater realisation of the link between a car dominated city and lower liveability.…
Snapper Shocker
A couple of days ago Josh did a post about the announcement from Snapper that their “integrated ticketing” system would be installed on all the buses in Auckland belonging to NZ Bus, I have a different take.
It is obvious from the actions of Infratil and its subsidiaries, Snapper and NZ Bus this year that this group of companies has absolutely no interest in improving Auckland’s transport or even being a good a “corporate citizen”, no interest even in growing their long term receipts from increased public transport ridership, rather they are consumed with increasing their short term profits and getting a “larger piece of the existing pie” rather than “making a bigger pie”.…
Is New Zealand Falling Behind the US? Part 1
This is my first post on Josh’s blog – hopefully over time having two perspectives (though generally similar, but potentially slightly different on some matter) on Auckland’s transport will lead to even more posts, even more discussion and debate and even more knowledge about where Auckland’s transport is going wrong and how it could be made better.…
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