National’s $60 Billion+ Transport boondoggle
Over the last 10-15 years transport policy has increasingly become about who can spend the most, not who can spend the best. Nowhere was that more evident than the Upper North Island transport policy the National Party announced on Friday. It is a grab bag of projects, many of which might sound great when talking to friends around the barbeque but don’t stack up under any form of rational analysis.…
213 Comments Weekly Roundup – 17-July 2020
Here’s our roundup of items for the week. If you’re a Western Line user I hope you’re found other solutions for today as the line is closed for works. Queen St Pedestrian Mall
The area in front of Britomart is currently undergoing a massive renovation into a public space now that the City Rail Link tunnels have been built underneath it.…
Yet Another Port Report
Last week we had yet another port report and another new preferred location. This is the second port study in just eight months and the third in four years, although report this is more inline with the report from four years ago.…
Council votes tomorrow on budget
Tomorrow councillors will make their decision on the council’s emergency budget which is in response to the $525 million hole that has been punched in the council’s finances by COVID-19.
In their consultation, launched at the end of May, they asked about two solutions, a 3.5% increase which would see many projects put on hold with Auckland Transport estimating it would put mean $312m to $352m of shovel ready projects would be paused.…
Getting the little things right
Over the last 10-15 years Auckland had seen spectacular growth in the use of public transport – although coming off a low base. The growth came off the back of improvements to infrastructure, such as the upgraded rail network and Northern Busway, and improvements to services, such as the new bus network as well as integrated ticketing and fares.…
Weekly Roundup – 10-July 2020
It’s Friday and here’s our weekly roundup National’s recycled policy
Who says the National Party doesn’t have a green side, they clearly like recycling if some of their first election policy announcements are anything to go by.
It started last Friday with them announcing they would spend $570 million on a 16km extension of the Waikato Expressway from Cambridge to Piarere.…
Getting on with Queen St – but get the cars out
One of the few benefits of COVID-19 is that it brought forward the plans to change Queen St and make it more pedestrian friendly. Not long prior to the country locking down, the council approved the updated City Centre Masterplan (CCMP) which “seeks to bring new life into the heart of the city with a revitalised, pedestrian-priority Queen Street. …
Getting better use out of Park & Ride
One of the things we highlighted during the recent debate on the Council’s Emergency Budget was that Auckland Transport should start charging for park & ride regardless of what rates option is chosen and not only if councillors are derelict in their duty and choose something other than the 3.5% increase.…
Weekly Roundup – 03-July-2020
Here’s our weekly roundup of some of the things that caught my attention this week. Why does Auckland Transport hate pedestrians so much?
During lockdown one of the changes Auckland Transport belatedly made was to set the pedestrian crossings on many intersections to automatic, avoiding the need to push the beg buttons.…
City Centre (and other) speed limits have now changed
From today speeds in the city centre, and many other roads around the region have been reduced in Auckland Transport’s bid to lower the amount of deaths and serious injuries (DSI) on our roads. All up, about 700km of roads will have speed limits changed.…
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