Young people (especially) are driving a lot less
A new report out of the USA supports a hypothesis that we’ve been talking about for quite a while on this blog: that traffic growth is stagnating across the world for a variety of reasons – and this has a compelling long term impact on our transport policies.…
20 Comments Minimum parking requirements: clearing up some confusion
A week or so ago Peter M posted about his hopes for 2013, which included the smooth implementation of some pretty big public transport projects like delivery of electric trains and the completion of integrated ticketing. He also mentioned the Council’s Unitary Plan as being a critical document which will be a big focus for this year.…
Auckland’s Economic Future
Auckland feels like it’s at the cusp of something of a transition between being an ‘overgrown town’ and a ‘real city’ – with the distinction between the two manifesting itself in the difference between the Council’s vision for Auckland and central government’s vision.…
CCFAS and the Additional Harbour Crossing
Along with making a fairly compelling case for the City Rail Link project, the City Centre Future Access Study (CCFAS) also provides some interesting information on my least favourite transport project: the Additional Waitemata Harbour Crossing (AWHC). For some unknown reason the AWHC made it into the “balanced reference case” (otherwise known as the “no CRL option”) for 2041, which means that its impact on the transport network made it into the modelling analysis.…
Sydney’s extended light-rail network
I guess this is what happens when you have a centre-right government that isn’t completely insane in its ideological dislike of public transport:
Premier Barry O’Farrell and Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian today announced light rail would be built through the Sydney CBD to Randwick and Kingsford to reduce congestion and revitalise the city.…
Why is the Fanshawe Street bus lane being closed?
We have come quite a long way in improving Auckland’s public transport system over the last decade, but there are times when you realise that – perhaps sub-consciously more than anything else – there are some who think that public transport still isn’t important and that it’s OK to treat those who catch the train or ride the bus or ferry as second class citizens.…
Road pricing and rail
The issue of road pricing comes up quite frequently in the comments on this blog and it’s certainly not something we’ve shied away from in the past – though I find myself a bit frustrated by how polarised arguments over road pricing become: Its advocates think it’ll solve all transport issues, tend to ignore its potential negative side effects and think we should do it tomorrow if only the politicians had some guts.…
Reducing rail fare evasion
The November patronage statistics highlight that the dip in rail use continues. Like September and October, when the Rugby World Cup last year made comparisons a bit silly, in November there’s a reasonable explanation for the dip: the transition to use of the AT Hop card means that trips are no longer counted at the time of purchase (for 10 ride tickets) but instead at the time the trip is actually made.…
The elephant in the room: a familiar tale of traffic decline
While the UK trends have been around a bit longer than ours, this could very easily be a good description of the current disjoint between reality and the government’s transport policies in New Zealand:
Build on falling traffic trend – not on the countryside
10 November: Quarterly traffic figures are out, showing falling vehicle numbers and undermining the case for new roads.…
Transport Spending: what’s the point?
As a country we spend a lot of money on transport, at three levels: central government, local government and personally. In the 2012 budget, around $3.8 billion of expenditure on transport by central government was proposed. Further to that, transport is generally the biggest item of expenditure for local government – the Auckland Council spends over half its money (more than half your rates bill) on transport each year.…
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