Dr Paul Mees 1961 – 2013
It was with great sadness that we learned today that prominent Australian transport academic and public transport advocate Paul Mees has died following a 15 month battle with cancer.
Paul was an intelligent and passionate man, an accomplished academic, a remarkable public figure and a bloody good bloke.…
18 Comments Do we need a port in downtown Auckland?
The Port of Auckland is back with another expansion plan after the last scheme to reclaim land proved to be very unpopular with locals.
The latest proposal is something of a Hobson’s choice. Option 1 involves a fairly modest extension Bledisloe Wharf and retaining Captain Cook Wharf for offloading imported cars.…
CRL marketing fail?
Posters have recently popped up on trains and about town advertising City Rail Link information days. I can’t find the actual poster online, but the image below is front and centre on these public service announcements: There are a couple of things going wrong here, and I have to ask how AT could release such an image when they should be marketing the CRL in a positive light.…
God created transit
A great little “commercial” from the folks at Next City that poignantly illustrates the value of good transit to everyday peoples lives. Next City made the above video in response to the Dodge Ram superbowl commercial, which the felt conflated car ownership with good old fashioned hard working salt of the earth types.…
Paint the Auckland Harbour Bridge something other than boring old grey!
The title of this post says it all. Why does our somewhat lacklustre harbour bridge have to be painted the most uninspiring colour known to mankind? As far as monuments go it’s pretty damned blandiose. Can’t we paint it something a bit more, er, not grey?…
Short and awkward with a big mouth
This is something that has always bugged me as I walk up and down Queen St. Take a look at the intersection of Airdale St. Airdale is a little left over remnant of a road that got sliced off by Mayoral Drive.…
Is this Auckland’s worst footpath?
Time for a quick gripe, could this possibly be the worst footpath in Auckland? Eyeball the left hand side, there the ‘footpath’ is a slip lane entrance to a carparking building being used for parking by courier vans. And the right hand side, the narrowest footpath I have ever seen!…
PARK(ing) Day
If you were about the City Centre today you might have seen a little street reclaiming going on around the place. In a couple of places little groups of people were sitting out in the streets enjoying the sunshine, a privilege that is normally reserved for empty cars.…
Public Transport… or Passenger Transit?
Long before getting involved in all this transport advocacy business I wasted the golden years of my youth studying for an arts degree. Useless as it has proven to be, I learned many fascinating tidbits of knowledge along the way. One of the most captivating -but unavailing- tidbits was the study of semantics and semiotics.…
Gerrymandering the Central City
When discussing the pros and cons of projects like the City Rail Link or the shared space upgrades, it is almost inevitable that someone will question the value of spending such a large amount on the City Centre. While questioning any big expenditure is a good idea, the arguments are often quite insular and to be frank, a little selfish.…
Processing...