Rail Across the Waitematā: some thoughts
The North Shore Line, The Northern Line, Te Raki Tereina… NZTA in a recently released report showed that there is some urgency in starting work to replace the Northern Busway with a higher capacity rail system on a new crossing. This is because: Demand to access the city centre from the Shore is on a sustained growth path with ongoing growth on both sides of the harbour.…
165 Comments Why Carmageddon never comes
The fear associated with even temporary reductions in road capacity in Auckland is often so extreme that this report from Joe Cortright in City Observatory, Why Carmaggedon never comes (Seattle edition), is worth drawing to everyone’s attention. It takes the example of the closure for demolition of the Alaskan Way, a 3.5km, double stacked, 6-lane, fugly as, harbour-severing, 1940s fly-over in Seattle, to illustrate a well observed feature of city traffic.…
Small is e-Beautiful
The electric revolution on our city streets, already underway, looks much more like a scooter than a Tesla. Why? Physics. And geometry: Size really matters for both energy consumption and spatial efficiency. And both drive affordability and therefore the speed of uptake.…
Copenhagen: Confirmation of the future sensual city
In August this year Greater Auckland reproduced a chapter I wrote for a book speculating on our future world, The Big Questions, in three posts; here, here, and here. Included was the section below describing the city centre. In bold is a short description of what I imagine the sensual experience of these future streets will be like:
The whole Queen Street valley will be car-free, plied only by emergency and delivery and service vehicles, the latter at set times.…
The advice Auckland has ignored for 50 years but must now heed
Engineer planner Lt Col Sir Colin Buchanan is rightly famous for his 1963 report Traffic in Towns and 1964 book of the same name. The report looks ahead to wall of traffic heading to British streets in the post war period and sets out principles and plans to ameliorate the negative effects as much as possible.…
The Big Questions part three
What is in New Zealand’s Future?
Earlier this year I was asked by Penguin Random to contribute to a book speculating about New Zealand’s future, and now it’s out: This is part three of my chapter, here are parts one, and two.…
The Big Questions part two
What is in New Zealand’s Future?
Earlier this year I was asked by Penguin Random to contribute to a book speculating about New Zealand’s future, and now it’s out: This is part two of my contribution, part one is here, part three is on its way.…
The Big Questions part one.
What is in New Zealand’s Future?
Earlier this year I was asked by Penguin Random to contribute to a book speculating about New Zealand’s future, and now it’s out: There’s a fantastic range of writers/speculators, including Dame Anne Salmond writing brilliantly about the natural world, Rod Oram on Climate Change, Leonie Freeman on housing.…
Ch-Ch-Changes
Submissions to the Productivity Commission’s Low-emissions economy draft report close today June 8th, here. Arrrg.
There is a great deal that’s really good in the report, but one thing that I feel the Prodcom is missing is the changing nature of our cities, in particular Auckland.…
Ready Aim? Fire: The Auckland Plan’s missing transport targets.
Time is running out to submit on the Auckland Plan and 10 year budget. Please do, if nothing else just go there to support the all important Regional Fuel Tax, without which very little can be achieved.
Matt discussed it earlier here.…
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