The REAL cost of congestion

There has been quite a lot of discussion recently about the “cost” of congestion, as well as pretty dire future projections in relation to levels of congestion 20-30 years in the future. But, compared to other elements of transport costs, how does congestion actually stack up?…
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What is the cost of congestion?

We spend a lot of money each year trying to “fix” congestion in Auckland and across New Zealand. In fact, it seems that the bulk of transport spending in this country has “fixing congestion” as its ultimate aim – which is a little odd as research from the USA shows that the most congested cities are the cities with the highest levels of economic productivity.…
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Making light-rail make sense

A week or so ago I wrote a post about how I think we can make sense out of ferries in the mix of Auckland’s public transport system. I think my key conclusion was that ferries do make sense in certain locations and we should try to take advantage of where they do make sense rather than pushing new routes all the time.…
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Employers discriminating against PT catchers

An article in the Herald from last week, about employers actively discriminating against those who choose not to drive to work, almost slipped past me, but certainly got me pretty worked up when reading it. Employers are rejecting migrant job-seekers without cars as they have little faith in public transport delivering them to work on time, Auckland Transport has been told.…
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Making ferries make sense

Sunday’s launch of the Hobsonville/Beach Haven ferry seems to have got some, such as the perennial mischief-maker Cameron Brewer, excited about ferries and thinking that they can fix all of Auckland’s Transport problems. On the plus side, he also seems to have become a fan of bus lanes which is something to store away in the memory banks: “Yesterday’s opening of the new ferry terminals for Beach Haven and Hobsonville Point was a great day for Auckland, but the claim that ferries would play a much greater role in Auckland’s transport future was a bit disingenuous.…
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The cost of parking

There was an article in the NZ Herald yesterday about the price of parking in the city centre. This is always a pretty sensitive issue as nobody likes paying for parking, leading to some rather interesting statements. New Zealanders living in the country’s largest cities are paying up to $32 more for casual private parking than those in smaller towns.…
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