Auckland as a Consumer City – And what it might mean for the CRL
In this recent post we discussed agglomeration economies in consumption. Just to re-cap, agglomeration economies describe the external economic benefits that arise from proximity. They’re essentially the economic benefits of cities.
The benefits of agglomeration are realised by both “producers” (typically employees in the form of higher wages or businesses in the form of higher profits) and “consumers” in the form of more diverse/specialised goods and services (NB: I use a broad definition of “goods and services”, which includes all forms of social/cultural interaction).…
70 Comments The two-sided density dividend: Agglomeration economies in *consumption*
Why are people – both in NZ and around the world – increasingly choosing to live in cities?
The answer usually advanced in response to this question, at least from an economic perspective, is “agglomeration economies”. In this post I want to unpack a few things about agglomeration economies, before discussing why I think our current understanding places too much focus on production as opposed to consumption.…
More migrants! Sweet.
Several recent reports and articles have discussed trends in migration and its impacts on New Zealand.
In terms of trends, net migration is at a 10-year high. The recent surge in net migration trends is shown below. The simple reason advanced for the positive net migration trend is that our economy is doing relatively well compared to most of the countries with whom we compete for skilled labour.…
Returns on Government transport investment – A “BOE” calculation
In this recent post Matt mapped census journey to work data across Auckland.
I will now use this data to draw some high-level inferences about returns on Goverment investment in transport infrastructure in Auckland in the period from 2007-13, i.e. between the last two census.…
Stopping the “blame game” – Improving road safety in NZ
Greetings,
Trust 2014 is treating everyone well thus far. For my part I‘ve spent the last month or so travelling through the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden, France, and now Austria. Tomorrow I begin the long (28 hour) journey back to Auckland, where I hope the best part of summer will be ready to greet me. …
Better bus stations
Earlier this year I posted about “better buses”.
The main point of that post was to advocate for a greater focus on improving Auckland’s bus system. To support the case I discussed a couple of cities, namely Brisbane (population circa 2.0 million) and Edinburgh (population circa 600,000), where sustained investment in effective bus improvements have contributed to public transport outcomes that are far superior to what is currently achieved in Auckland.…
The financial impacts of the CRL – At the margin
“At the margin” is one of my favourite economic expressions.
Recently I’ve been thinking about how the City Rail Link (CRL) affects the financial performance of Auckland’s rail network “at the margin”.
Specifically: What is the impact of the CRL on patronage?…
Bin the Parking Mins? Perspectives from the U.S.
This recent post discussed minimum parking requirements in the context of AC’s draft Unitary Plan and highlighted Generation Zero’s campaign to “Bin the Mins”. The campaign encourages Auckland Council to remove minimum parking requirements from the Unitary Plan altogether. Our previous post on this topic generated a lot of attention and 184 (occasionally heated) comments.…
Not so happy feet
I have happy feet, they like to walk, so I often let them wander.
But when I walk around Auckland, dangerous situations are encountered with almost every step. I tell you now: It’s perilous out there. If Auckland wishes to become the “world’s most livable city“, then I’m quite serious when I say that we are going to need to blow things up.…
Accustomed to Customs Street
Having recently returned from exile in Brisbane, I’ve been enjoying spending some more time loitering around Auckland’s rapidly rejuvenating city centre. One of the areas I’ve particularly enjoyed reconnecting with is Customs Street.
I’ve always liked Customs Street. It feels like Auckland’s forgotten “centroid”.…
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