Accessibility vs Mobility
Accessibility and mobility are two quite interesting terms that get thrown around a lot when it comes to transport planning. Humantransit has an excellent post quite recently on the pitfalls of trying to analyse public transport projects as if they were roading projects.…
8 Comments Green Metropolis – an interesting sounding book
One of the more annoying things about living in New Zealand is that most of the truly interesting urban planning and transportation books never make it to the shelves of our bookshops. However, thanks to Amazon, I do manage to find and buy interesting books every once in a while – even if it’s slightly annoying that the cost of shipping often ends up being similar to the cost of the book itself.…
Does commuting harm our mental health?
An interesting article by Jonah Lehrer, a contributing editor at Wired, looks at the negative effects of commuting on our quality of life:
David Brooks, summarizing the current state of happiness research: The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting.…
This is who should run Auckland Transport
Janette Sadik-Khan is the current Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, appointed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on April 27, 2007, to replace Iris Weinshall. Over the last couple of years Janette has done a huge amount of work to improve the livability of New York City, as well as improving key transport measures such as improving safety and getting more people to walk or cycle to work.…
Auckland’s Commuting Patterns
Statistics New Zealand has compiled a very interesting document that analyses commuting patterns in the Auckland region. While commuter trips generally account for less than half of all trips within the Auckland region (“errand trips” like dropping kids at school or driving to the shops account for the highest proportion) because commuter trips generally happen around the same time they tend to cause congestion and also tend to be the trips for which people are most likely to use public transport.…
Sylvia Park Plan Change
In the last week or so Proposed Plan Change 235 to the Auckland City District Plan has been notified. This is a private plan change, made by the owner of the Sylvia Park mall, and is designed to allow significant further intensification of the site upon which the Sylvia Park mall is located.…
What makes a “Great Street”?
My latest purchase from Amazon.com is a book by Allan B. Jacobs, called Great Streets. The book looks at a wide variety of different streets around the world, from great boulevards to tiny cul-de-sacs, and analyses exactly what seems to make some of them “work”, and others not.…
Mt Albert – a big opportunity?
Last night I went to an interesting workshop, run by Auckland City Council, to help discuss important matters that should be included in a future District Plan for the Mt Albert area. This is all part of the Future Planning Framework that was supposed to inform the next generation District Plan for the isthmus area of Auckland City – until the whole Super City thing killed off that idea.…
Waterfront lost to parking building
A rather sad article in today’s NZ Herald about the loss of an important chunk of Auckland’s waterfront to a large carparking building:
Parking building adds to crowding on waterfront
Auckland’s precious waterfront, which just got a huge cement storage plant, is now getting a six-storey parking building.…
James Howard Kunstler: The tragedy of suburbia
An excellent video by renowned author James Howard Kunstler on why public spaces should be inspired centres of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what there is in America is a nation of places not worth caring about.…
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