The shortlisted options for congestion charging
The road to congestion pricing (aka “time-of-use charging”) is certainly not a fast one. So far, we’re at nearly a decade of official investigations into the idea. (It’s also over a decade and a half since the question was first raised on our predecessor, Transportblog – and we’ve covered the topic regularly since then, again and again)
Granted, a decade still seems like quite a short amount of time compared to some transport projects.…
64 Comments A love letter to transport planning
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a transport strategist and Executive Director of All Aboard Aotearoa. Transport planning is a super power. It quietly determines so many things about our lives. Whether a child can get to school by themselves.…
The (really good) Auckland Motorway Strategic Plan
Waka Kotahi/NZTA has released an important new document for our region: the Auckland Motorway Strategic Plan (AMSP), which is fully endorsed by the Minister of Transport Chris Bishop and Mayor of Auckland Wayne Brown.
It’s really very good; comprehensive and reality-based.…
Throwback Thursday: A History of Harbour Crossing Options
With new plans (or, at least, plans to get a plan) for the Waitematā Harbour crossing in the news, here’s a timely throwback. This post by Matt Lowrie was originally published on 5 June 2019. The more things change, the more they remain the same!…
RoNS Reality Finally Hits Home
In something of a Matariki miracle, the government has finally acknowledged that their mega-road programme isn’t feasible (as we’ve been pointing out for quite some time), and have scaled it back accordingly.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop has been hinting for some months that this was probably going to happen, with the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme alone expected to cost over $50 billion, but it’s good to finally have it confirmed as of last Thursday:
Transport Minister Chris Bishop is welcoming the publication of NZTA’s Major Transport Projects Pipeline, setting out the phasing for projects including the Roads of National Significance and major public transport projects.…
Te Ara Tupua: Resilience and choice
Next weekend I’m heading down to the capital for Matariki and to ride Te Ara Tupua. In advance, I’ve been thinking what we can learn from the evolution of this corridor over time.
I was last there in January 2026, when Waka Kotahi kindly gave me a tour of the nearly complete project: Land Bridge
The best way for Aucklanders to think about this key link between Wellington City, the Hutt Valley and Wairarapa is that it’s their Harbour Bridge.…
Build this Brilliant Bridge
This is a guest post by Nicolas Reid, Technical Director – Public Transport and Rapid Transit at MRCagney and author of Transit By Design, outlining a proposal for the next Waitematā Harbour crossing. It is shared by kind permission (via LinkedIn), with some very tasty bonus images.…
Better scrutiny – but a RoNS-sized loophole?
Better information and advice about infrastructure projects is needed but it won’t do much if government ministers don’t listen to it.
Some of the recommendations of the recently released National Infrastructure Plan revolved around providing better scrutiny over infrastructure projects and yesterday at the Infrastructure Commission’s conference, the government announced changes to how that happens.…
For the Avoidance of Diesel, and Doubt
Yet another (not unexpected) fossil-fuel supply crunch is here. It will continue to affect everything in our economy. And be painful. But it should also, at last, shift discussion and action much more strongly towards reducing our structural dependency on fossil fuels where we can.…
Is government grasping the crisis and opportunities?
With the fuel crisis ramping up, all eyes are on the government’s response. Officially there’s a plan, with four phases. There are two relatively similar phases, Watchful and Precautionary – and then a quantum leap to quite serious measures at phases 3 and 4, Managed and Protected, both currently under consultation.…
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