General Election Debate on Transport – Campaign for Better Transport
The Campaign for Better Transport is holding an election debate with all the major parties this month in Auckland. The CBT is led by Cameron Pitches and over the years has led campaigns and advocated for many transport issues including:Airport Rail
Reopen Onehunga Rail
Rail Electrification
Integrated ticketing
Hamilton – Auckland Rail
City Rail Link
Operation Lifesaver – An Alternative to Puhoi-Warkworth
Northwestern Busway
North Shore Rail
A more economic alternative to the East West LinkThe Campaign for Better Transport will be hosting a public meeting for political parties to present their transport policies, with a particular focus on Auckland’s needs.…
25 Comments Pouring gasoline on the housing fire
Yesterday, Prime Minister Bill English announced that he would encourage the Reserve Bank to remove the loan to value ratio (LVR) rules that it put in place to take the heat out of rising house prices. As reported in Newsroom:
Prime Minister Bill English has rediscovered his jawbone and has sent a clear message to the Reserve Bank that he expects it to start thinking about scrapping its restrictions on loan to value ratios, now that house prices across the country are flat or falling.…
The new consensus on transport for Auckland
Over the weekend, the National and Labour Parties both made campaign announcements on transport investment. National pledged money towards upgrades of the Auckland and Wellington rail networks – including electrification to Pukekohe and a third main line at the Wiri-Westfield rail bottleneck.…
Can value capture help pay for new infrastructure?
When we build new infrastructure that connects places to useful destinations or opens up development opportunities, it lifts the value of properties in the surrounding areas. This is pretty intuitively sensible: Holding all else equal, most people would be willing to pay a bit more for the convenience of having, say, a fast and reliable public transport route nearby.…
The confusing politics of immigration
Immigration is likely to be one of the major issues in the election that’s coming up in September – or at any rate, some parties think that it will be, and are trying to push the topic forward.
Immigration is important for New Zealand in general and Auckland in particular.…
Should Auckland’s boundaries be redrawn? Part 1: the splitters
We’ve had a unified Auckland Council since 2010 – it replaced seven district/ city councils and one regional council, in the largest local government restructure in New Zealand since 1989. With such a major, complicated process, it’s a given that it won’t have been perfect: things that could have been done better, and things that should be revisited now that we’re seven years on.…
Build bridges, not walls: How to make Auckland a more equitable city
This piece was originally written for Fightback magazine and published online in March.
As an economist specialising in urban issues, I spend most of my time analysing and debating how transport and housing policy can make society wealthier, healthier, and happier.…
Urban Schools an idea whose time has come
On the weekend our two main political parties held conferences where they started to discuss ideas and policy for the upcoming election. I certainly wasn’t following events closely but I one discussion that caught my attention was about schools.
On Saturday it was revealed that the government are looking at setting up urban schools as a tool to help deal with Auckland’s growth.…
Save a Park, Save a City
This post is on behalf of Leroy from Generation Zero. This campaign is supported by Greater Auckland and Bike Auckland.Linear Park is an incredible idea. It’s a park/walkway/cycleway running from Victoria Park to Albert Park. It would open up a grey, underused part of the city to people, and connect our CBD’s green spaces.…
Let’s talk about public transport. Honestly.
Preamble: This is the first of three posts I will write on the transport profession. My goals are to 1) encourage people, especially students, to consider a career in transport and 2) foster a better understanding of pertinent transport issues.
Many regular readers of this blog will also be regular users of public transport.…
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