Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?
What pressures on parents! We don’t think the traffic’s safe for our children to venture out in it alone, yet fear the effects of chauffeuring them everywhere too.
Research published last month suggests that if Auckland parents aren’t letting their children walk and cycle unaccompanied, they’ve got good reason to be protective.…
57 Comments Council to decide on extra CRL funding
Just before Easter we learnt that the City Rail Link was to be around $1 billion more expensive than previously thought thanks to higher than expected construction cost inflation, additional contingency funds, future proofing for 9-car trains and some higher non-direct costs.…
Tamaki Dr Safety propsals
At the end of last month Auckland Transport launched two consultations aiming to improve road safety in two of Auckland’s most iconic seaside villages – Mission Bay and St Heliers. AT say that between 2013 and 2017: Mission Bay had 46 reported crashes resulting in 14 people injured
St Heliers had 38 crashes with 8 people injured.…
Aladdin and the Magic Modeshift
Accelerating Modeshift was the subject of a workshop for Councillors last Friday. (Credit: Cathy Casey, via Facebook): Modeshift away from private car use is important, for reasons of health, sustainability, safety, urban form, liveability and access. But private car use is both large, and rapidly increasing (due to road building).…
The NZTA is in Disarray – Part 2
The biggest challenge Auckland and the rest of the country face with transport these days is not the policy, as that aspect is generally in a fairly good space with the likes of ATAP and the current Government Policy Statement. Instead the challenge now is in delivery to ensure that the projects needed to implement those plans and policies happen in a timely manner, or happen at all.…
AA Lobbying: Part Three – Privilege
It’s your last chance to submit on the safer speeds bylaw.
Safer speeds will make our city comfortable for people to walk, cycle and scooter, including to the bus stop. They’ll improve our physical activity levels and health, reduce our public health bill, and reduce our transport carbon emissions.…
Addressing Climate Change Through the Transport Budget
ATAP is pretty fresh. But I think even now, what we now know today, compared to a year ago, even just one year ago, on ATAP, is vastly different. If we were doing ATAP today we’d be doing it even with more transit focus and more PT focus and more active focus… I think we need to be more dynamic with our planning documents – Chris Darby, speaking at the Auckland Climate Conference on 18 March 2019
How we plan for our future in the face of climate change was the subject of several climate conferences and symposiums last week.…
Transport Battleground – NSW Election
I thought it might be interesting to write about one of our neighbours who this Saturday will be having an election with transport being one of the major battlegrounds. The neighbour is New South Wales and polls have the race 50% – 50%, neck and neck with a high chance of a minority government so it should be fun to watch.…
Do we need to think differently about transport funding?
Around $5.5 billion a year is spent on transport in New Zealand. This is a lot of money and usually makes up the largest proportion of budgets for local councils, as well as being the fourth or fifth largest area of spend for central government.…
What happens if you get rid of the Regional Fuel Tax?
Yesterday Simon Bridges delivered a fairly major speech, outlining the National Party’s intentions ahead of next year’s election. Of particular relevance was him reaffirming that, if elected, National would cancel the Auckland regional fuel tax: If National is elected in 2020 we will:☑️ Repeal the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax☑️ Ensure no increase in petrol taxes during our first term☑️ Have no new taxes in our first term☑️ Repeal a Capital Gains Tax
— Simon Bridges (@simonjbridges) January 30, 2019 One term governments are pretty rare in New Zealand, with the last one happening in the early 1970s, but it’s worth having a think about what would happen if an incoming government got rid of the Regional Fuel Tax.…
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