Are our residential streets too wide?
Walking around my local area got me thinking, why do our residential streets need to be so big. The more I have thought about it, the more I wonder if we have yet again more planning or engineering rules working against us creating higher densities.…
56 Comments The elephant in the room: a familiar tale of traffic decline
While the UK trends have been around a bit longer than ours, this could very easily be a good description of the current disjoint between reality and the government’s transport policies in New Zealand:
Build on falling traffic trend – not on the countryside
10 November: Quarterly traffic figures are out, showing falling vehicle numbers and undermining the case for new roads.…
The CBD is the future of employment
An interesting Australian article highlights something that has perhaps slipped under the radar of many – that a huge implication of economies in countries like New Zealand shifting away from manufacturing and more towards knowledge industries is a likely changing of the geography of employment.…
Stocking stuffer
There are a few button sets left over from the Urbanized movie night fundraiser. Email me (see contact page) with your address if you want one. For NZ delivery only, sorry.…
New Look at the Earth at Night
NASA has released a new version of its Earth at Night image showing just how lit up the earth is at night from both natural and man made light sources. The satellite used is even powerful enough to pick up the lights from ships in the ocean.…
Planning and Social Engineering
Planning gets a lot of stick from some because it is said to be akin to social engineering. In particular there’s a strange bunch of people (mainly in the USA but occasionally in NZ) who are particularly concerned with the elements of planning which are roughly encompassed by the phrase ‘Smart Growth‘. …
Broadway Junction Development
Thanks to SolR in my post yesterday the possible closing of Sarawia St we have some more information what may happen with the area above the Newmarket railway junction. We saw a different design for it earlier this year but not much other information about the project.…
Transmission Gully PPP discussed in Parliament
Yesterday in Parliament Julie Anne Genter asked Bill English about the PPP that is going to be used for Transmission Gully. I think the thing I am most concerned about from the answers is just how little he appears to know about the deal, something you would think he would have a good understanding of due to being the minister of finance.…
Myth Busting: Aucklands Geography
Myth: Auckland isn’t geographically suited to public transport.
I’m not sure where this myth even came from but if I had to guess, it would have been from the 50’s or 60’s, the same time that many of our transport myths originated from those looking to justify building the motorways instead of public transport.…
Closing Sarawia St Level Crossing
Auckland Transport is looking to close the Sarawia St level crossing in Newmarket. It is perhaps the most pesky crossing on the network, not due to how many cars use the street but how many trains pass through it and combined with its proximity to the Newmarket junction, makes things really tricky from a train operational perspective.…
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