Auckland Transport’s weird obsession with subsidising Devonport taxis
This is an important year for Auckland Transport. It needs to catch up on delivering projects funded by the Regional Fuel Tax, where progress has been slower than forecast. It also needs to do much of the grunt work to inform the next cycle of transport budgets that will take effect from the middle of next year, implement important but often controversial changes to streetspace allocation, implement critical safety improvements and speed limit reductions, get back on track when it comes to delivering cycleways, increase public transport use at a time when there are no big projects or changes being delivered to ride the coattails of, and – all while being subject to a CCO review that should ask fundamental questions about the roles and functions of a transport CCO and how to improve its public accountability.…
105 Comments Time for a Transition Fund?
With the government’s books looking healthy, about two weeks ago they announced they’d “significantly increase spending on infrastructure”. Yesterday they gave a bit more detail about that:
The Government is lifting capital investment to the highest level in more than 20 years as it takes the next step to future-proof New Zealand.…
Less Parking, Please
Parking is seen as a public good that should be supplied to everyone… Resistance to parking management is tied in a nostalgic way to “the good old days” and used as a form of coded language to complain about increases in population density or changes in community demographics or class structure.…
CRL a step closer but more expensive
The City Rail Link, the country’s biggest transport project, just got $1 billion bigger but also few steps closer to reality as part of three “significant announcements” made yesterday. Revised Costs
The biggest news is that the project is now expected to cost $4.419 billion, up from the $3.4 billion figure that they say was last estimated in 2014.…
De-electrification cancelled
Some great news yesterday with the government announcing yesterday that the electric locomotives in the central North Island will be refurbished and keep running.
The Government is keeping electric locomotives on the North Island Main Trunk Line running to help meet its long term emissions goals and boost the economy.…
Flashback Saturday: I want to be a super transport model
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Stu was first published in November 2015.
In Matt’s recent post about MoT’s work on the future of transport, there was an interesting little side-discussion about transport models, and in particular the travel demand forecasts which emerge therefrom.…
Flashback Saturday: Is New Zealand getting public transport right?
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post, by Peter, was originally published in December 2014.
Increasingly, the answer is yes – although we certainly can’t rest on our laurels yet. Read on if you want to know how and why…
I recently read Paul Mees’ excellent book Transport for Suburbia, which argues that high-quality, useful public transport services can be provided even in the low to medium density cities of Australia and New Zealand.…
AT’s Car Park Buildings — Delivering Little Value? (Part 1- Ronwood Avenue)
This is a guest post from reader taka-ite
Background
Last year Panuku Development indicated that they wanted to develop a 450 space multi level carpark on the Gasometer site in Takapuna This proposal came despite no evidence that extra parking was needed in Takapuna, however more of that later.…
Flashback Saturday: The linear city and other science fictions
This post by Peter Nunns was first published in March 2016
Last week, urban designer lecturers Dushko Bogunovich and Matthew Bradbury published an article on their vision for transforming Auckland into a “linear city”:
Instead, we suggest a linear, city-region that follows the opportunities and respects the constraints in the landscape.…
Smarter Buses Series – Pt 4 We need to talk about the Links
This post continues my recent series on how we can make big improvements to bus journeys through relatively small changes. In part one I looked at Khyber Pass and the need for us to be more flexible in providing better bus lanes.…
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