Nothing is happening in Auckland’s city centre
I hope everyone is doing OK out there in level 4 lockdown. My walks and bike rides around the city centre in the last week remind me of the original lockdown 17 months ago. Some things have changed since then, but most things haven’t.…
City centre employment keeps growing
Hottish off the press: there are now more than 120,000 people working in Auckland’s city centre,* making it the biggest hub for employment in New Zealand. Almost 3,000 jobs were added in the last year.
That’s based on a fairly typical definition of the city centre, stretching from Wynyard Quarter to the eastern end of the ports, and inside the motorway noose (plus the western end of K Road).…
Wellesley Bus Boulevard – Learning from King St
A few days ago I discussed the budget blowout for Auckland Transport’s Midtown Bus Solution, the root cause of which was a stupid compromise made by Auckland Transport to the unreasonable demands of the University a few years ago which prevents the obvious solution of linking buses from Wellesley Street to Symonds Street via a useful little slip lane that is hardly used.…
Improving the City Centre Now
You might be a bit surprised to learn that one of the major concerns holding us back from making substantial changes in the City Centre to reallocate street space to public transport, walking and cycling is because of the City Rail Link consent conditions.…
Western Victoria Quarter Part 2: Cook Street and Motorway Severance
This is a Guest Post by David R, and the second of a series about the need to improve the Western Victoria Quarter. Part 1 can be found here.
Victoria Quarter suffers for the Southern Motorway, and this alignment exists to serve the ego of Mayor John Allum:
This lack of foresight and common sense was compounded by Auckland city fathers led by former Mayor Sir John Allum, chairman of the bridge authority.…
Western Victoria Quarter Part 1: Introduction
This is a Guest Post by David R, and the first of a series about the need to improve the Western Victoria Quarter.
After arriving back from a stint in Vancouver and Amsterdam, my partner and I decided we wanted some outdoor space and another bedroom.…
Working towards a car-free city centre
An emerging trend in cities is to increasingly go car-free, primarily in city centres. This is primarily related to being able to provide more space for pedestrians, cyclists and transit while also reducing emissions and improving the health of residents. In some cases it’s limited to certain vehicle types, in others certain streets and one of the most ambitious is in Oslo where they plan to ban all cars from the city centre in 2019.…
More jobs in the city centre
However you define Auckland’s “city centre”, it’s been adding jobs rapidly in the last couple of years. Based on a narrow definition – roughly, the area bounded by the motorways – the city centre has hit a new milestone of 100,000 jobs, actually reaching almost 102,000 as at February 2016.…
Traffic’s fine, free the streets for people
Auckland’s city centre is currently undergoing change on scale possibly never seen before and nowhere more so than around Albert St with the construction of the City Rail Link underway. Streets have been narrowed or in some places cut off completely.…
Photo of the Day: Our Out of Balance Centre City Streets
Vincent and Pitt, Thursday 5:49 pm. Every corner occupied with people wanting to cross, including eight on this silly little delight of a ‘pedestrian refuge’, or nine if you include me, as I stepped back into the vehicle priority slip lane to take the shot, including at least one genuine princess.…
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