Government announce regional road spend up
The Government yesterday announced it plans to spend over $200 million on a series of regional roading projects. This is clearly a result of trying to keep the regions happy from a potential backlash after they announced a motorway splurge in Auckland last year.…
57 Comments Governments view on the Unitary Plan
This week the council put online all 9,400 submissions to the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP).
I’m going to look at a handful of interesting ones over the coming days/weeks and one has already been picked up on by the media and it comes from the government, submitted by the Amy Adams, the Minister for the Environment.…
Government Transport Hypocrisy
The announcement of funding for a whole pile of new motorway projects in last week’s budget has once again highlighted the hypocrisy the government shows over the funding of transport projects.
First up here are the key parts to the government’s press release last week.…
Budget announced
The 2014 budget was released today and as expected it further reinforced the governments commitments to more roads. There were two key announcements: How the government will fund the road fest they announced last year.
Additional funding for Kiwirail’s turn around plan.…
Greens want kids walking and cycling to school
I happened to be part way through writing a post about transport policy for the upcoming elections when the first policy announcement of this cycle appeared in my inbox. I aim to cover election policy from all major parties over the course of the year.…
Govt makes the right decision on cycling
It’s good to see the government making the right call on a transport issue. From the Dominion Post:
The Government has rejected a coroner’s recommendations designed to save cyclists’ lives.
Documents obtained under the Official Information Act show Associate Transport Minister Michael Woodhouse ruled out pursuing the suggestions of Wellington coroner Ian Smith when he called for an overhaul of cycle safety last February.…
2013: A year in review – Part 2
In Part 2 of my 2013 year in review I’m going to look at transport other than PT so that includes walking/cycling and roads.
Walking/Cycling
2013 has been a bit of a mix when it comes to active modes. There have been some good things happen however in my opinion simply not enough has been done and from what I’ve heard (but haven’t confirmed) Auckland Transport spent well less than they had in the budget for cycling which is extremely disappointing.…
Northern Motorway widening started
The governments announcement in June that they would fast track a number of (primarily road) projects has now seen the first result. Today John Key turned the sod on a project to widen the northern motorway northbound between Upper Harbour Highway and Grevelle Rd as well as some other works in the area which are designed to “ease congestion”.…
Next batch of SHAs to be confirmed
A few months ago the first Special Housing Areas (SHAs) were announced. The SHA’s are the result of the Housing Accord between the government and the council where for specially selected areas the Unitary Plan rules come in to effect straight away and which the council will have a fast tracked consenting process.…
Clifford Bay decision raises more questions than answers
Interesting to see yesterday the government make a decision on the Clifford Bay ferry terminal. I say interesting because the more you look at the details the more it shows just how much transport policy is being driven by political agendas rather than based on facts.…
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