e2 transport – cities leading from the front
For those slightly tired of endless analyses of the CBD Rail Tunnel’s business case, here’s a great video from the “e2 transport” series – which can often be seen on TVNZ7 at 7.30pm on Monday nights. It is interesting to note that on a lot of big picture issues – whether it be addressing climate change or changing transport patterns, it often seems to be city level governments that lead the way.…
4 Comments Audio announcements on trains
A great announcement by Auckland Transport today, that we’re going to join the realms of having a “proper” rail system by having automatic station announcements on board the train:
A new audio information system Auckland Transport is introducing on trains next week is expected to make a big difference for blind and vision impaired people.…
The UK approach to Wider Economic Benefits
When the CBD Rail Tunnel business case was released late last year the Minister of Transport was skeptical about many of its details – and in particular its approach to various forms of ‘wider economic benefits’ (WEBs). He was reported as calling many of the benefits outlined in the business case “WEBs on steroids”.…
London’s unfinished motorways
A reader of this blog sent in a link to a really interesting and useful (and somewhat quirky) video on London’s unfinished motorways. I found myself, when watching the first few minutes of the video, somewhat annoyed that it seemed to be repeating many of the same old assumptions about building motorways – but in the end it offers a really helpful and insightful look at the need to find a balance between getting people around a city while not destroying the quality of that city.…
Loop routes: great connectivity or just loopy?
I was having a trawl through recent changes to the London Underground network and noticed one change that had somewhat slipped past my attention – the adjustment of the Circle Line to something that’s now more of a “spiral route”, with the addition of a section from Hammersmith to Paddington.…
The importance of strategic co-ordination
As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, I’m reading the excellent book “Car Sick: solutions for our car addicted culture“. One thing that the book points out quite clearly is that we don’t need to spend more money to improve our transport situation, rather we need to spend the money we have in smarter ways.…
Transport and the Auckland Spatial Plan
As I noted last week in my blog post on the London Spatial Plan (known as the “London Plan”) a lot of emphasis is being put on the Auckland Spatial Plan (known, surprisingly enough, as the “Auckland Plan”). This was further reinforced by Auckland Transport CEO David Warburton, who in response to a question I asked about “how are we going to integrated land-use and transport when our planning and transport staff are in two separate agencies?”…
London’s Spatial Plan
A lot of discussion in planning circles at the moment is about the upcoming ‘Auckland Spatial Plan’. There’s even an article in today’s NZ Herald about the Spatial Plan and its importance:
Dr Blakeley said work was “full speed ahead” on preparing the draft Auckland Plan, and was on target for June next year, despite some views that such a big task would take three to five years.…
Flat fares?
When I was in North America earlier this year one thing I noticed about a number of the metro systems was that they used flat-fares. In New York City, for example, one ride cost $2.25 no matter how far you went and no matter how many lines you changed.…
Peak Car?
An interesting blog post by David Metz, author of the very very good book “The Limits to Travel“:
I read with interest Phil Goodwin’s Comment piece in Local Transport Today of 25 June in which he introduced the concept of ‘peak car’, and look forward to his promised further exposition.…
Processing...