Transforming Auckland’s city centre
One of the best things that has come out of the creation of the Auckland “Super City” Council so far has been, in my opinion, the fundamental reconsideration of how Auckland should work. In documents like the Auckland Spatial Plan, the City Centre Master Plan and the forthcoming Unitary Plan, we have the opportunity to completely reanalyse the plans and policies that will guide and shape Auckland’s future.…
26 Comments $65 to Cycle across Harbour Bridge
The NZ Herald reports on a proposed cycling event in December that will enable people to cycle over the harbour bridge – if you pay the entry fee of at least $65. There are also a whole pile of weird conditions that it seems NZTA have applied to the event.…
Auckland’s improving CBD
One of the pitfalls of looking at transport and urban planning matters on a daily basis is that you can sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. For want of a better phrase, it definitely is possible to “lose sight of the forest for the trees”.…
Convention centre: catalyst for improving Hobson & Nelson?
I was initially disappointed by the decision that SkyCity had won the bid for a new international convention centre in downtown Auckland. I was more of a fan of “The Edge” proposal, largely because a key part of that proposal would have involved the restoration of the St James theatre.…
Darby Street Video
Auckland Council have put together a really great video on the Darby Street shared space: I was just wandering around Darby and Elliott streets at lunch time today. It was heartening to see so many pedestrians, and also to see what good progress there is on Elliott Street.…
New York’s pedestrian improvements
Here’s a great video I came across explaining the improvements for pedestrians that have been made in Midtown Manhattan over the past few years. A few things really stood out for me: That reducing the roadspace didn’t lead to more congestion – in fact the simplified intersections meant less congestion and better flowing streets.…
The City Centre Master Plan
It’s certainly a busy time at the moment for big long term planning documents in Auckland. As well as the much talked about “Auckland Spatial Plan”, Auckland Council has now released a discussion document on a “City Centre Master Plan.”
I have talked a bit about the Master Plan in the past – when it was in its earlier stages of formulation.…
Vision of a car free Queen Street
The Eye on Auckland blog has some great renders about what a car free Queen Street, with only tram tracks running up and down it, might look like: This looks up Queen Street from the corner with Customs Street. Nice deer sculpture!…
Shared streets or full pedestrianisation?
The completion of the Darby Street shared space, and progress on Fort Street’s makeover have led to some interesting debates in the the posts I have written on these projects in the past few days: should they be shared spaces or should they be fully pedestrianised?…
Fort Street: coming along nicely
With the Darby Street shared space now completed and open, it’s worth looking at the next major shared space that will be completed in the relatively near future: Fort Street. Work down there is coming along quite nicely:
Fort Street is most definitely a bigger job than Darby Street was – as the road is much wider and also quite a bit busier.…
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