Removing the Rural Urban Boundary is a dumb idea
The new Minister of Transport, Housing and Urban Development – Phil Twyford – has certainly hit the ground running across his portfolios. But in one area it seems as though he’s either poorly informed or is potentially embarking on a pretty dumb and unnecessary path.…
86 Comments Removing the RUB won’t necessarily work as planned
Yesterday Phil Twyford announced that it would be Labour’s policy to abolish Auckland’s Rural Urban Boundary (RUB), as part of a policy to improve housing affordability.
Labour wants the Government to abolish Auckland’s city limits to get people out of cars, caravans, garages and tents.…
Election Transport Debate
Last night was the Transport Election Debate and so this is a recap of what happened. Unfortunately it wasn’t filmed so we can’t put up a video for you all to watch. If I miss anything important please add it in the comments.…
We need to stop underselling PT
One thing that really frustrates me about public transport projects is the tendency of both our official agencies and many supporters to completely undersell the benefits of them. Auckland Transport is a frequent offender of this and I think that the main problem is that they are a bit gun shy.…
Urban Limits discussed in parliament
There have been quite a few battles in parliament between Housing Minister Nick Smith and Labour’s housing and Auckland issues spokesperson Phil Twyford over the past couple of weeks on the issue of urban limits, land supply and affordable housing. Here’s today’s stoush (transcript here): One thing that keeps confusing me in this argument is why everyone seems to be focusing so much on opening up additional land for rezoning to urban uses (effectively the “busting the urban limits”) when it seems like the real problem is that existing land zoned for urban development and serviced with main roads and bulk water/wastewater simply isn’t getting to the next stage of being subdivided up and put on the market.…
What really happened with Snapper/HOP – Part 2
Following on from my post yesterday on the Snapper/HOP mess, I felt that a lot of further questions remained unanswered. Phil Twyford attempted to get some answers out of the Minister of Transport in parliament: While questions around why Auckland Transport decided to allow Snapper to become involved in the HOP scheme remain frustratingly unanswered (perhaps until I read a bit further into the mountain of information I have), a question that I want to look at in this post relates a bit more closely to the title of this post – why did things go wrong?…
What really happened with Snapper/HOP?
Back in August Auckland Transport kicked Snapper out of helping to deliver integrated ticketing in Auckland. Subject to any legal battles over whether compensation is due or not, this was the final line in a very sad and sorry tale about Snapper’s involvement in Auckland’s integrated ticketing system.…
Fairer fare zones
One of the most discussed parts of the draft Regional Public Transport Plan seems to have turned out to be the proposed fare zone map. My fellow bloggers Mr Anderson and Stu Donovan discussed the zones in previous posts, while today’s NZ Herald also quotes Labour MP Phil Twyford’s criticism of the proposed boundaries.…
LTMA Bill debated in parliament
Major amendments to the Land Transport Management Act – the primary piece of legislation that governs the management and funding of transport in New Zealand – have been introduced to parliament. There was a bit of discussion of the changes last year when they were first announced, as well as further discussion of changes to borrowing policy more recently, but we will watch the issue closely over the next few months as the bill winds its way through the process – to highlight areas where it really needs to change and why.…
More Puhoi-Wellsford discussion in parliament
Phil Twyford had another go at the Puhoi-Wellsford project in parliament yesterday – interestingly this time with Maurice Williamson answering the questions: You can read the transcript of the exchange here.
I thought the most interesting part was the answer to the last question Mr Twyford asked:
Phil Twyford: Is the Minister aware of a 2008 report prepared by Sinclair Knight Merz consultants—the current consultants working on the Pūhoi to Wellsford project—that said that “the scope for substantial economic growth with the upgrading of SH1 is limited.”,…
Processing...