The Decline of Car Culture in the West
We’ve covered this before, but it’s worth repeating. The OECD nations are all driving less, while developing nations are all driving more. Basically, and I bet almost 99% of westerners will be shocked at this thought, but people in China, India, and, yes, Iran, are increasingly more able to do what we used to do without thinking about it: They are outbidding us for oil.…
139 Comments Guest Post: The Value of Time
This is a guest post by Peter Nunns, an economist working in Auckland with an interest in transport past, present, and future. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are his personal views and do not reflect upon the position of any organisation with which he is associated or constitute professional advice.)…
Wellington PT study and RoNS info released
Some big news out of Wellington yesterday with the release of the Public Transport Spine Study as well as more news on the Basin Flyover and Duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel. Both are actually fairly intricately tied together. Here are the two press releases from the NZTA about the spine study (why did we need two). …
Trends in vehicle travel in NZ
Nerd alert; this post is chock-full of graphs. Plus a few “hypotheses”, just to keep things exciting. And a dog, because I like dogs.
For those of you who are new to the data game but want to participate in the nerdy excitement, let me first explain the rules.…
Oil, Thatcher, and the Wealth of Nations
Data visualisation specialist Jonathan Callahan has produced by far the most interesting response to the death of Margaret Thatcher I’ve yet to see, originally posted as a comment on The Oil Drum and reproduced below. Using his Energy Data Browser he has linked significant points of Thatcher’s career to the North Sea Oil boom.…
How much sprawl in Christchurch?
We tend to focus on issues related Auckland however a recently a video from the NZTA caught my attention. The main purpose of the video is to show some very pretty animations of what stage 2 of the Christchurch Southern motorway will look like.…
Pressure Increases on Government Transport Policies
In an opinion piece in this morning’s Herald Michael Barnett of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce expresses his most unequivocal support for the City Rail Link [CRL] yet. It seems that the Centre City Future Access Study [CCFAS] has given Barnett and the Chamber’s members the final nudge needed to not only see the need for this project but also confidently call for it against the government’s expressed position:
“I represent a group of business leaders who strongly support the principle of the city rail link and accelerating other long-agreed key transport projects.…
Wellington City says “no” to Basin Reserve flyover
This had to happen eventually, in fact I’m surprised it took this long:
After a long night of discussions, the Wellington City Council has voted in favour of exploring alternative options to the proposed Basin Reserve flyover.
The decision came the same day Auckland architect Richard Reid announced he has drafted a solution to the traffic congestion, without needing the $90 million dollar flyover proposed by the New Zealand Transport Agency.…
Myth Busting: Its those damn Aucklanders and their Motorways
Myth: The Fuel tax increases are just to pay for Auckland motorways
The announcement a few days ago that petrol prices are set to rise by 3c per litre each year for the next three years was pretty quickly latched onto by the media and one of the traditional tools they use is the vox pop to go and get some sound bites from people.…
Transmission Gully PPP discussed in Parliament
Yesterday in Parliament Julie Anne Genter asked Bill English about the PPP that is going to be used for Transmission Gully. I think the thing I am most concerned about from the answers is just how little he appears to know about the deal, something you would think he would have a good understanding of due to being the minister of finance.…
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