Forcing urban sprawl
There are two big planning developments that will happen throughout this year which will inevitably reignite the “sprawl versus intensification” debate that has been going on in Auckland for many decades. The two big planning issues are the development of the Auckland Spatial Plan and the ‘urban’ changes being proposed to the Resource Management Act. …
12 Comments Has 2010 been a good year for public transport?
As the year draws to a close I have been having a few discussions with friends about whether 2010 has been a good year for public transport or not. There are probably arguments either way.
On the bright side first Perhaps the biggest boost was the results of the Auckland Council local government election, and in particular the election of Mayor Len Brown on a very strong public transport platform. …
Review of CBD tunnel business case – but why not of holiday highway?
Today’s announcement that government agencies, in conjunction with Auckland Council and Auckland Transport, will be undertaking a good in depth analysis and review of the Auckland CBD Tunnel business case is most probably a useful step forwards – as it at least represents a step further along the process to making this proposal a reality.…
More Double Standards from Joyce
Green MP Gareth Hughes put a few tricky questions about the holiday highway to Steven Joyce in parliament today: You can read the transcript here.
While Mr Hughes fell for the typical mistake of trying to score a “king hit” with a rather too all encompassing assumption (even I somewhat agree with Steven Joyce when he says that it’s far too simple to say that public transport will always solve the problem and roads never will), the best question he asked by far – and the one that made Joyce squirm a bit in his reply, is outlined below:
Gareth Hughes: Given the Minister has said that more analysis is needed, why did he commit billions of dollars to the Pūhoi to Wellsford “Holiday Highway” in March 2009 when the business case was not completed until 9 months later, in December 2009, and, as the Minister said only 4 weeks ago, “No work had been done on this project prior to it being confirmed as a road of national significance”?…
CBD Tunnel vs Puhoi-Wellsford: an in-depth analysis
An interesting question and answer session in parliament today on the merits of the CBD Rail Tunnel and the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway”. A transcript can be read here (and by the way it’s interesting to see in the video how keen Bill English & Gerry Brownlee were to say that they’re even less keen on the CBD Rail Tunnel project than Steven Joyce is).…
Oram v Joyce: the battle continues
Business commentator Rod Oram has another transport related article in yesterday’s Sunday Star Times – responding to the points made in Steven Joyce’s opinion piece from last week. Joyce’s piece itself was a response to an earlier article by Oram – so this is turning into an interesting ‘back and forth’ between the two.…
PT doesn’t have to be a left/right issue
One of the more disappointing things about Steven Joyce’s reaction to the CBD Rail Link business case is how political he has made the issue of transport funding. As I noted in my post a couple of days back – the integration of land-use planning and transport is being increasingly understood (they’re mutually dependent in many respects), just that Joyce comes out on the side of preferring auto-dependent urban sprawl to a public transport based compact city urban strategy.…
Joyce’s disappointing response to CBD Tunnel business case
The NZ Herald today reports on the CBD rail tunnel business case, giving a particular focus to Steven Joyce’s very disappointing response to it. Over recent months it had seemed as though Joyce has warmed to the project, often describing it as something that did seem to ‘stack up’.…
CBD Tunnel on “The Nation”
TV3’s political show “The Nation” has this week focused on the rail plans the Super City has, and the government’s response to those plans. There are a couple of videos well worth a watch.
First, a story outlining the details of the CBD Rail Tunnel – with interviews of Len Brown, Mike Lee, Christine Fletcher and others (click image to be taken through to TV3 website and watch the video).…
Parliament discusses Auckland’s transport future
There was a very interesting question and answer session in parliament today on how the Auckland local government elections may affect transport priorities. A transcript of the discussion can be read here.
There are a number of matters that are interesting to comment on here.…
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