What’s rotten about transport – the politics or the profession?
Over the last week or two we’ve highlighted that there’s something really rotten going on about transport planning and policy in New Zealand. Here are the highlights: NZTA deliberately fudge the numbers in a report looking at justifying a $5 billion transport project, by far the most expensive transport project ever proposed in New Zealand.…
49 Comments Traffic’s declining in Sydney too – so why don’t we get it?
Auckland is certainly not alone in experiencing a pretty dramatic drop in traffic growth in the past few years – calling into question massive roading projects relying on massive traffic growth projections for their justification. We have pointed out similar trends in the USA, Canada, the UK, Europe and now – Sydney:
Gavin Gatenby, the convenor of lobby group Ecotransit, said the NSW government’s support of the WestConnex motorway was “about supporting private vested interests that have sunk billions into building motorways”.…
The Other Great Transit Dividend
We know that for cities clever investments in Transit systems are the best way to keep their road system working efficiently. By adding additional capacity for movements of people these complimentary systems can save us all multiple billions of dollars in deferred or unnecessary additional roading projects.…
‘The Economist’ on Peak Car
There have been quite a number of posts on this blog over the last few months which discuss our changing travel patterns – and in particular the drop off in traffic growth that has occurred in the past few years. The fact that traffic growth has slowed or stopped is pretty incontrovertible – you just need to look at NZTA’s state highway traffic data to have that confirmed:
What’s perhaps more interesting is to ponder the “why” and also the question about whether this is just a “blip” or whether it’s more of a long term shift – due to cultural/technological/demographic changes.…
Policy of appeasement: How to engage with transport engineers
This post has been brewing for a while. The reason being that threads on this blog are littered with comments along the lines of “I spoke to the transport/traffic engineers at Auckland Transport about issue XYZ but they simply fobbed me off.”…
Shifting the problem, not solving it
It’s generally accepted that the Victoria Park Tunnel represents probably the most cost-effective project out of the entire Roads of National Significance package. This was confirmed by the SAHA report, which puts the VPT miles ahead of any other project in terms of its cost-benefit ratio:
For southbound traffic, the project has worked wonders – at least making it easier for traffic to access State Highway 16 westbound (which will be important post Waterview Connection as the primary route from the North Shore to the Airport), the Port and the Cook Street offramp.…
Turning down the driving tap
Over the last few years we have continued to see that vehicle volumes on our roads have stopped growing, in fact in most cases they have even dropped, especially when looked at on a per capita level. Of the traffic volumes that the NZTA release monthly, the only one close to the centre of Auckland is the Harbour bridge.…
Is Brownlee stretching the truth? Fuel prices, vehicle demands, and the RoNS
Gerry Brownlee made some quite remarkable statements in parliament recently (this video is worth watching; Lockwood’s response to Julie’s point of order about halfway through was a moment of quite some mirth in my flat). To summarise Julie’s questions and Gerry’s answers (NB: I have quoted Gerry verbatim in some places, hence some of it is incoherent): Are the RoNs an appropriate use of money? …
A good motorway project?
An article in yesterday’s Herald highlighted a few of the worst spots across Auckland when it comes to congestion:
The section of the Southern Motorway which merges with the Ellerslie Panmure Highway is the most likely to suffer traffic delays, according to a traffic monitoring company.…
Being Rational About Transport Spending
New Zealand spends a lot of money on transport. More than half our rates are spent on building and fixing roads and footpaths as well as funding buses, trains and ferries. Further to this, close to a third of what we pay at the petrol pump is tax, with the bulk of that money – around $3 billion a year – also being spent on transport, an ever increasing proportion going to State Highways.…
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