Help let businesses help with PT costs
With petrol prices on the rise, it is once again raising suggestions that the government should cut fuel taxes to ease the burden on the public. The National Party in particular are pushing this line, although they don’t say how the government could then afford to pay for current transport plans.…
71 Comments Matakana Link Road plated in gold?
The Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) and the draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) represent a significant improvement over previous plans, having a much greater focus on walking and cycling projects. There are however still a lot of projects unfunded. Programmes like bus priority measures and cycling are only seeing a portion of the funding they need.…
Improving Walking and Cycling in Henderson
Henderson is one of the key areas Panuku Development Auckland hope to unlock in the coming years. It’s a centre with a lot of potential, especially once the CRL drags it 10 minutes closer to town. As part of that, Auckland Transport are looking at what it can do to improve walking and cycling in the area, which was identified as an “early construction” area in their 10-year business case.…
East West Link must be “revised”, not just “staged”
Shortly after taking office the government cancelled the horror show that was the East West Link project. Ahead of the election this was a major part of Labour’s transport platform, which promised a better value for money option that would also not have such significant environmental impacts.…
RONS Review – Part 1
The release of the new draft Government Policy Statement a month ago marked a major shift in government transport policy. Significantly it marks the end of the previous government’s ‘Roads of National Significance’ Policy. It is is therefore a good time to look back exactly what was promised in 2009, and to see how things were at 9 years later.…
Flashback Saturday: The Value of Well-Designed Cities
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Matt was originally published in April 2016.
When it comes to the debate about housing and development, there’s been plenty of discussion about the physical impacts of decisions we make, for example the height and bulk of buildings.…
Rates, regional fuel taxes and fairness
In a couple of weeks Auckland Council will make probably its biggest decision since adopting the Unitary Plan, by either voting for or against adopting the Regional Fuel Tax that was recently consulted on (twice).
In some respects the choice is simple.…
Fairer fares
Some of the opposition to the Regional Fuel Tax has come from those concerned about the ability of low income households to afford the extra costs
This article by Manukau Ward Councilor Efeso Collins lays out many of those concerns.
Due to low household incomes, my community doesn’t have the luxury of paying additional tax now, to benefit future generations.…
Auckland’s appalling road safety reasons laid out
Auckland is in the midst of a road safety crisis with deaths and serious injuries in the region increasing by more than 70% in the three years since 2014. That’s more than five times the rate of travel and three times the rate of increase for the rest of the country.…
Kiwirail’s de-electrification decision questioned again
This is a guest post from Dr Roger Blakeley, former Secretary for the Environment; Bob Norman, former Commissioner of Works; Alex Gray, professional civil engineer and Senior Project Manager; and Keith Flinders, Electrical Services Consultant.
On 10 May 2018, Radio NZ reported that, in a briefing to Ministers on 21 March 2018, KiwiRail said that it had received no direction from the Government to cease the de-electrification programme on the NIMT and is continuing its work to decommission the electric locomotives fleet by 31 March 2019.…
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