Weekly Roundup 26-July-2024

Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments.

Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned glow-up for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. A harbourfront swimming pool, just like a real city!

The week in Greater Auckland

• On Monday, a guest post from longtime commenter MrPlod considered the impact of cruise control on driving speeds
• Tuesday’s post by Connor celebrated the Waimahara singing sculpture brightening up the Myers Park underpass
• On Wednesday, Patrick wished for better outcomes for Takaanini from the level crossing removal programme
• And we ran a timely Throwback Thursday post from Matt, on thinking about expressways

Matt also discussed the Northland highway plans with Dileepa Fonseka in Business Desk (paywalled). A key excerpt is shared by Bernard Hickey here.

A Regional Land Transport Plan without a climate clue

Yesterday evening, Auckland Council endorsed the Regional Land Transport Plan – effectively approving Auckland Transport’s bid for ten years of transport investment. It was not a unanimous endorsement, however.

Several councillors expressed grave concerns (articulated here by Councillor Richard Hills) about the RLTP’s lack of alignment with: Council’s feedback to AT, the Mayor’s feedback to AT, Council’s feedback on the GPS, the Auckland Plan, Te Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri – Auckland’s climate action plan, which was adopted in 2020 and “set a roadmap towards a zero-emissions, resilient and healthy region”, and the Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway.

The video of the meeting is here and worth watching all the way through.

Councillor Richard Hills posed a good question about why AT interpreted public feedback as asking for state highways to be elevated in the plan (Cr Chris Darby echoed this, noting there was not a shred of evidence for AT making that call). It was astonishing to hear Auckland Transport staff reply that they “hadn’t had time” to model the climate impacts, and thus could not confirm whether the plan to build more state highways will increase tailpipe emissions or not.

Cr Hills outlined AT’s approach to the public feedback here:

“In the survey feedback, 79% of people said we had correctly identified the challenges. Under the question ‘Are we missing anything from the draft priorities?’, 70% said no. ‘Are there missing projects?’ 72% said no. Yet for some reason, we’ve gone through and chosen the fourth question around priorities, and a 0.25% difference in categories meant that now we’ve moved $12bn of state highways up 30 places in the RLTP priorities.

And if you look at the GPS mixed in with that, only 30% of our public transport infrastructure gets funded – I know that’s not AT’s fault, it’s the GPS direction – but 100% of the state highways get funded. […] What that means for our households and residents is: higher emissions, poorer air quality, we will not meet any of our goals, and it will mean much higher petrol costs, much higher energy costs, and as you’ll see from the government’s Emissions Reduction Plan last week, we will not meet our nation’s goals on climate.”

Cr Hills also noted that this is the third or fourth RLTP where he has asked in vain for emissions modelling. Cr Shane Henderson expressed similar frustration:

“I’ve repeatedly asked for climate modelling. I’ve repeatedly asked for a test case [an RLTP that matches the climate plan]. That work hasn’t been done. I want to know why… I’m a bloody broken record on this issue, over and over again.”

And Cr Josephine Bartley put it bluntly:

“I’ll keep it short. I didn’t leave my dying mother’s hospital bed in June 2019 to come and vote for a climate emergency, to then sit here and support a transport plan that is not a transport plan for a city that is in a climate emergency. I also don’t believe that you can keep building all these different roads to keep on top of congestion. And while I appreciate the chair of AT’s letter to us, that the ambition is for people to get to places within 20 minutes, I believe the higher priority is that people get to places – safely. And safety is of low priority in this plan, compared to the RoNS. So I won’t be supporting it. Thank you.”

The RLTP now goes to the Auckland Transport board on 30 July 2024 for final signoff, and then to NZTA who will allocate funding accordingly.

An Emissions Reduction Plan without mode shift in mind

Consultation is now open until 21 August on New Zealand’s second emissions reduction plan (ERP2). Here’s the “at a glance” summary.  The initial expert response has mostly been pretty sceptical, and the Climate Minister was grilled on Q&A about the gaps in the thinking. As RNZ’s Eloise Gibson noted, our future targets may be in jeopardy:

…a comparison table using the closest available figures suggests New Zealand was on track to over-perform on its third emissions budget a year ago, under policies in place as at July 2023. As of July 2024, it is projected to miss that budget by around 17 million tonnes.

This is partly due to preemptive ditching of policies that were starting to make a dent in our emissions:

Figures in the draft plan reveal the climate impact of ditching Labour’s policies including EV subsidies (1.4 million tonnes more emissions from 2026-2030), grants to replace big industrial boilers (4.3 million tonnes more from 2026-2030), and relaxing standards on tailpipe emissions for cars imported into the country (a million tonnes, between now and 2035).

Our position is that decarbonising transport in our cities is a policy no-brainer, and involves a lot more than just encouraging more EVs. Everyday traffic is the biggest single contributor to Auckland’s carbon footprint. It’s responsible for around 40% of our greenhouse gases, plus other social harms. At the same time, around 2/3 of car trips are local enough to walk or bike. And, switching those short drives to low-carbon modes – aka “mode shift” – comes with heaps of extra benefits.

Unfortunately, the main mode-shift policy in the ERP2 is likely to be cancelled out by the rest of the government’s transport policy – as the ERP2 itself concedes:

Better public transport (saving 0.1 million tonnes of emissions from 2025-2030 and 0.3 million from 2030-2035). This including investing in projects such as Auckland busways. Notes with the document say some of this benefit might be undone by the government’s increased spending on roads.

Speaking of mode shift…

Here’s an interesting read from the UK on the shifting landscape – and language – of walking and cycling schemes. The author makes the point that we might get further with this infrastructure by highlighting the health and economic benefits:

…what resonates with the general public (as well as what will unlock funding) is positive outcomes for communities, framed in everyday terms.

This means that ‘modal shift targets’, rather than being the end goal in and of themselves, need to be more clearly a stepping stone to health and/ or economic outcomes.

To take this to a logical conclusion – might some key outcomes be?

• how likely people are to recommend their town as a place to live
• how often they shop in their local shops
• how many days of ill health taken from work a year
• how many shop vacancies on local high streets.

And while we’re talking about the UK, this week the City of London (aka the Square Mile) announced a refresh of its transport strategy “to focus more acutely on the needs of people walking and wheeling.” This aligns with their vision for 2040 and their Climate Action Strategy, and is in response tothe fact that “since the pandemic, walking and wheeling have increasingly made up the majority of journeys through and within the Square Mile.”

“We know that our strategy is making a difference. Our streets are safer, with the latest figures showing the lowest number of serious injuries on our streets since records began. Our air quality is improving, too. When we first published our strategy in 2019, 15 locations across the City exceeded our air quality objective for toxic Nitrogen Dioxide. Last year this figure was down to two.”

Emissions at the school gate

Speaking of air quality, and climate: here’s a nifty project by GNS Science to help drive down emissions at the school gate:

The Drive it Down project will install atmospheric greenhouse gas sensors at the gates of participating Auckland and Wellington schools, capturing the emissions patterns from school drop-off and pick-up during term time and school holidays. The data will be used to make the ‘invisible’ visible for the students, to inspire them on a mission to squash their emissions peak through a school-wide active transport campaign.

If this sound familiar, it’s because it builds on a 2023 pilot project with Meadowbank School in which the school community worked together to bring CO2 down to school holiday levels during term-time. Epic effort that also sounds like fun. Maybe the government could look into it?

Downtown Car Park saved from being saved by the Save the Queen Street Society

Oliver Lewis reports in BusinessDesk on the resolution of legal proceedings initiated by developer Andrew Krukziener, who objected to Auckland Council’s sale of the Downtown car parking building to Precinct Properties, who plan a mixed-use development on the site:

Save the Queen Street Society launched a Givealittle fundraising page several weeks ago to crowdfund its judicial review against Auckland Council and Precinct, which was due to be heard in the High Court at Auckland from Aug 5.
As of late Wednesday, the society had raised $2170, or around 0.4% of its $500,000 target.
…
On Tuesday night, Krukziener confirmed the judicial review had been resolved, but he didn’t address questions around whether he viewed his campaign as a failure, why he wasn’t self-funding the case, or what concessions – if any – the incorporated society had gained.

CRL progress, below and above ground

A fresh video update from the CRL team, showing what’s going on under Karangahape Road…

And work is beginning on the restoration of the plaza behind the central train station, Britomart/ Waitematā. This is expected to take about 18 months (more details here) and includes improvements to Tyler St, and other features:

Eight native trees will be planted around the edge of the plaza. There will also be a large central seating area, which will be a focal point for people to gather. Along with the trees, seats and bicycle racks, bollards will be installed around the plaza edge to prevent unauthorised vehicle access.

In the swim at Wynyard Quarter

The latest stakeholder update from Eke Panuku for Wynyard Quarter is a bit of a rollercoaster.

On the one hand, the pontoon bridge (proposed to replace the broken Te Wero bridge) will no longer proceed – but on the other hand, from 1 August the free ferry service will now run 7 days a week. Hours of operation will be 7am – 9pm on Sunday – Wednesday, and 7am – 10pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. More info on that here.

Meanwhile, the Karanga Plaza tidal swimming steps are getting a very cool-looking upgrade, starting in August and expecting to be open in time for summer!

These improvements include a free harbour pool [enclosed by pontoons] and bespoke jumping platform. This will create a multi-purpose swimming area, to encourage Aucklanders to safely connect with and enjoy the city centre waterfront for free.

The lap swimming area will operate initially as a pilot project to allow real-time testing of the concept, location, structure and operational requirements. The results will inform the viability of providing a more permanent salt water lap pool in the waterfront over time.

The new and expanded facilities will include:

• a larger area for swimmers, enclosed by floating pontoons

• approximately four 33m long swimming lanes, with lane ropes and ladders for access

• a dedicated jumping platform with balustrades and a grab rail

• a range of safety improvements

• changing sheds, showers, and lockers in Karanga Plaza (toilets are already provided).

The harbour pool and facilities will be free to use, and open during daylight hours only (dawn to dusk).

We’re not shutting up about safer speeds any time soon

Another day, another story about a community begging for safer speeds, a crossing and some speed bumps. And another city just quietly getting on with installing safer speeds, in line with the evidence. But can the Minister of Transport even hear them?

“He [Brown] doesn’t seem to be very good listener, does he?” is the verdict, in a great read in Forbes magazine from esteemed science writer Laurie Winkless,about the science of safer speeds, especially in cities. Winkless cites a recent study that looked at 40 cities that had introduced 30km/h areas.

…when viewed together, the results paint a very clear picture, particularly of the safety benefits that come with slower speeds. Yannis and Michelaraki found that, on average, the introduction of 30 km/h speed limits in these European cities resulted in a:

· 23% reduction in road crashes
· 37% reduction in fatalities
· 38% reduction in injuries.

… air pollutants including nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulate matter (PM) were seen to drop by an average of 18%, and noise pollution was reduced too.

The study also looked at one of the common criticisms leveled at lower speed limits – that drivers will experience longer journey times a result. Across all of the cities included in the paper, the authors found that travel times did increase. But the increase was small, between 3% and 5%. On a 40-minute drive through a city, that would equate to spending an extra 72 seconds to 2 minutes in the car.

Winkless, the author of Science and the City: the Mechanics Behind the Metropolis, now lives in New Zealand – perhaps that’s why our recent policy changes come under a spotlight in the article, in a section entitled “Going the Wrong Way”:

“I don’t think there’s any way Simeon Brown could put his hand up and say, this is evidence-based policy,” says Professor Simon Kingham. “He continually talks about the previous government’s blanket speed reductions. In reality, they were targeted and underwent full consultation. The only blanket speed changes are what he’s proposing. And that’s a blanket speed limit increase.”

Kingham, a geographer from the University of Canterbury, whose research primarily focuses on the impact of the urban environment on health and wellbeing, has been a vocal opponent to this proposal in recent months. And he’s in a unique position to comment on it. For more than six years until the end of May 2024, he had been seconded to the Ministry of Transport as their Chief Science Advisor. He ended up leaving the post earlier than planned after being “encouraged to go” by the Ministry, who, he says, “didn’t want science anymore.”

“There’s an irony there,” says Kingham. “If I hadn’t left two months early, I would not have been able to say anything at the moment.”

The article ends with a banger of a quote from Not Just Bikes, which we encourage you to click through and enjoy for yourself.

Greenery is good, actually

Here’s a good list of ten ways trees make for a healtheir city, and a reminder of the 3-30-300 rule. How does your ‘hood measure up?

[F]or optimal health, everyone should be able to see at least three trees from home, live under a neighbourhood canopy of at least 30 per cent tree cover and within 300 metres of a green space of at least one hectare.

Fancy biking to a cafe?

Always fun to see cafe reviews that note the proximity of cycleways – like this one in the Denizen, about The Alderman in Henderson:

“Our building was built in 1873, and was the first hotel in Henderson, so it has always been entrenched in the hospitality culture of the west,” says [co-owner Donna] Hutchins.

The Alderman [is] already becoming a fixture in the local dining scene, with locals embracing the newcomer wholeheartedly.

“The weekend vibe has been all about local families and dogs so far!” says Hutchins, “We have a lovely north-facing outlook to Falls Park, where the kids can explore nature too, and locals have been using the beautiful walkway and bike path to get to the eatery.”

Another good one to bike to: Young George, just off the Waterview Path in Mt Albert, currently open Tuesday – Sunday, 7am-2pm.

Good energy

An eye-catching story in Stuff, involving New Zealand’s largest crane and 41 turbines, reports that Harapaki Wind Farm is up and running “ahead of time and within budget.” The Meridian project, just north of Napier, “can produce enough electricity to power 70,000 average homes, the equivalent of most of Hawke’s Bay.” The blades on the turbines are 60m long! This video gives a glimpse of the effort and expertise involved.

Oh, the places you’ll go!

We finish with two items about the places bikes can take you. The first is a reflection by Auckland Transport’s head of active modes, Adrian Lord, on his two years (so far!) in Auckland.

The inevitable migration conversations with friends, family and colleagues often revolve around comparing UK to New Zealand. The three FAQ’s of my job are: When can we cycle over the harbour bridge? When will we get bikes on buses? How far behind on cycling is Auckland compared to (insert random European city/country here)?

My answers to the first two questions for the record are: Don’t know, not my bridge (it’s for NZTA to decide). Hopefully we’ll have a bikes on buses trial up and running within the year, but still a lot of water to go under that bridge too!

The third question is the wrong question. Every city is unique. If I had to make comparisons with UK cities, Auckland is similar in many ways to Birmingham.

Lord makes some fascinating comparisons with Birmingham, a city he knows well – and finishes with this relatable observation:

Reflecting on two years in, it has been a ‘Once in a Lifetime’ experience, but maybe not in quite the optimistic way I was expecting. Some of the best days on a bike are spent battling hills and headwinds.

Meanwhile: local sustainable transport advocate and sometime Greater Auckland contributor Tim Adriaansen is currently pedalling his way from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Here’s a fresh instalment to take you into the weekend – it certainly makes a trundle to the shops look quite achievable!

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