Weekly Roundup 15-November-2024

Happy Friday, welcome to another round-up of interesting stories about what’s happening in Auckland and other cities. Feel free to add your links in the comments!

This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and fans. If you’d like to support our work, you can join our circle of supporters here, or support us on substack!

This week in Greater Auckland

• On Monday Connor looked at the government’s decisions that put us speeding towards a lethal legacy.
• On Tuesday Matt covered the news that the Auckland Rail network will be disrupted for almost 150 days in the coming 13 months.
• On Wednesday Matt celebrated the first anniversary of the Western Express and associated changes which are smashing targets.
• On Thursday Patrick looked at how cities change the use of spaces over a day through clever street management and time.

Credit/Debit card fares are here

From Sunday, you can pay for your public transport trips directly using a contactless credit/debit card.

Starting 17 November customers will be able to use contactless credit and debit cards, smartphones, or wearable devices to tag on and off AT’s buses, trains, and most ferries alongside AT HOP cards.

This initiative is designed to offer greater accessibility and opens up public transport to more Aucklanders and visitors. Until now customers were required to purchase and use an AT HOP card for most trips.

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AT would like to remind customers travelling from Sunday that the card readers on buses, trains and most ferries can now read more than just their AT HOP card. To pay the right fare, on the right card or device, here are a few tips:

Separate your card from your wallet or phone; or have your device ready before tagging on and off.

• Be sure to tag on and off with the same card or device throughout your journey to pay the correct fare. So, do not tag on with your smartphone then tag off with your smartwatch or card.
• You will pay standard adult HOP fares when using credit and debit cards, or mobile devices.
• You can still use your AT HOP cards across the public transport network.
• Make sure to keep using your AT HOP card if you are eligible for concessions such as SuperGold, community connect, accessible, student and tertiary discounts or Fareshare, or the $50 seven-day fare cap should continue using their AT HOP cards to get their concessions.

AT also say that Waiheke ferries are excluded

Sunday is also the day changes to isthmus crosstown buses takes effect.

Gowing Dr connection paused

The plans for a very useful connection from Gowing Dr to the Eastern Path has been put on hold due to the government cutting funding for walking and cycling. This was originally meant to be built last year but was delayed and funding diverted to help deal with the recovery from the floods and cyclone.

Meadowbank to Kohimarama Connections project update – Gowing Drive underpass funding and no work over Xmas

We last emailed you earlier this year and this email provides an update on the project status on 92 Gowing Drive, which is where the future Gowing Drive walking and cycling connection is proposed.

The Gowing Drive connection is the final stage of the Meadowbank to Kohimarama Connections project, for which strong community support was received during our last consultation. It is also a priority project for the Ōrākei Local Board.

We have completed the detailed design for the southern (Gowing Drive) connection and have prepared the resource consent package.

Project funding and status

The Government’s 202427 National Land Transport Programme has now been confirmed and regrettably the Gowing Drive project is no longer a priority transport project to be funded.

As a result of this funding situation, consent lodgement and construction of the Gowing Drive connection will now be deferred until post 2027. We are instead focusing on delivering NZ Transport Agency co-funded routes, such as Stage 4 of the Glen Innes to Tamaki (GI2T), during the current 3-year funding period.

When the Meadowbank to Kohimarama project resumes in the future we’ll take the opportunity to look at whether a better link to Selwyn College can be incorporated into the northern connection (John Rhymer), alongside reassessing the southern connection (Gowing Drive). While there is no funding to continue with investigation and design in the immediate future, this work is planned to resume in 2027.

We will also re-tenant the current empty Gowing Drive property. We’ll keep the community updated once the project restarts.

Improving road safety along Gowing Drive

Lastly, we had planned to consult on new road safety proposals that would support the expected increase in people walking or riding their bike using the connection, as well as slowing speed around the area. We will not be advancing these proposals for traffic calming in the foreseeable future.

Bikes are life saving

The devastating floods in Valencia a few weeks ago saw cars and much of the transport network become destroyed or disrupted. But in shattered infrastructure, the mighty bicycle is still able to let people travel and help people as Chris Marshall-Bell relays their experience.

Villages I frequently cycle through were converted into a real-life end-of-the-world film set in less than an hour, with destroyed cars, thrown-away furniture and uprooted infrastructure sitting on top of 30cm of thick mud. So much is ruined. The damage caused by the river tsunami – because that’s what it was, a river tsunami – is truly unfathomable, incomprehensibly devastating, and unbearably heartbreaking.

Over the past week, I and tens of thousands of others have been going to the affected zones every day to help with the mammoth clean-up operation. With so many bridges swept away and roads closed to allow the unobstructed passage of emergency and military vehicles, the only way to access these towns and villages has been by walking or by bike.

[…]

Without our bikes, I and many friends would not have been able to deliver vital medicine to people with diabetes. Without our bikes, we would not have been able to buy much-needed food and water supplies and then quickly deliver them to cut-off villages within half-an-hour. And without our bikes, we would not have been able to take our brushes and spades to the more isolated towns and villages that walkers from Valencia city are unable to get to due to the longer distance.

100,000 Chinese students search for dumplings – by a 50km bike ride and blocking a highway

A trend in China of students biking for dumplings at night has grown to 100,000 strong – resulting in blocked highways and authorities restricting bike hire.

The trend started in June when four Zhengzhou university students decided to rideseveral hours to Kaifeng on share bikes in search of the city’s famous oversized soup dumplings, guan tang bao. Posts from their journey gained attention on social media, launching a hashtag “youth is priceless, night ride to Kaifeng has it”.

[…]

But that evening the number of students riding rose to a reported 17,000, and then on Friday increased as much as ten-fold, with estimates of between 100,000 and 200,000 students jamming the road.

Joel MacManus reaches the end* of his bottom to top public transport commute

Joel has ended his trip, making it to Kaitaia* after 42.5 hours and $978.02.

Catch the final day here, or the rest of the writeup:

Day one: Oban to Invercargill

Day two: Invercargill to Dunedin

Day three: Dunedin to Christchurch

Day four: Christchurch to Wellington

Day five: Wellington to Auckland

Day six: Auckland to Paihia

Bikes on Buses

Around the country, bikes on buses have suddenly been banned:

Minister of Transport Simeon Brown has asked the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to “find a fix as soon as possible” after bus operators nationwide instigated a complete ban of bike racks on public transport buses.

The decision, announced on Thursday, has been met with frustration and disappointment from commuters who have described the move as a “total overreach”.

The move came in reaction to an “industry alert” issued last month by the NZTA about the use of bike racks on buses at night.

The document urged public transport bus operators to check their visibility when using bike racks at night as carrying bikes can partially obscure the headlamps. “If the headlamps can’t provide enough illumination to drive safely, the bus won’t comply with the Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Lighting 2004,” the alert stated.

The document suggested a number of solutions including moving low-beam headlamps below the bike rack to prevent bikes obscuring them, fitting brighter headlamps to increase the illumination, or fitting auxiliary headlamps to the bike rack that switch on when the bike rack is deployed.

However, bus companies across New Zealand said they would refuse to carry bikes both day and night, according to statements issued by councils around the country, including Environment Canterbury (ECan).

This is absurd, especially during the day when the lights aren’t being used and it’s good to see the minister calling for it to be fixed.

Meanwhile, it seems Auckland Transport is quietly conducting a closed trial allowing bikes inside NX1 buses

We are trying new and different ideas to make public transport in Auckland more convenient and enable more travel by active modes.

We are doing a closely monitored study to understand some of the practical complexities of having bikes in buses in Auckland.

How the trial will work

• A two-week trial of two different types of bike racks, situated inside two double decker buses servicing the NX1 route.
• Each rack is designed to hold two bikes. This means space for two cyclists to park their bikes on each bus.
• Only pre-selected volunteers will be using the racks during the trial. Because of the level of co-ordination and monitoring needed during the trial, unfortunately it is not open to everyone. Volunteers must be registered with AT, undergo safety briefings and scheduling, and be in constant contact with project managers during the trial.
• The Northern Express has been chosen as it uses double decker buses and provides a high service frequency, therefore using only 2 buses for the trial will have a small impact on the overall level of service.
• An online survey is below, for regular customers on theses buses to have their say. Feedback from operational staff and volunteers involved in the trial will also be gathered.

Funding improvements in the City Centre

There have been a lot of improvements to the city centre over the last few decades and there is often a misconception that it is all funded by general rates from the region. In reality, a large portion has been funded by the City Centre Targeted Rate and the council have just released the latest annual report about how it is used.

Occupying a compact 4.3 square kilometre area, Auckland’s city centre is the largest employment centre in the country and home to a thriving residential population.

It plays an outsized role in the region’s economy and culture, generating around 20% of Auckland’s GDP.

At the core of this success is the Auckland Council city centre targeted rate (CCTR) which plays a vital role in supporting the city centre’s economy. Auckland Council recognises that investing in the city centre is an investment in the region’s future prosperity.

The City Centre Targeted Rate Annual Report 2023 / 2024 highlights key investments in projects and developments that are transforming public spaces, enhancing high-value urban living, supporting its place in providing high-quality education and ensuring the city centre is a competitive business location.

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“The city centre targeted rate investment has vastly improved the quality and attractiveness of the urban environment and residential living, improved stormwater quality, tree cover and biodiversity. Key developments include the shared space programme and laneways, improvements to parks, plazas and the waterfront development.

“We encourage people to read the report to see the huge breadth and depth of projects the rate has supported in the 2023 / 2024 reporting year. We’re proud to say that this investment has made the city centre a better place to be,” Jenny Larking says.

The curse of inventing the modern kitchen

In an interesting piece of architectural news, this article came out about Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky who invented the prototype for the modern kitchen. But its invention followed her through her very interesting life as an architect, activist, and resistance fighter.

“I never ran a household, never cooked, and never had any cooking experience prior to creating the Frankfurt Kitchen.”
Instead she interviewed housewives, conducted time-motion studies and drew inspiration from kitchen galleys on trains. The result was a narrow space where a woman could turn from sink to stove without taking a step, and every utensil and ingredient had a designated space.

[…]

Her convictions didn’t weaken with age. When she was offered the Austrian Medal for Science and Art in 1988 – only one of the many honours she belatedly received – she refused it due to the then president’s complicity in Nazi war crimes. And at the age of 98 she sued the rightwing politician Jörg Haider for trivialising the Holocaust. “There was no retreat,” says Zwingl. “It was always, ‘What can I do? How do I do it?’ And then she did it.”

Yet she could never escape the long shadow of the Frankfurt Kitchen. At the age of 101, she testily exclaimed: “If I had known that everyone would keep talking about nothing else, I would never have built that damned kitchen!”

Wholesome encounter at the Waterfront!

Pearl Jam guitarist Eddie Vedder charms superfan Hugh Allan in the Viaduct who had zipped over on the ferry to get a chance of meeting him. Bonus? Seems he had been having a good time riding around the harbour!

“We were initially in some bad light and he grabbed my phone and insisted on moving around to find some better light. He took three photos of us and then I gave him a big hug and then he was on his way”.

Vedder was on a red bike with his security guy in tow. You can see the red bicycle in the background of the photo the singer took.

Later today, Kid’s obstacle course & bicycle drive in Waterview – 3.20pm!

Have a great weekend

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