It’s another Friday and it has been a big week in Auckland. We hope everyone’s excited to be in the final stretch of the year! Here’s some of the stories that have caught our attention this week.
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This week in Greater Auckland
- On Monday Connor outlined how we fix the City Centre’s transport issues (hint we already have the plan for it).
- On Tuesday Matt celebrated Great North Road improvements (finally) starting.
- On Wednesday Matt examined the good, bad, and (potentially) ugly aspects of the proposed Auckland Transport changes.
- On Thursday Patrick looked at the potential of passenger rail to Hamilton, and how to stage it.
Submit on the Albany Highway consultation!
Auckland Transport are consulting on closing the notorious walking and cycling gap along Albany Highway that was highlighted by Shaun Baker in this post – though point out that the work is unfunded and likely will be for a long time based on current government policy.
We’re working to improve safe walking and cycling connections across Tāmaki Makaurau.
Albany’s population is growing. We’re investigating a safe walking and cycling network along Albany Highway, between Bush Road and Sunset Road, and some parts of Goldfinch Rise.
We know parts of Albany Highway have no footpaths on either side of the road, which makes it difficult for people to walk safely locally or to bus stops.
We want you to share your thoughts in our survey below on how you travel in our project area including how we can improve:
- Footpaths and cycleways options between Bush Road and Sunset Road
- Crossing options over Albany Highway to make it safer for you to walk in your local area
- Cycling connections between SH18 cycleway, Glenfield Road and Unsworth Reserve
Your local knowledge about how you would like to walk and cycle will help us shape our designs, which can be built over time as funding becomes available
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You can influence the following key elements in our investigations that will help shape the final outcome:
- Crossing locations – Areas where you often need to cross the road and feel unsafe to do so.
- Shared paths – these are wide paths designed with enough room for people walking and cycling to share.
- Improving safety – which means separating people on foot and cyclists from the busy main roads. This requires us to clear access and reallocate road space which will remove some on-street parking areas.
- Wayfinding – if there is a location around the roadway or other areas that you think wayfinding signs should be included.
- Protected cycle lanes – these are bike lanes separated from traffic by rubber or concrete barriers.
[Matt] As someone who cycles through here multiple times a week, upgrading the horrific Albany Hwy/Upper Harbour Dr intersection is critical along with footpaths and cycleways. Here is a quick clip from early September showing what it’s currently like.
Surrey Crescent and Old Mill Rd Improvements coming
As well as Gt North Rd finally starting, AT are also gearing up to deliver on some other improvements in the Inner West.
The Surrey Crescent and Old Mill Rd improvements includes footpath upgrades, cycling paths, new road surfacing and improved pedestrian crossings. It is cost-effective, quick and easy to implement with work starting in July 2025 and finishing in September 2025.
The road surface will also be improved throughout the route as the project is being combined with planned maintenance which minimises construction time and cost.
We have done extensive engagement with the local community on improving this area since 2016 and we have incorporated this feedback into our latest plans. There is great local support for the project, with the community asking us to start it as soon as possible. Check out the full plans or see the overview below.
The changes we’re making
There will be space for people to walk and cycle along the whole route on both sides of the road.
- Cycle lanes on the road.
- Cycle lanes on the berm.
- A shared walking and cycling path.
- Improvements to pedestrian crossings.
- Raising the pedestrian crossing at Grey Lynn School entrance.
- Road narrowing outside Grey Lynn School.
- New road surface.
- Trial 5min pick up, drop off outside the Grey Lynn School.
With Pt Chev to Westmere, Gt North Rd and this, the inner west is inching closer to having a connected network.
Our presence in the media this week
With the enormous changes to transport governance in Auckland through the proposed changes to AT, we’ve been fielding a fair few requests in the media for comment. While overall the change seems good, there’s a few things that are cause for concern.
See Matt’s comments here on Stuff as well as on RNZ about the risk we get a post code lottery for safe streets and cycleways due to potentially more political decisions being made from devolving power to local boards.
Connor wrote and op-ed for The Post, asking some questions of the change, and the risk of central overriding local government.
The Spinoff highlights the absurdity of the bus bike rack ban
The Spinnoff has covered the bus bike rack ban.
A bike rack on a bus is a simple solution to any number of problems. Maybe your bike has a flat tyre and you forgot to bring a repair kit. Or maybe it’s started pouring and the thought of riding to uni in the rain is unappealing, but the weather will be better in the afternoon. Maybe you’re still getting used to biking uphill, and the prospect of a ride in a bus on the way home is good encouragement to cycle down to the city. Maybe you want to drop your kid off at school on the bus; maybe you live on the other side of a tunnel or bridge that bikes can’t go on; maybe you want to get out of the city and want to bus to somewhere more quiet for a peaceful bike ride.
Whatever the reason that putting your bike on a bus is appealing, it’s currently not an option anywhere in the country. On November 8, a complete restriction on front-mounted bike racks on buses began, everywhere in the country. This followed an initial night-time ban that came in on November 2.
Auckland ranks as the 47th best city in the world to visit or live
Recently Marketing companies Ipsos and Resonance produced a report for the best cities in 2025. As the NZHerald reports, London came out on top, while Auckland was all the way in 47th.
It turns out the most people friendly places gave us a good score, with the downtown redevelopment and waterfront getting big props. It’ll be interesting to see how the opening of the CRL changes things in 2026.
Aotearoa didn’t make the top 10, or the top 20. Our biggest city, Auckland, ranked just inside the top 50 at 47th, up from last year’s 64th spot.
Auckland was ranked the best city in the world for air quality and the sixth best for labour force participation.
“New Zealand’s largest and most cosmopolitan city balances modernity with natural beauty,” read the entry. It also said the renewed Britomart and Viaduct Harbour, as well as the new Commercial Bay area, have “transformed” the city’s downtown area.
It also called out the City Rail Link, saying it would “dramatically improve transit connectivity across the city” once it’s complete in 2026.
While it was the 16th most “livable” city, it was not particularly “lovable” or “prosperous”, ranking 69th and 99th, respectively.
Prosperity reflects the relative strength of human capital and was calculated using several metrics, such as GDP per capita, labour force participation, percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree and poverty rate.
The kids know what’s up
A primary-aged student concerned about accidents outside of his rural south Auckland school is urging local politicians to lower the speed limit.
Presenting a petition to the Franklin Local Board through board member Gary Holmes, Caio Maffey said something needed to be done about speeding.
The 9-year-old is a student at Awhitu District School, and started a petition for speed reduction measures on the 60km/hr rural road, which doesn’t have restrictions during school hours
“There have already been car accidents outside the gate,” Maffey said.
“I think that if we put speed bumps outside the gate, cars will have to slow down and it will make it safer for kids and parents.”
He said he was going to present his petition to his Auckland Council representatives and members of Parliament.
Another safety project canned
Improving the Hill St intersection has been on the plans for a long time and it now looks like it’ll stay on the plans for longer still with Waka Kotahi pulling funding from it despite AT saying they expected to start construction last month.
An upgrade to simplify an Auckland intersection infamous for its confusing layout has been pushed back, again.
The Hill St intersection in Warkworth has long frustrated motorists, locals and visitors alike, with its 55 different turning combinations into Pūhoi, Wellsford, Matakana and Snells Beach.
It is frequently referred to by locals as New Zealand’s “worst intersection”.
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Auckland Transport and New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi have pondered options for an upgrade since at least 2010, spending millions on project investigations and proposals.
In its latest project update in November 2023, AT said it had settled on a plan to replace the intersection with two roundabouts, teasing that construction could begin within 12 months.
However, that plan has too come to a screeching halt, with funding for the project shelved in the 2024 Governement Policy Statement (GPS) on land transport until at least 2027, a NZTA spokesperson said.
Should there be an upper age limit for driving?
An interesting question out of Australia, should we have a maximum age for driving?
Drivers have to obey speed limits, which are signposted along roadsides and above multi-lane highways.
When it comes to age limits, however, the situation is a little more complicated.
States and territories across Australia are fairly consistent at the younger end of the driving spectrum. In most, you can start preparing for the road at 16.
But jurisdictions differ much more markedly in their expectations regarding older drivers — a state of affairs which doesn’t reflect what University of New South Wales dementia expert Kaarin Anstey describes as the “U-shaped curve” in road crash stats.
“The drivers who have the most crashes are the young drivers up to [the age of] 25, and then the older drivers particularly in their 80s and over, but it does start to creep up in the 70s,” she said.
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Studies have repeatedly reported an over-representation of older Australians in fatal crash statistics.
The most recent national crash data shows that of the 1,295 Australians killed on the roads in the past year, more than a fifth (294) were aged 65 or above.
A joint paper by UNSW and National Seniors Australia noted that the over-70 age group not only had fatality rates “equivalent to those of drivers aged 17-25”, but that they were at higher risk of serious injury because of frailty.
“The most common crash for an older driver is turning right,” Professor Anstey told ABC Radio.
The New Zealand data groups everyone over the age of 60 and that group account for about 11% of the population but over a quarter of the deaths on our roads.
Bike lane ramp going ahead on Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sticking with Australia, the bike lane over the Sydney Harbour Bridge is getting a much needed upgrade (see if you can spot the Nimby cutaway).
So Eke Panuku was right
A few weeks ago Stuff ran a story highlighting support but also concerns with the concept plans for Te Ara Tukutuku, the planned headland park at the tip of Wynyard Point, in particular commenting about the images showing Orca in the area.
If there’s a perfect symbol for the far-reaching aspirations of Auckland’s $320 million proposed new waterfront park and mixed use development, it’s perhaps the frolicking whales.
Highly-stylised renders show a lush pōhutukawa forest on a peninsula surrounded by leaping dolphins, jubilant orca and baleen whales spouting geysers.
Perhaps it wasn’t far off after all as Stuff reported on Monday about orca just off North Wharf.
Making Bridges Car Free
Some interesting posts from the socials
If you catch yourself with a polarizing thought, like "there is a war on cars", stop for a second and take a deep breath. Go outside and observe. Does reality seem to agree with the thought? Where did this thought come from, and does it stem from a place of data and facts, or gut feelings?
— Olivier Bourgeois (@olivi-eh.dev) 2024-12-03T21:25:45.593Z
Have a great weekend.
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From the RNZ article on the Warkworth intersection:
>Transport Minister Simeon Brown said Auckland Transport’s design for upgrades of the Hill Street intersection included at least five new speed bumps and three sections of cycleway.
That did not align with the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport, or his expectation that investment in transport infrastructure would get back to basics.
“If Auckland Transport wish to advance this project, they will need to rework the design for the intersection to better align with the GPS and then re-submit it to NZTA for consideration of co-funding.”
It’s gonna be v interesting to see what AT do in this situation –
Attempt to fight for fundning politically?
Back down and remove the safety features for anyone not in a car?
Attempt to run out the clock till next term?
Even if they provided funding themselves / from added Council money, Simeon would still go “Nuh-huh. This is a crucial road for our country (despite the new motorway bypassing the area), so we are exercising our powers to stop this design which is only going to frustrate motorists.”
This is a govt who cannot accept that people might have different opinions on what is best, and who shout loudly about local decision making being important – unless those decisions dont fit into their narrow world-view.
Build it without the crossings with NZTA paying half, then put them in at AT’s expense.
Maybe Simeon should deign it himself….
All going nicely until the Brown Grinch spotted the dreadful speed tables and some little bits of cycle path. Flush crossings close to roundabouts might be safe enough, but when crossing visibility is too short, slowing vehicles is the only answer. So many the project to make it safe to cross these roads can go ahead except for the little parts that make it safe to cross the road….
It’s nice to see how local democracy works out in action.
The shite we have to put up with from National Ministers who think they know best and restrict AT and others from doing the right thing. There is this of course and we also have WK and AT going through all sorts of machinations to get buslanes on the NW Motorway and cycleways alongside – Thank you, prior National MP Steven Joyce.
You can probably list other transport CF’s that are thanks to the National Party’s, “we’re businessmen so we know best” arrogance.
God, Simeon Brown really is the worst… he’s got such a vendetta.
And not so capping the age limit but what they need to do is cap those that fail to what for Emergency Vehicles as seen here at Parnell yesterday ;-
For the age limits of driving, I would like them to line up with the age of voting. So if we could be sensible and allow 16 year olds to vote, we could then say when you retire, you no longer need to drive. That would mean “driving” from age 16 to 65.
Driving is an activity that requires high concentration, and also contributes to stress. I personally do not drive, and am somewhere in the middle of the young and old age bracket, but not driving has been the most important part of my life.
The fact that we expect people who impair themselves with drugs to be good citizens and not drive, but expect elderly persons who have begun, or are in the middle of decline; and suffering various levels of impairment, to somehow be helpful in our road space, is to put it simply, stupid.
Declaration of conflict: I hate cars, I hate driving; I am raising my children to ride bikes, buses, ferries and trains, and most importantly, hate cars.
bah humbug
So if I’ve retired in my mid 50’s, I no longer need to vote or drive ?
It’s not the age but the competence to drive that is the issue. Age is being used as a proxy for competence. I would have thought increasing the effort to retain a driving licence, which increases the barrier progressively would provide a better incentive to nudge people towards making a decision to give up driving.
Apart from the agism issue of a blanket ban on over-65 drivers, there is little evidence to support it. There is evidence to support periodic testing of drivers to ensure they are still competent and medically fit, starting well before retirement age, but at more regular intervals as age increases. There are already procedures for suspending the licenses of medically impaired drivers.
Part of the reason elderly are a higher percentage of injuries and deaths is that they are more susceptible to injury, less able to survive trauma, and take longer to heal and recover (not just from road accidents, but falls and burns too).
Much better to follow the inclusivity approach: if it’s good for the less able, it’s good for everyone.
No right turns on roads >30 km/h would solve a lot. There are no right turns on a roundabout.
Many elderly people are still forced to live in car-dependent places.
What about a place where is there is no regular public transport and how do the people over 65 go shopping or any other activities/locations. In this case in Auckland for example if they want go to Piha beach and the public transport is almost non existence. This is from google map “Sorry, we could not calculate transit directions from “New Lynn Bus Station, Trojan Crescent, New Lynn, Auckland 0600” to “Piha Beach, Auckland 0772”
Or go to out of place town like Te Awamutu and it is not quick and easy to get there by public transport from Auckland. Google map said 4hrs 25 mins which is quite a long time.
Unfortunately everyone need to have a car to go to places.
I didn’t actually believe you, so I tried Google maps and AT Transport planner for a bunch of West Coast beaches from different locations, and just nothing.
It isn’t even that far on the map, and if you were seriously fit (and/or ebike) could cycle it, but no chance of taking public transport.
Seems like a shame as seems like over summer holidays at least, an innovative public transport organization could look at putting on some special services.
I imagine it could be quite popular to do a special service with train out west and then some shuttle buses running to two or three of the beaches like Pihi/Te Henga/Mirawai
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-12-2023/where-are-all-the-buses-to-the-beach
Clearly you are nowhere near 65 so don’t have a personal benchline. You also infer that anyone over 65 shouldn’t be able to vote.
An the other thing GA forgot to mention is , There are now Freight Train running North and South between Auckland and Whangarei either early Morning North , or Late at Night South in the Evenings
Not a lot of freight on that one. I suppose it will take quite some time to rebuild significant volumes. If you look at customers they have lost over the last 5 years. I wonder what effort they have made to regain old customers. Probably told them that we will be happy to carry your freight as long as you deliver it to or pick it up from the Whangerai yard. Still maybe it’s a business plan which can work I am uncertain how economic it would be.
Those containers were from Fonterra , and the Following night there was also some from the cement works at Portland .
Inner West network is starting to look pretty useful, despite some of the treatments being less than ideal (no side road priority is pretty lacklustre) and some notable gaps in the town centres (presuming they’re leaving the biggest shit-fights over parking for last)
On a side note, I’d be interested to see what they decide to do about the connection from West Auckland to south Auckland.
For context – I commute from Māngere to Te Atatū daily, it takes 20 minutes in free flowing traffic, and around 35 minutes in rush hour.
While public transport takes 1hr 45 mins to 2hrs 30 in rush hour.
That’s an average of around 4-5 times longer on public transport compared to driving, seems a bit silly.
One obvious improvement would be the Avondale Southdown rail line. After 80 years maybe it’s time to build it. Or is it still too soon?
At this point, I’d expect govt to pass laws to stop it if it actually went anywhere progress-wise, probably with some figleaf like “This would endanger crucial East-West Link (motorway) connections, and we will not tolerate such vandalism.”
Also, the Avondale Southdown line would be mainly for freight, rather than PT.
It’s fine (sort of) for some trips in a city to “need” cars. Cross-town trips by nature are a bit rarer and more complex to deal with. We shouldn’t ignore them for PT, no. But our greatest work on getting people out of cars and onto (efficient) PT will still remain the more direct in-out trips for a long while, I think.
I mean, in lieu of light rail/trams down the Isthmus arterials potentially for a long time if not indefinitely, revisiting the CFN 1.0 plan of using the west half of the ASL as a ‘Mt Roskill branch’ on the heavy rail network could be a potential option. Albeit one that would require another service pattern to link up to on the other end of the CRL and complicate the Mt Albert/Avondale junction; and then again waiting until 2051 for that…
Does anyone really know where people travel from and to on a daily basis or is much of this based on assumptions? It surely wouldn’t be that technically difficult to map on a per vehicle basis where each road vehicle travels daily. With number plate recognition possible using little more than a dashcam all motorway on/off ramps could be covered to provide real life usage. Move then to arterial roads to build a wider range. With appropriate mapping a track for each, anonymised, vehicle a real world pattern would be available to plan PT alternatives rather than vague I’ts fine (sort of)” concepts around cross town assumptions.
Another thought is this info is already collected by smart phones. Can this be obtained from Google etc.?
“Does anyone really know where people travel from and to on a daily basis or is much of this based on assumptions? It surely wouldn’t be that technically difficult to map on a per vehicle basis where each road vehicle travels daily.”
Census data gives you that origin-destination data.
No. If they built the Avondale Southdown line then I wouldn’t be able to use it at hearings as an example of how stupid a lot of designations are.
It’s like one example of NZ thinking forward. If anything it’s a poster child for why designations are good.
It will be great if they sort out the Upper Harbour Dr intersection. I ride around the harbour whenever I visit Auckland and it is probably the worst part of the whole trip (if you are heading towards the Shore anyway). I imagine it will be hard to close down for works though, as the site is tricky with the cutaway section on one side and massive retaining wall on the other. Probably just another project that will be kicked along for a decade or two…
I have long complained about that intersection and submitted requests to AT over the years, as it is one reason I don’t want to cycle to work.
Not easy (as a non-professional roading engineer) to figure out how it could be done to solved the basic problem with the intersection.
I would suspect, either a massive and very expensive solution with widening the road, and putting in round-abouts and over/under passes would be required to do it ‘properly’.
Could be smaller and simpler solutions, as almost anything would improve it; like just having ~1 metre path alongside of the cut away where somebody has already cut the grass to show some walking space.
My controversial take; take away the slip lane from Albany heading south towards Glenfield and you get a nice cycle-walking lane with an area where people coming from Upper Harbour drive can cross over safely (once they come down the height difference).
Only vehicle traffic affected would be people driving South from Albany to Upper Harbour drive who would block people driving through; but small numbers since they also have a motorway, so maybe have them turn off earlier or later
Great work by Caio for Awhitu District School. This is what local democracy should look like. It will be good to see how it goes down with MP, looking at the Setting of Speed Limits Rule. There are, fortunately, several “School gates” to define an acceptable variable speed limit zone. The Browns are aiming to leave decisions with Local Boards, but funding will be a problem – no NLTF funding; how much AC funding will the Boards have for AT to go ahead and do it? A good example of what the future may look like.
I for one, look forward to the Local Board cake stalls as they try to raise money for essential services like speed bumps and cycle lanes. Poor buggers. Handed a basket case with no money and a public (well, the sensible ones at least) crying out for better things (not moar roads). I will start saving for cake purchases…..
The trouble with these Browns the only thing between their Ears is the Colour as their Names , and you can guess what that is .
The mayoral on is certainly rather verbally incoherent and the ministerial one …
Except for the extremely smart politics from the Browns. Wayne for making a big fuss about AT an org which many Aucklanders have come to hate. And Simeon for not listening to the evidence and reversing the speed limits as quickly as possible pleasing the general public and particularly Aucklanders who have rejected the slower limits with mass non compliance in 30 areas. Remember people vote based on vibes not evidence it’s just simply smart politics the days of doing best practice are over politics will decide what happens now. Question is which way will we go further towards are car centric city or some areas are extremely car centric while others transform into a place where getting rid of your car isn’t a joke. Either way it’s important we never attack democracy the way AT has behaved in the past it simply leads to mass pushback and like with the speed limits you lose all the progress and then some.
oh the irony that “democracy” will lead to the collapse of human civilization as we know it… because selfish see yew en tees threw a collective tantrum.
and you wonder why the youth and the marginalized have no faith in “democratic” institutions
Is there a link available for the Upper Harbour/Albany Highway consultation? Your links both seem to go to the same Greater Auckland article.
The use of fatal accidents in age groups has one factor to be aware of.Both younger drivers and older drivers tend to have older vehicles. Younger drivers cannot afford newer modern safer cars and older people tend to hold onto their vehicles.
I guess statistics possibly could also indicate that poorer people might have a higher fatality rate not because of their driving abilities rather the crash safety of the vehicles they drive ?
Good pile of topics this week. Love the car with tree or something on the roof doing a quick U-turn in front of Matt on the bike near the end of that video.