Speeding toward a lethal legacy
A few weeks ago I wrote on how the Minister of Transport Simeon Brown had misrepresented cities overseas in his crusade to make our streets and roads more dangerous. Since then, his speed rule has been finalised and signed. Also, the summary of public feedback has been released after many months of delays.…
74 Comments First judicial review for the Minister of Transport
In September, Eloise Gibson reported for RNZ that the Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, fast-tracked changes to tailpipe emissions standards to meet a car industry deadline. Now, legal questions are being asked about the process that led to those decisions.
As reported on Monday, again by Eloise Gibson for RNZ, the minister is being taken to court by an electric-car advocacy initiative over the engagement that resulted in weakening the pre-existing standards:
The Better New Zealand Trust said it was unreasonable of Brown to direct his transport officials to consult only four motoring groups – all of which were against the standards – before making a decision.…
Who benefits from secrecy around public infrastructure?
You might have seen this video, which we received as part of a recent OIA request. It showcases the original light rail plans developed by Auckland Transport between 2014-2017.
The video was apparently produced in early 2018 by Auckland Transport, just a few months before the project was handed off to Waka Kotahi/NZTA.…
Managing on-street parking for local benefit
This guest post by Malcolm McCracken originally appeared on his blog Better Things Are Possible, and is republished here by kind permission.
The case for Parking Benefit Districts: managing on-street parking for local benefit
Parking is often the centre of debate in our cities; particularly on-street car parks, who gets to use them and how we manage them.…
NLTP 2024 released – destroying pipeline of shovel ready local projects
Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Waka Kotahi yesterday released the latest National Land Transport Plan (NLTP) for 2024-27. The NLTP sets out what transport projects will be funded for the next three years, including both central and local government projects.
As expected, given the government’s extremely ideological transport policy, it’s terrible, not just because of what it does fund – focusing much of the country’s transport investment into a handful of roads that carry less traffic than the average Auckland arterial – but also because of what it doesn’t fund: destroying a pipeline of shovel-ready local projects, right at a time when the government claims to care about having an infrastructure pipeline.…
The Government Declares Total War on Localism
In a recent conversation, the person I was talking to outlined the purpose of central and local government in the most simple and clear way I have yet heard:
Central government is for nation-building. Local government is for city-building.
This was in the context of Auckland, so I would expand the local government definition to community-building, to cover those councils and authorities that are a little less urban.…
Some fine ideas for making Aotearoa safer
This is a guest post by Darren Davis, reposted with his kind permission. It originally appeared on his excellent blog Adventures in Transitland, which we warmly encourage you to check out. Aotearoa has one of the worst road safety records in the developed world.…
Budget 2024 Highlights
Last week the government delivered their first budget and while there’s been plenty of other discussion about the main aspects of it, I was particularly interested to look at what it meant for transport.
Before getting into too much detail, the chart below shows at a high level where transport funding is going.…
How Government’s road obsession is ruining Auckland’s transport plans
“TL;DR: The reality is that Central Government’s transport policy and direction makes zero sense for Auckland, and if the draft GPS doesn’t change from its original form, then Auckland will be on a collision course with Wellington.”
Auckland’s draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) 2024 is now out for consultation, with feedback open until 17 June.…
After much debate, the Auckland Future Fund was approved. So what should it be used for?
On Thursday 17 May, the Mayoral Proposal for Auckland’s Long Term Plan 2024-2034 was passed by Auckland Council, 20 to 1. It is set to be formally adopted by the Governing Body at its June 27th meeting.
The entire process took 8 hours, with the vast majority of that time revolving around the only contentious topic of the day: the proposed Auckland Future Fund.…
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