Cycleways are good for everyone
The following is an op-ed I wrote which ran in The Post on November 20th. On a sunny winter day in June, I attended “Party on the Path”, celebrating the opening of the Point Chevalier to Westmere project. Thousands of people blissfully wheeled and walked the three-kilometre route, enjoying the festivities.…
21 Comments Minister admits RoNS reality is biting – and hard
“Whatever the problem, build another road” has been a hallmark of policy from the current government. And we’ve long suggested that is simply not affordable or practical – including just a month ago, when the latest costs were released for a bunch of the government’s flagship Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme.…
ATs 2025 Consultation Season
It’s consultation season again at Auckland Transport – where AT pump out a bunch of consultations just before the Christmas period. This gives teams work to do over the summer months and many of these have probably been held up waiting for the election period to be over.…
Road Policing Performance
The Police have been in the news a bit recently and for the wrong reasons. One of those was a few weeks ago where it was revealed that there were issues with breath testing:
More than 100 police officers are under investigation after 30,000 alcohol breath tests were “falsely or erroneously recorded”, RNZ can reveal.…
Manchester: an urban renewal case study
I lived in the UK in the 1980s, so whenever anyone describes the Auckland city centre as “dilapidated” (as the Herald did in an recent editorial), I can’t help chuckling. While we do have very real problems, we have nothing like the complete physical ruin of whole areas and communities on the scale that was so widespread in post-industrial Thatcher’s Britain, especially in the north where the Industrial revolution began, like Manchester below.…
More Thoughts on MOAR RoNS
The absurdly high cost – potentially $50 billion – of the government’s focus on building MOAR RoNS (Roads of National Significance) was highlighted last week, with the release of new costings for six of the 17 projects.
I covered some initial implications in a first post, Reality Bites: RoNS will bankrupt the nation.…
Electric cars aren’t a climate solution
This guest post by Tim Adriaansen, an advocate for accessibility and sustainable transport, originally published on LinkedIn and cross posted here with permission. Electric cars aren’t a climate solution.
So why do they keep popping up as a focus for climate action, everywhere from government advisors to environmental advocacy groups?…
Reality bites: RoNS will bankrupt the nation
The government’s mega-roads programme is now looking to cost an astonishing $40-50 billion, based on new documents released yesterday by the NZTA.
On Monday, Transport Minister Chris Bishop touted the fact that $1.2 billion would be spent towards funding for design, consenting and property acquisition for six of the projects.…
The secrecy of mega-projects
How is it that mega-projects costing billions get such little public involvement and scrutiny? That’s a question that Mayor Wayne Brown effectively hits on in an interview a few days ago with the Herald where he spoke on plans for an additional harbour crossing.…
Book Review: Human Transit: Revised Edition (2024)
This is a guest post by Transport Advisor and Town Planner George Weeks, reviewing the revised edition of Human Transit by Jarrett Walker. It is written in his personal capacity.
You can check out past book review posts here. Book review of Human Transit: Revised Edition (2024) by Jarrett Walker
In a sea of solutions in search of a problem, this digestible professional guide to public transport planning, now in its second edition, is a welcome arrival.…
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