Understanding US transit ridership trends
An article in the New York Times looks at the recent announcements that transit (PT) ridership in the USA in 2013 was the highest since the 1950s – much the same as in Auckland. What’s perhaps most interesting in the 2013 numbers is that petrol prices doesn’t seem to have featured as much in the reasoning behind the increase: The trade group said in its annual report that 10.65 billion passenger trips were taken on transit systems during the year, surpassing the post-1950s peak of 10.59 billion in 2008, when gas prices rose to $4 to $5 a gallon.…
31 Comments Returns on Government transport investment – A “BOE” calculation
In this recent post Matt mapped census journey to work data across Auckland.
I will now use this data to draw some high-level inferences about returns on Goverment investment in transport infrastructure in Auckland in the period from 2007-13, i.e. between the last two census.…
Our insane traffic projections
Many times in the last few years we have highlighted a ‘flat-lining’ or at least slowing of growth in car travel across New Zealand. The same trends have been seen in many overseas cities and countries – with the slowing in the UK dating back at least 20 years now.…
Summer in the City, and a look ahead.
A view from new Britomart bar and restaurant Ostro that seems to perfectly express the contradictory current phase in Auckland City’s development. What a great scene:
Sitting here amidst the sophistication of the latest addition to the our reborn downtown with all the perfectly prepared kai moana you could want, reassuringly expensive wines from every viticultured corner of the country, the cruise liners slipping around North Head, and the sculptural forms of the gantry cranes lined up and waiting patiently in the late afternoon sun like a row of giant robotic footmen, it is hard not to marvel at how lovely Auckland can be and at how far it has come recently.…
High fuel prices mean we are travelling less
OK, I admit I haven’t come up with the catchiest title for this post, but it’s a good TL;DR. As I’ve written previously, world oil prices were pretty dang low for 20-odd years: from the mid-80s to the mid-2000s. The price of a litre of petrol in New Zealand reached its lowest point in 1999, and started to rise from then on – with major rises in the last decade.…
Peak Car: not just the economy
There’s a long running debate over whether the flattening/decline of traffic growth over the past few years is attributable mainly to the rather ‘up and down’ economic situation over a fairly similar time period – or whether this reflects a more fundamental change in travel habits.…
Portugal’s Ghost Roads
In the comments, “Handlebars Matt” provided a link to this video about how nobody is using Portugal’s motorway system – which was built at vast cost over the past decade: I often fear that this is the future for many of the Roads of National Significance that are either under construction or due to begin construction in the next few years.…
Don’t believe the traffic projections
We have frequently raised concerns about projected future traffic growth, given that in recent years there has been an extended flat-lining of traffic growth. What’s perhaps most concerning about these projections is how they ignore what has actually happened in the recent past and how those producing the projections don’t seem to learn from past mistakes.…
The counterintuitive science of traffic
An interesting talk by the author of a book called Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us). A few of the things I found really interesting.
3:00 Signs put up encouraging people to merge early on the road due to road works create more congestion, driver frustration and safety issues than if everyone merged at the point of the restriction.…
Motorway Traffic Volumes
Along with keeping a close eye on public transport patronage, I also like track what is happening with traffic volumes. The NZTA release traffic volumes for a handful of sites on the state highway network on a monthly basis and release a much larger number of sites on an annual basis.…
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