Hard News: Postcard from Christchurch
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Poor old Microsoft:
"Adding comments has been disabled for this video"
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I felt compelled to have Vista so I could feel my customers' pain. And I feel it. Every day it seems to hurt just a little more. Is it some form of built-in obsolescence?
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I want to go back to Christchurch, or possibly even Timaru.
Since landing back in Auckland at 12.20pm I've been subject to three alarming incidents on the road, one of which I felt moved to phone in to police (drunk or drugged driver weaving wildly and sideswiping a parked car in Herne Bay, of all places). I'm really too tired for this sort of excitement.
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I concluded that Joyce must be only listening to advice from his trucking and construction buddies, and viewing Auckland as a place that people and freight drive through on their way to the surrounding regions.
If Len Brown & Mike Lee take the Greater AKL mayoralty & deputy mayoralty respectively, I hope the two of them will show who's in charge. It could lead to some interesting political dynamics, à la Livingstone-vs-Thatcher in the 1980s.
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Thanks for the kind words, Russell! You were an excellent guest -- bringing, as you did, most of a whiskey distillery with you.
It was like some weird re-run of my Cuba experience in Wellington last week. I hoofed it over from the conference to Whisky Galore, bought Twiglets three doors up at Johnson's Grocer,hoofed it back, talked for three hours.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Bodhi Tree, to which I hoofed it afterwards with my bags, was actually directly across the road from both of the fine establishments I'd been to earlier. Fancy.
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Herne Bay is on the link bus route... and 'tards are still drink-driving.
"If Auckland is to go ahead as an international city it needs that retrofitting of urban mass transit" Mike Lee
BTW the Link bus is the best public transport initiatives for years - and it works. Why can't they just design more routes like it that run in continuous concentric rings around the city? Britomart and the Link bus have proven that when it comes to public transport if you build it they will come...
www.aucklandtrains.com is also good for commentary on Auckland's public transport woes.
I think it stinks that the government is trying to remove any local control Aucklanders have over transport etc in their obvious plan to strip us of any local assets they can sell... -
If Len Brown & Mike Lee take the Greater AKL mayoralty & deputy mayoralty respectively, I hope the two of them will show who's in charge. It could lead to some interesting political dynamics, à la Livingstone-vs-Thatcher in the 1980s.
It'll be tense all right, but the real power struggle is happening right now. And few are watching.
As Mr Dempsey mentioned here recently, by the time the Mayor is elected all the structural decisions will have been made - by unelected officials acting on instruction from radical nutjobs in Wellington who have learned the lessons of the Greater London Council.
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It feels like National is just removing local government from Auckland and hopes that no-one interferes with their asset-grab.
Auckland's waste water issues are huge http://www.nzherald.co.nz/water/news/article.cfm?c_id=362&objectid=10444425
The current council just deferred the plan to stop sewerage running into the harbour every time it rained - there were much more important things to do
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10540049
In December 1995 we ran a story in NZ Local Government magazine explaining how 20,000 tonnes of raw sewerage pours into the Waitemata Harbour every week - 2 million kilos of poos a week! It all stems back to 1911 when the system was designed with projections to 1940. In 1992 the council's plan was to remove the problem by 2027. Hubbard pushed it out to 2033. Banks will still have us swimming in faeces in 2043... -
Regional councillor Joel Cayford also talks about impending transport changes and possible "wholesale gutting of Auckland governance".
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"I have been advised the minister is ignoring uncomfortable benefit/cost assessments that indicate a Wellsford motorway simply does not stack up against other transport projects" Joel Cayford
We need a motorway from Warkworth to Wellsford? Really? It'll maybe save 5 minutes - probably less.
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We need a motorway from Warkworth to Wellsford? Really? It'll maybe save 5 minutes - probably less.
Yes, but Andre, that's five fewer minutes that it'll take Shon Key to get to/from his mansion at Omaha. These things are a matter of great national importance! Oh, and Joyce is also rumoured to be wanting to replace Lockwood as MP for Rodney.
On a more depressing note, I have to agree with Rudman putting the blame at Labour's well-dragged feet. Had they not fucked about and fucked about over public transport for Auckland, National would've inherited things that were already happening rather than a bunch of plans that can be ignored, mutilated and otherwise kept from ever being implemented.
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The whole saga has been morbidly depressing to watch. Parts of Auckland (mainly the wealthy areas for sme strange reason) have brand new footpaths and great looking parks etc. There are millions being spent on beautification while our sewerage system is stuffed. We are bearing the brunt of mass unplanned immigration and cheap asian import cars without the needed infrastructure as well. Our public transport system was neglected while they tried to cope with more cars.
Extending the motorway from Puhoi to Warkworth makes more sense than going all the way to Wellsford but both suggestions suck in reality. Puhoi to Warkworth is 14 kms and Warkworth is the regional service hub for Rodney. The Forestry land next to Pohuehue Viaduct could be used as well and getting rid of the trip up Schedeweys Hill would make sense. The other 20kms to Wellsford is much more difficult terrain.
They are saying that because the $365 million Northern Gateway toll road was successful they will spend $100 million on planning this $2.18 billion road. On that basis even the road to Warkworth maybe a step too far. In the end the run from Omaha to the closest McDonalds may get a bit quicker (it's in Wellsford) but that's about it... -
Labour's well-dragged feet.
Quite. I understand Cullen had to be forced to witness the congested glory of the New Lynn rail/road roundabout before he finally gave its major trench separation project the green light as Finance Minister - after many years of well-reasoned reports and delegations.
Anyone who has seen the predictable increase in peak traffic there from the new Mt Roskill motorway extension will have some idea of what would have resulted if the fuckery had continued and double tracked rail was added on top of 45,000 vehicles per day.
Frankly, the problem with Auckland is often Wellington - or members of parliament with big city thinking sourced from bustling Queenstown or Napier. As Rudman notes:
Not for the first time in Auckland's recent history, the tender process for a new public rail system has been stalled by Government antagonism.
In the 1990s the ARC had 58 international expressions of interest in a contest for a light rail system, but Wellington killed it. In 1975 the Kirk Labour Government okayed an electrified suburban rail system for Auckland but the incoming Muldoon National Government sank it.
Joyce, Hide, Key et al have no excuse for lack of Auckland knowledge. Joyce in particular seems a smart and successful man, so it's hard to interpret his actions charitably when they seem so pig-ignorant.
Like pretending trucks and cars are not massively subsidised by taxpayers and ratepayers but trains are. Like ignoring peak oil and climate change. Like allocating $100m to think about his proposed Northland motorway while Auckland's crucial electric trains go begging after their funding had already been arranged as part of the regional fuel tax.
Joyce makes some points that are logical from his perspective about re-examining Auckland's transport as a region - if only that had not already been going on for years and in considerable depth. Maybe the answers are just.. inconvenient.
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Cullen at least had the defence of having spent no significant length of time in Auckland - raised in Christchurch, educated in Christchurch and Edinburgh, employed in Dunedin and Canberra. Joyce lives in Albany, Key lives in Parnell and is MP for Helensville, and Hide lives in Remuera and is MP for Epsom. None of them has the slightest excuse, as you say.
The only explanation that actually makes sense, except for outright wilful ignorance, is that National are so thoroughly in the thrall of roading-related special interests (not just the RCF, though they're a major suspect, but also the likes of Winstone, Stevenson, and Fulton Hogan) that they can't possibly "sell out" and do what's best for Joe and Josephine Aucklander.
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Glad to be mentioned on here with my blog. The Puhoi-Wellsford motorway is surely a joke - the road has an average flow of around 10,000-15,000 vehicles. That's about the same as the Kingsland end of Sandringham Road.
In terms of working out what it's cost benefit ratio might be, the Waterview Connection was justified in that it (supposedly) saves around 90,000 vehicles a day 15 minutes per trip. By contrast, the Puhoi-Wellsford link might save 5-10 minutes per trip for a maximum of 15,000 vehicles a day.
Waterview will cost $1.4 billion, Puhoi-Wellsford is budgeted at over $2 billion......
.... hmmm... and I thought the justification for the Waterview Connection was dodgy!
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Matthew - re your comment way back at 2:25pm - I laughed BECAUSE of the truth in the words.
I thought that Auckland was finally heading towards something that resembled a half decent public transport system, but in the last 12 months it has all been going backwards.
A motorway for weekend travellers to Omaha is absurd when there are so many other transport NEEDS in the region.
I recommend that everyone checks out Joshua Arbury's transport blog. If nothing else, a recent graph there shows how that of you start providing a reasonable level of service, people will use public transport.
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I was, actually, considering Windows 7 but after seeeing that ad... Groan, it think i've thrown up in my mouth a little.
I just can't be a part of the Stepford set. -
Back home now. Good to see you in Christchurch, Russell. Any thoughts on your part in the In Media conference? I reckon it it was pretty damn good. Julian McDougall from the UK and Ben Goldsmith from AFTRS were hits--along with you, of course. Confirmed for me once again that media teachers are a great bunch of people and the Great White (and brown) Hope of NZ education..
The venue was a little odd (in inner Little England bowels of Christ's College) but the there was a great buzz, that lasted to until the final session this arvo.
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I recommend that everyone checks out Joshua Arbury's transport blog.
I particularly enjoyed the the post about recent research into the mythical "time savings benefits" that are used to justify pumping our taxes into building more roads. Result - billions of dollars later, Melbourne's traffic speeds are actually slower. Joshua concludes:
"if giving people more spare time was so important, the government would buy us all a dish washer. It would be cheaper than the Waterview Connection."
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Hey, just read Charlie Bookers article, he saw the Stepford similarity too. I am not alone.
And our opinion of Apple is not too distant either.
Sorry Russ.
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A motorway for weekend travellers to Omaha is absurd when there are so many other transport NEEDS in the region.
The money they're going to spend on the scoping project would pay about 2/3 of the cost of an integrated ticketing solution, including the running costs for at least a couple of years. And sadly, even if the scoping project comes back with a recommendation that the road not proceed, it will Still. Bloody. Happen!
Just how dire the situation is was apparent when Joel Cayford said that civil servants are talking about how Joyce simply won't listen. As Cayford said, they're normally loyal in silence, so for the disquiet to be voiced is very significant.
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The money they're going to spend on the scoping project would pay about 2/3 of the cost of an integrated ticketing solution, including the running costs for at least a couple of years.
Yup - $100 million for scoping and property acquisition without the tiniest bit of economic justification. I have dug a bit deeper to figure out when this whole Puhoi-Wellsford nonsense began, and it really only appeared after Joyce got stuck in traffic to open the Orewa-Puhoi motorway back in January this year.
I can just imagine him sitting in the traffic jam (which only happened once, because everyone was nosey) thinking "right, I have the power, I'm gonna fix this!" And, sadly, that's about the level of analysis that was used to justify this $100 million being spent.
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Result - billions of dollars later, Melbourne's traffic speeds are actually slower.
Sacha, it gets better. According to this article in Scientific American, "when planners in Seoul tore down a six-lane highway a few years ago and replaced it with a five-mile-long park, many transportation professionals were surprised to learn that the city’s traffic flow had actually improved, instead of worsening."
It continues to say that forcing drivers to take a route that is most efficient for the "herd", rather than the route that is most beneficial to themselves, improves overall flows. The article invokes some minor game theory, including the Nash equilibrium concept, to explain why forcing non-selfish behaviour works.
It's very interesting, actually makes sense, and is, sadly, totally counter to what's really going on in the realm of transport planning for Auckland. I have no particular problem with the Waterview connection being completed, not least of the reasons being that the partially-finished motorway ring demonstrates remarkable frailty at times. Giving traffic a fully-functioning alternative route between south and west can only really be seen as a good thing. Other than that, however, there seems to be very little consideration to transport plans that don't involve laying more concrete and asphalt.
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this $100 million
Isn't it also approximately the amount that would allow the electric trains to be purchased right away, despite Joyce's interference with that process?
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