Posts by Bart Janssen
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Hard News: The hard road to a…, in reply to Moz,
and most importantly kiwis LOVE their cars.
My experience, and understanding of the research, is that dependence isn't love, and people "choosing" to use the only viable option doesn't indicate commitment.
Have you seen Jim Jeferries take on Americans and their guns.
Kiwis (and this is a broad generalisation) love their cars in the same way. Put a kiwi behind the driver's wheel and they change personality. Suggest they can't park their car wherever they like and they throw a fit. Suggest they should drive a bit slower and the letters to the editor stream in. Suggesting they don't need two or three cars per household is like challenging their human rights.
Yeah kiwis love their cars.
You're right our transport planning has forced that on us to some degree but I really believe there is more to it than simple dependence. Kiwis have a problem with cars.
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Hard News: The hard road to a…, in reply to Moz,
Can I suggest that the territory you're in is called "ignorance" and your options are learning from the experience of others, or making the same mistakes as they did?
Can I suggest you try not being unnecessarily rude?
I said "part" and I meant "part". Making the same mistakes as everywhere else is not smart but neither is assuming things that work in one place can be transplanted to Auckland and will work exactly the same.
AT, NZTA, Bike Auckland, Gen zero and the others engaged in this are all aware of that things will need to be fitted to Auckland. The problem is the public isn't as aware both of the experiences in other cities and the problems of adaptation.
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Hard News: The hard road to a…, in reply to Moz,
New Zealand isn't The Netherlands and Auckland IS hilly
The same is true of everywhere outside the Netherlands. People still cycle. Portland, Sydney, London, San Franciso FFS. Auckland is unique just like all the other cities are.
The point is that folks jumping in and saying "but they did it this way in X so it must work in Auckland" just isn't helpful.
Auckland has a low population and an even lower density than most exemplars.
Our solutions can learn from other cities but odds are they will be unique to Auckland in the end - we need to accept that it will take some fiddling around to get it right.
It also worth remembering that we are doing this at a different time to most other cities - e-bikes are a game changer that will change cycle path design at the same time as they enable more access. Cars are different now, a mix of stupidly big SUVs and hybrids is changing driving as much as it changes the cycling environment.
That doesn't excuse some obvious stuff ups - nobody should think a 1 metre wide cycle path defined by a white line is reasonable.
So yeah I stand by the statement that Auckland will need unique solutions that are going to be different and that will take effort.
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majority
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There is also another problem that has to be addressed.
We need to get people to understand that the life of a cyclist really is important.
That should be obvious but at the moment too many people are not behaving as if cyclists lives are important at all.
To some degree I can understand the purely selfish attitude that says being allowed to park ones car on the street is more important than a cyclist's life - because it's simply selfish. Unless someone you love is a cyclist it really doesn't matter if a cyclist dies because they had to ride in the same place as the trucks so that your car can sit on the side of the road instead of in your garage. It is selfish but selfish is normal.
In the same way the impatient drivers who pass too close and too fast or cut cyclists off or use cycle lanes as a shortcut are simply selfish and they don't care if a cyclist they don't know or care about personally is killed or horribly crippled.
The one I can't understand is the equation they use at AT and at NZTA.
That's the equation that calculates the average reduction in travel time that is equal to a cyclist's life.
That's the equation that was used to decide that drivers in Te Atatu should be allowed to get home a minute earlier and that the cost of a few cyclists lives was an acceptable trade.
We really do need to change our culture.
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I think part of the problem is we are in unknown territory.
New Zealand isn't The Netherlands and Auckland IS hilly and most importantly kiwis LOVE their cars.
So changing our roads to try and attract people to cycling and walking really is an unknown country. Yes we can learn form Copenhagen and Utrecht but some of their solutions are not appropriate for NZ.
AT will get it wrong. And for all that consultation is lovely and important the public will also get it wrong. We have to be willing to try things and if it's wrong then we have to suck up our egos and fix it.
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Feed: Melting pot: A cuisine of immigrants, in reply to TracyMac,
and the lack of restaurants doing Pacific-style cuisine continues to be a mystery.
When you consider the culture in which we live where Maori and Pacific culture is treated as primitive. Combined with a culture of requiring chefs to do an OE before we consider them to be "real chefs". And as a final nail the loss of knowledge resulting from decades of suppression.
No I don't think it's a mystery at all.
But it is changing. Pacifica was named Cuisine magazine's restaurant of the year.
I think it will take time for chefs to become knowledgeable and confident enough to include Maori and Pacific influences. Meredith's definitely had that influence at the highest level of fine dining but then again Michael Meredith is a very special chef. That is at the very top (expensive) end but it does give credibility and creates something for young chefs to aspire to.
What I'd love to see is more family level quality places with those styles and no just in Otahuhu. Like Mr Zhou's dumplings but Pacifica and Maori instead of Chinese.
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Lovely article and a very good teaser to a book that I'm sure will find it's way onto our shelves.
We interact with overseas scientists a lot, many of whom are foodies like us. We often get asked what is New Zealand's cuisine, the answer of course is that we don't have one but we have them all - blended fantastically. For example in two weeks we'll be taking a colleague from Florida to a peruvian/japanese restaurant and we were tossing up between that and Indian or modern kiwi (whatever that is).
I love the fact that chefs will take influences from all over the world and let their own skill guide them in creating great dishes, the result is there are some truly fantastic meals to be had here at all price ranges.
Oh and as a side note your number on the Dutch immigrants is wrong. My mother came over on a flying boat very early to work in the embassy helping the new immigrants settle, sadly I don't think she remembers any of that any more. 1951-54 saw 10000 dutch arrive and about 30000 came in that post war period. But I can't say with much confidence that they improved the cuisine here :).
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Legal Beagle: Questions, but no answers,…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
play the game
Let me say this clearly.
The job of governing the people of New Zealand is NOT A GAME.
I appreciate that generations of grammer school boys have tried to simplify the difficult, complex and important task of developing law and policy that improves the quality of life for New Zealanders into A GAME. Because that way they could justify their presence in parliament.
I appreciate that compromise is an important part of the task. But that is not the same as bullying and game playing.
People who don't understand that, like you, like our media, are a part of the problem and they need to step aside for people better able to understand the very real gravity of the jobs involved, both for the MPs and media.
People like you who stand back and say "it's just the way it's done" are enabling a destructive force in society. You pretend importance and gravitas by calling me naive for not knowing the rules of the game, what you miss is that I'm am fully aware of the game and its rules - what I am saying and what you are not able to hear is that I believe we should not be playing the game at all.
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Legal Beagle: Questions, but no answers,…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
scrupulous high minded adult in the room
you say that like it's a bad thing
sigh