Category: Transport Planning

Looking at Transport Planning and Design

This Week in Auckland

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Events and Happenings

 

Just a small amount happening this week in Auckland in relation to civic issues around our fair city. Two of them I will be at with one me being a guest speaker to.

The first event (I am going to do this in reverse chronological order) of mention is the next Auckland Conversation piece at the Aotea Centre where the Lord Mayor of Brisbane is due to give a guest presentation. The topic matter is as below from the council website:

Lord Mayor of Brisbane Graham Quirk on Economic and Environmental Sustainability
Thursday 27 June, 5.30pm-7pm
Aotea Centre, Upper NZI Conference Room

Following his appointment as Lord Mayor of Brisbane in April 2011, Graham Quirk was elected as Lord Mayor in the 2012 Brisbane City Council election.

Graham has a long record of service to Brisbane and the local community, being first elected to council in 1985. As a member of Civic Cabinet for over a decade, he has overseen key portfolios of infrastructure and finance, as well as serving as Deputy Mayor alongside Campbell Newman from 2008.

As Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk is committed to delivering for the residents of Brisbane and making the city a better place to live, work and invest in.

Over the course of his career and as part of the Council Administration, Graham has been responsible for delivering many positive outcomes and ongoing projects for Brisbane, including:

  • Easing traffic congestion with major infrastructure projects across the city,  including the TransApex network of cross city tunnels and bridges, along with the Road Action Program, which has fast-tracked 15 years of urgent road works into just four years.
  • Improving public transport with 500 new buses, and an extra 11 new CityCats. This year he introduced the CityGlider bus service, Maroon Glider Bus Service for sporting events and free CityHopper ferries.
  • A green city with the planting of two million new trees, purchasing 500 hectares of bushland for preservation and using 100 per cent renewable energy within council.
  • Enhancing Brisbane’s capacity for long-term economic growth and supporting measures that will attract more events, visitors and investment to the city.

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You can register for the event by clicking on the following hyperlink: Check here to register online.

The “Conversation” should prove to be interesting as I have lived in Brisbane for a brief stint previously. I am tempted to throw a few curve balls to the Lord Mayor as well with epic failures of the Airport Tunnel Link and the Clem7, while the rail system has fallen behind including a 4.5km cross city river tunnel to increase capacity on Brisbane’s heavy rail network. The failures in Brisbane are harsh lessons and has warnings for Auckland with our transport objectives.

 

Manukau

Wednesday morning I have my first speaking engagement which is to the Manukau Central Business Association. The topic is Manukau as the Second CBD of Auckland, a topic commented on here heavily, presented to the Council Auckland Plan Committee and submitted on in my submissions to both the Auckland Plan and Unitary Plan.

Although rather than a five-minute gloss over that I usually give to Council committees, this is a full 20 minute presentation followed by an extensive Q&A afterwards. I will be uploading the presentation for this engagement after the engagement on Wednesday morning for your consumption.

Needless to say the Manukau issue has become quite a hot button topic issue here in the South and should not be waved off so dismissively by opponents. I have noticed that the Manukau as the Second CBD option is about to become a hot political election issue as well for the Auckland Council/Mayoral elections so attention will be focusing there.\

 

And that is this week with Auckland and some happenings around the place. Hopefully I might catch a few Talking Auckland readers at the Auckland Conversations event. Always great to catch up and exchange banter over the issues of Our City – Our Home.

 

Consultation Begins on Southern Auckland P/T Network

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Get Your Feedback In

 

Yesterday Auckland Transport kicked off the consultation round on the Southern Auckland public transport network. We have until early August to “review” what is proposed and submit our feedback for AT’s consideration.

You can check the website dedicated to this over here: “New Public Transport Network”

Emphasis is placed on the following steps before you fill in that submission form:

New Network Southern Consultation

Consultation is open on the New Network for South Auckland from 19 June to 4pm, Friday 2 August 2013.

To find out about the proposed changes and have your say we suggest you follow these three steps:

Step 1: Watch the video if you haven’t already, to understand how the New Network will transform Auckland’s public transport system.

Step 2: See the maps, and read the overview of the New Network for South Auckland in more detail, to learn about how the New Network will affect you.

Step 3: Have your say by completing the online feedback form, or come along to an open day.

If you are visually impaired or need assistance to complete the feedback form due to a disability, call our contact centre on 09 366 6400 and a call centre staff can complete the form on your behalf.

Download a consultation brochure in a language of your choice.

Read a consultation brochure in an accessible format.

Follow us on Twitter.

Register to receive email updates about the New Network.

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Source – Auckland Transport

I notice AT have gone quite the length to communicate across as many mediums and in many languages as possible. I suppose that is owing to the diversity of those who live in South. So credit to Auckland Transport for their actual genuine attempt in reaching out across the spectrum in their communication – well done (and finally).

 

I have gone through the maps already and will be forming up my feedback soon. I notice the off-peak frequencies for the connector and especially the Local Services are a bit of a disappointment. A disappointment if the frequencies drop right back to hourly which does no one any good and continues to force car use unnecessarily. So AT has a bit of work to do in that department before the entire thing is finalised…

 

So what are your thoughts on the proposed network for the South? Comments welcome below.

 

Unitary Plan Feedback

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Series Covering the pre notification round

 

I am making my way back from the Media Briefing on where we are with the Unitary Plan by the two Penny’s. Once back at base I will start writing up will become a series on the Unitary Plan prior to formal notification.

In brief though this is what was mentioned:

  • 22,700 pieces of Feedback
    • 6,500 of that was pro-forma by 35 different groups (so around a third of all pieces of feedback)
  • Council is still codifying the issues and responses. We won’t specifically know “topics” until the end of next week
  • Hot Topic Issues were though: height (which starts being looked at tomorrow) and zones (they are up for changes – both residential, business and the centres)
  • Three “reference”groups to be established: Universal Design, Heritage, and Significant Ecological Areas
  • Extensive work with Local Boards
  • Formal Notification date will be set most likely in August
  • Council admits its communication arm needs quite a bit of work (especially if blogs were taking up the slack quite a bit)

So as I said, I will get the first full post up hopefully by 6:30 tonight. After that a series will start on this pre-notification period in keeping YOU – the City up to date. It also means I have to revisit my company business model a bit – especially if a “media” arm is spun off here.

Council Submission on the Housing Accord

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What Council thought on the Housing Accord

 

I am no fan of the Much-Ado-About-Nothing (aka the Housing) Accord as it short cuts the Rural Urban Boundary processes we are going through right now, and it also impinges on Council Sovereignty. I have made mention of this last month while the Unitary Plan was open for the first round of discussion.

Auckland Council, some Local Boards and the Independent Maori Statutory Board have written draft submissions on the Accord which is due to go before Select Committee in Wellington.

I am still reading the submission Council has written myself and will comment on it on Monday. In the mean time some light reading for you and if you are inclined leave your thoughts in the comments below.

The Submission (Starting page 7) to the Housing Accord

 

Money for a Church but No Money for a Death Trap

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Council’s Funding Priorities Wrong Again

 

I noticed this morning (well actually yesterday) that the Council Strategy and Finance Committee approved on a vote of 10-6 to give $3m of our ratepayer’s money to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell so it can get an “upgrade.”

This is while Auckland Transport struggles to find $27m for a grade separation of the Walters Road rail crossing in Takanini and most likely the same amount for grade separating the Morningside Drive rail crossing that nearly killed a woman in a wheelchair earlier this year.

So would the councillors like to explain their logic in supporting $3m to the second biggest church in NZ (the biggest being the Catholic Church) that is exempt from most of our tax and human rights laws yet not give money to a death trap that nearly killed someone in Morningside where they had a human right for authorities to maintain a public crossing in such a way that the accident should have never happened.

And yes I know the crossing has Kiwi Rail responsibility to it as well but it is a shared responsibility with Auckland Transport thus Auckland Council. After the incident at Morningside, the council should have either stumped up the cash entirely or loaned Kiwi Rail a proportion of the money needed to remove the that death trap through a grade separation. But no it goes through the bureaucracy again and again and again and won’t be done for at least five years.

Yet at a drop of the hat Council approves money for a church (where we are meant to exercise absolute separation from Church and State) on the grounds of community facilities needs. Umm if it is for community facilities how about than dumping the money to Local Boards so they can maintain their own community facilities if the money won’t be going elsewhere.

Shame on the every single councillor who voted in giving money for the church while we have a live death trap still floating around (and a few more entering the category as we move to electrification and more frequent trains).

Shows where some have their priorities that need some readjusting in this upcoming election.

 

Auckland Transport Inducing Fare Evasion

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AT causing induced Fare Evasion on its own accord?

 

We have heard much about Auckland Transport cracking down on Fare Evasion on our rail system, with Veolia Ticket Inspectors hard out on the trail trying to enforce what can be only described as a hopeless situation. Hopeless because in my opinion Auckland Transport is inducing actual Fare Evasion due to it’s beyond lacklustre technical support systems for both AT-HOP and the Rail Ticket Machines.

How?

This example in Papatoetoe today which I hear (the example) is quite common through feedback via Facebook and emails.

I caught the train from Papatoetoe and headed in to Britomart, repeating the exercise for the trip home. I have an AT-HOP card so I tag on and off and will top up either at home or a rail ticket machine if possible.

While waiting for the train at Papatoetoe I noticed people could not use any cash (even correct change) to get a paper ticket to head into town. The machine had no change and the coin slot was jammed meaning unless you had EFTPOS like I did (I topped up on the machine) you were pretty well stuffed in getting a ticket.

If you were getting off at Britomart or Newmarket you could still pay your fare, get off anywhere else and hello no ticket – a freebie for you.

So I sent a tweet to Auckland Transport alerting them to the machine basically down:

@AklTransport Rail ticket machine @ papatoetoe not accepting cash at all even correct change

That was sent about 10:10am today

I get back to Papatoetoe around 3:15pm today and the machine was still with no change and not taking coins. And no reply from AT either…

 

Come on Auckland Transport – where is your support services to keep these machines fully functional so good citizens can get their tickets? FIVE HOURS and no technician when the support for an “urgent” problem such as this is meant to be TWO HOURS in turn around (getting it fixed)!

Knowing my luck and I should go check it tomorrow the machine will still be down at 9:30am tomorrow morning after the morning peak!

So fare evasion? Yep – induced by Auckland Transport rather than the rail patrons themselves due to lack tech support services on the rail ticket machines. 

Do people out there know of any other rail ticket machines constantly down and if so how long before they are back up again.

Leave your comments below (AT do keep an eye on this)…

 

Submission Sent

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105 Pages and The Room Smelling of Toner Later

 

Finally after 28 days (I was in Australia for part of the Unitary Plan feedback process) my submission to the first part of the Unitary Plan is in with Council.

You can see the feedback below which still only covered a select area of the UP. I have filed different submissions at different stages however on other aspects of the Unitary Plan including:

  • Parking Regulations
  • Transport
  • Social Infrastructure
  • Social Development
  • Water
  • Planning methodologies (although again mentioned in this submission)

 

I must apologies in advance in regards to my submission. As I imported blog posts from here into the submission, some ease of reading aspects might have been lost. All commentary on the Unitary Plan can be found here: https://voakl.net/category/planning/urban-planning-and-design/unitary-plan/

And so where next?

Unitary Plan coverage will continue although at a lesser pace until the next round begins – most likely notification later this year.

But other areas requiring commentary have come up such as Port of Auckland, my favourite – Auckland Transport, and now the elections.

A massive thank you to my readers throughout the Unitary Plan process. The UP has not been easy nor without its controversies. But pressure will continue Council as the UP and Rural Urban Boundary go through their next phases.

My Submission

TALKING AUCKLAND

Talking Auckland: Blog of TotaRim Consultancy Limited

TotaRim Consultancy
Bringing Well Managed Progress to Auckland and The Unitary Plan

Auckland: 2013 – YOUR CITY, YOUR CALL