A story about parking and opportunity cost.

This article first appeared at Nick Lovett's blog and is republished with permission. A number of months ago I tweeted a before/after photo of Christchurch’s Oxford Terrace following the An Accessible City street upgrade and the opening of the Riverside farmers market. The intention of the tweet was to illustrate the rosy retrospection that often … Continue reading A story about parking and opportunity cost.

Focus: Express buses in northern Christchurch

This article was first published at TraNZport and is republished with permission. An interesting concept that may be rolled out later this year is the introduction of express buses between the fast growing Waimakariri district and Christchurch city. (informative articles here and here) Before I get into what that is proposed to look like, a … Continue reading Focus: Express buses in northern Christchurch

Rail or more roads? Why that isn’t the question

This post first appeared at TraNZport and is republished with permission. Transport infrastructure investments can be complementary as part of a holistic transport ecosystem that aims to achieve the best overall outcomes, often addressing multiple economic, social and environmental issues. Instead, different investments are often viewed as an “it’s this or that” situation. For instance, … Continue reading Rail or more roads? Why that isn’t the question

Free Public Transport

Free public transport is one of those ideas that seems to rear its head every few years. John Minto campaigned on this at the last election (he wasn't elected). Axel Wilke has previously proposed free buses within the 4 Aves. A few other cities/countries around the world have done free public transport, but they are … Continue reading Free Public Transport

Sydney B-Line

TraNZport blog has been writing a series of articles on what other cities around the world have been doing that may be of interest to New Zealand cities (Belfast, Canberra& Ottawa). A colleague of mine was recently waxxing lyrical to me about a new project he's been following closely - so I've written this article … Continue reading Sydney B-Line

Why is it so hard for New Zealand to not do roads?

This is article first appeared at TraNZport and is republished with permission. Promises were made, promises were not delivered, and now we find ourselves back where we started, in a fashion. Whether it is light rail in Auckland, Let’s Get Wellington Moving, or mass rapid transit in Christchurch, progress on major public transport projects in … Continue reading Why is it so hard for New Zealand to not do roads?

Population Growth in Christchurch and Wellington

I wrote previously about Christchurch and Wellington populations. This is a follow up post with maps showing exactly where the growth occurred in both cities between 2013 and 2018. The concentric circles are 5km apart. The dark blue zones show where growth of over 200 people per square kilometre occurred, white zones are less than … Continue reading Population Growth in Christchurch and Wellington

Christchurch versus Wellington

Who is bigger, Christchurch or Wellington? A series of recent articles tried to answer this (here, here and here). My initial reaction was "this is a terrible argument to get involved in - who cares?". But as I read more into it I'm starting to think it is actually important. Decisions in New Zealand are … Continue reading Christchurch versus Wellington

Did Canterbury get Screwed? – What’s Going on with Transport Funding in the Region

This article first appeared at TraNZport blog and is republished with permission. So what happened? The Government announced billions of dollars in transport infrastructure funding last week, perhaps one of the single biggest in New Zealand’s history! Mostly it was roads, in a throw back to the RoNS programme, but there was some rail and … Continue reading Did Canterbury get Screwed? – What’s Going on with Transport Funding in the Region

2019, 2020 and Beyond!

Everyone seems to be penning their reviews of 2019 and their hopes for 2020 at the moment. Brendon Harre went even further and tried to look ahead to 2030. I thought I'd chuck my 2 cents in as well. Three big highlights from 2019 were: Government passing the Zero Carbon Bill with cross-party support. I … Continue reading 2019, 2020 and Beyond!