christchurch
I stumbled upon this brochure at work last week. Looks intriguing right? It turned out to be a consultation document for the 2003 Christchurch parking strategy. I thought it was quite an interesting way to do it. Consultation documents can often be stuffy, dry reads, But this one is packed full of puns, outrageous strawmen, … Continue reading Hagley CAR-park
I caught the 60 bus into town the other day and was appalled at how slow it was. Luckily I'd GPS tracked my trip, so can have a closer look at the numbers. I boarded the bus in Hoon Hay at 8.30am on a Thursday and rode just under 5km to the hospital. It took … Continue reading Bus Time Quick Wins
In May Christchurch City Council consulted on changes to the District Plan to enable more housing and business in the city. Most of these changes are required by law, but there are a few small areas where local council has scope to customise things. The consultation summary has now been published here. I won't say … Continue reading Housing Choice Consultation
I never noticed before but Stats NZ publish really detailed and up-to-date data on building consents. I've had a play with it in excel and come up with a few visualisation below, which some people may find interesting. First up, animations showing all residential building consents issued in the last 32 years, split by standalone … Continue reading Building Consents in Christchurch
Following on from me discovering the yogi berra paradox for the first time a few weeks ago, today I discovered another paradox which I feel stupid for not knowing about before now. This one doesn't seem to have a proper name or anything more about it online, but I think it's really interesting and quite … Continue reading “the average bus-passenger is on a bus that’s much more full than the average bus” Paradox
I've heard a lot of talk about the 4 categories of cyclist; No way no howInterested but concernedEnthused and confidentStrong and fearless I've sometimes struggled with these definitions, as I don't feel like I neatly fall into any of them. But I did recently meet someone who was the very definition of "interested but concerned". … Continue reading Real-Life Interested but Concerned
This is a guest post by Joseph Corbett-Davies. A few months back National leader Christopher Luxon kicked off some controversy after his unexpected comment that public transport should “stand on its own feet”, and that it should not be “subsidised or underwritten.” This resulted in immediate challenges from the media and Labour about whether he … Continue reading Should Public Transport Be Subsidised?
Every week I take the kids down to the local park for Saturday morning sports. Centennial Park is on a major cycle route and a lot of parents bike down with their kids. There's always quite the selection of family-friendly bicycles on display. Here are a few from the last couple of weeks. Long-tail e-bike … Continue reading Bicycles of Saturday Morning Sport
I'm no economist, but I have been fortunate enough to have talked with some very smart economists who are well connected with the big decision-makers. Below are some themes I've picked up over these talks that affect transport infrastructure. I'm not an expert on this so some may not be quite right, but food for … Continue reading Musings on Financing of Transport Infrastructure
Up till now reducing petrol and diesel consumption has been framed as an optional choice. At a personal level, people see riding a bike or catching a bus as something good they can do if they are feeling generous, but they trade that off against things like convenience and comfort and often it loses out. … Continue reading Reducing emissions: no longer a moral decision but a financial one
TALKING TRANSPORT 