christchurch
Last week the Government released their draft GPS. Like a lot of things they do, it has a very boring name but a lot of interesting content, if you can fight your way through the numbers and bureacracy-speak to understand the real-life implications. The GPS is a statement from the Government to Waka Kotahi Transport … Continue reading Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 2024-34
Recent news on airport noise contours seem to have flown under the radar, so I thought I'd jot a brief summary of just what's landed recently. The Canterbury Star reported this a couple of weeks ago: Noise contours for Christchurch International Airport are being reviewed, as Environment Canterbury begins work on its regional policy statement. … Continue reading Airport Noise Contours
Several years ago I read a short article written by urban planner Alain Bertaud. It explains how, one way to help understand how cities function, is to think of them in terms of labour markets. It's a simplification, but I found it helped focus the mind and was quite a neat way to boil down … Continue reading Book Review: Order without Design
I currently have three primary school aged children who, up till recently lived in a house that was 800m from their school gate. Most days the three kids biked to school, and they could all handle this distance fairly easily. However, we've recently shifted into a bigger house a few streets over and it's now … Continue reading The Rise and Fall of the Home-Made Cargo Bike
I've seen a bit of discussion recently on how dense we are in Christchurch compared to other cities around Australasia. Density is very easy to measure – it’s simply the population (which we collect every census) divided by the land area (which we know from maps). However it is notoriously easy to misinterpret, because it … Continue reading How Dense are We?
This is a guest post from reader Tim Frank Since 2018 battery-electric buses have been used as part of the Christchurch urban bus fleet. By now 20% of the fleet are battery-electric buses. So there’s a good chance if you catch a bus in Christchurch it would be an electric bus. So what is it … Continue reading Christchurch Battery-Electric Buses
This is an unashamed bus lane appreciation post. It's a little longer than usual, so make yourself comfortable. A new bus lane has recently opened up on Lincoln Road in Christchurch and I think it’s great. Here’s why. Research on public transport consistently shows that the biggest turn-offs for people are when it is slow … Continue reading Bus Lanes – What are They Good for?
Today Christchurch City Council, Selwyn District and Waimakariri District councils all endorsed a business case for mass rapid transit, following endorsement from Ecan and Whakawhanake Kāinga Komiti over the last few days. The report came out a week ago and there's been a wee bit of coverage. Business Desk did a good technical write up, … Continue reading Mass Rapid Transit Business Case
I just learned about a local hero and can't believe I'd never heard of him before now. Hugh Wilson, self-proclaimed "Fool and Dreamer". He's a botanist who took over a farm on Banks Peninsula in 1987, ceased all farming activities and basically just let the weeds grow. Somewhat unintuitively, most of the weeds that grew … Continue reading Knock knock. Hugh’s there?
This is a guest post from reader Tim Frank. Publishing this does not necessarily correspond to agreement - just that I think it's contributing positively to the discussion. The Greater Christchurch Partnership has just finished engaging on a proposed rapid transit scheme, which they call a “turn up and go service”. This would run between … Continue reading Integrating Christchurch Rapid Transit
TALKING TRANSPORT 