I refuse to own a car and I catch Public Transport all the time because of the invisible social contract that the council will reward my civic mindedness with a cheap and frequent public transport system. Sadly Auckland Transport seems to define the word ‘due’ as some worm hole time event in the distant future so you may as well buy a nuclear powered SUV because that Bus/Train ain’t coming anytime soon.
As advocates for the Unitary Plan implore us to adopt higher density, I look at the little resource currently paid to the existing infrastructure and wonder how exactly these networks already stretched to their limits will cope with the increased demand.
If a city rail extension that will barely keep up with the increased overload is the best the Super City can provide, then the Super City’s best ain’t good enough. Something radical needs to be adopted if Auckland is to be the most livable city in the 21st Century.
The purse strings for funding AT and Auckland Council projects are being firmly grasped by the National Government who consider alternative transport such as PT, cycling and walking to be the obsession of those who can’t afford cars.
Until they follow their own guidelines about ROI and follow logic instead of idealogy it will continue.
Well designed higher density can be attractive places to live. But personally, I don’t think this will be delivered if left entirely up to the market.
“Something radical needs to be adopted if Auckland is to be the most livable (sic) city in the 21st Century.”
The rot started with the 1993 privatisation policy where regional governments divested their ownership of public transport assets and private firms took over service provision on a semi-deregulated basis.
Let us start with reversing this policy.
the rot accelerated in the 90’s. Auckland’s public transport was abysmal in the early 90’s. The whole deregulation of public transport was justified by the pathetic state of Auckland’s public transport – well run, popular services in Christchurch, Wellington, well everywhere else, really, got whacked in the process.
And I have to say a lot of the blame lies with the Auckland transport workers union. some of them were open in their admiration of Stalin. they drove like maniacs. they’d leave people at bus stops on cold days if they didn’t want to open the doors.
I couldn’t say a lot at the time- couldn’t bite the hand that was effectively feeding me. I was supposed to be working with them and defending them.
later on, I worked in the unions old offices. took years for the smell of smoke and whiskey to leave the back rooms.
the rest of the blame is with the yellow bus company, tribal nature of the local authorities – all seven or eight of them, the ARA. … no shortage of blame. plenty to go around.
Auckland’s PT rot has little, if anything, to do with the bus drivers’ union, the Yellow Bus Co, etc. It has a lot to do with successive national party governments not only failing to invest in PT infrastructure but also cancelling previously approved projects (CBD tunnel in the 1930s; ditto in the 1950s; Robbie’s ‘rapid rail’ in the mid ’70s) and investing all the eggs in the basket into an ill-advised motorway scheme. As built, it’s stuffed the city totally, destroyed communities and the environment and all in the name of profit. The current bunch of crooks are no different although they’ve been a little more subtle by doing it all through their patsy organisation, Auckland Transport which is no more a council controlled organisation than I am. If you want decent PT in Auckland, you’ll have to get rid of the current government and reform all their corporatist bodies (NZTA/AT, etc).
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