GUEST BLOG: John Tamihere – Auckland is in gridlock

1. ( Before I go on. And on. I’d like to say, I love Auckland. I love Sandringham, Otara, Devonport etc. I love it that it’s busy and warm and has those birds that squawk. I love all that. )
   “Auckland is in gridlock”
   Perhaps. But Auckland is also in denial.
   What will happen to Auckland when Auckland runs out of the false economy which keeps it afloat? ( Literally, metaphorically and barely. )
   What does Auckland export? What does Auckland contribute to the greater cause that is AO/NZ? I know what the twisted figures say but I’m more interested in the truth without the bullshit.
   How does Auckland earn its keep? What does Auckland actually do?
   I know the occupiers of Auckland are either dying in the streets or are driving along those streets in cars so absurd in this day and age that I have no real idea how a person can drive a 300kph capable two seater sports car around Auckland with a straight face at between 30 and 50 kph. Such, is the moral dementia that bedevils the big, fat, facade Auckland is.
   Here’s an idea so mad you’d only expect, say, a God botherer or a real estate agent to come up with anything similar.
   Shut down the banks then kick then out after asset stripping them and their minions and see what ‘refreshed’ house prises might reveal themselves to be in Auckland? A nice wee hut in Ponsonby for, say, $150K? Less, perhaps?
   We, in the South know very well where Auckland is and of how it got there and of how it grew. We know that. But what does Auckland know about us? My guess would be nothing and couldn’t give a fuck about us if it did.
   That’s a problem. Auckland? We have a problem.

   • Yes !

   • Countryboy – you’ve never been to Auckland, have you?

2. This is a total joke. We don’t need another multi-billion dollar harbour crossing. The current crossing is experiencing flat demand, possibly even declining. It takes about 171,000 vehicles per day (mostly single occupancy) and about 50,000 people on buses. The biggest drawback on this dumb idea is that each end of the bridge imposes constraints on the total numbers of vehicles that can cross per hour – SH1 in both directions has fewer lanes and the feeder streets around each end of the bridge are choke points that can only hold so much traffic. The most effective way to deal with congestion is to make public transport more affordable, more frequent, and more routes. Research shows that a 10% reduction in traffic onto public transport can reduce congestion by up top 40%, and it costs a hell of a lot less than this stupid idea.

   Greater Auckland have a good summary of why this proposal makes no sense.

   https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2019/08/19/double-decking-the-harbour-bridge/

   • Yes we do Auckland Transport is a mess and you can blame National and your boyfriend John Key IMHO

3. Oh great. Back to roads of national significance… Perhaps better public transport and cheaper would do the same thing and be more cost effective and recognise the precarious state of the climate. The idea is supposed to be to have less cars on the road not to increase the capacity for more.

4. Tamihere on the road to nowhere

   • Cock ?

5. What does Auckland produce you may ask? It has always been… Auckland’s business is business. Like a body’s circulation, the roads are arterial and capillary to business, to recreation, the flow is the important thing and the worst thing in Auckland are the endless roadworks which are slow progress, half unmanned and create blockage. Auckland’s roadworks simply need to be done fast and efficiently. Shift crews need to brought on and work around the clock until the job is complete. That’s how its done overseas. Instead of just days of work, we currently have weeks and months sometimes years, half the time no work is done, everyone trying to navigate past is frustrated. Auckland’s roadworks are everywhere and affect everyone There is no escape day or night, city or suburb. Lets get these jobs done and done fast so the crews can pack up and move on. Road cones are Auckland’s cancer!

   • Auckland produces cars and meth addicts IMHO

6. Auckland Gridlock = National & John Key

   • Feeding the transport and oil barons.

7. No one seems to have woken up to the fact that it doesn’t matter what you do with roads, nothing will solve Auckland’s gridlock.
   There is only X amount of land space available. Even if you filled it all with roads, it won’t make the traffic flow any better or faster.
   Making the roads wider won’t change anything either. It just means they fill up quicker and you’re back to square one – gridlock – only now you have 8 lanes of it instead of 6. At some point these 8 lanes will have to narrow down into two, at which point it will be the usual snarl up.
   Couple this with the widespread inability for people to drive effectively and it is no wonder the roads are jammed.
   The only practical solution is to reduce the number of vehicles on the existing roads. Public transport does that to a degree, but it doesn’t always go where people need to get to.

   • The answer to Auckland’s quite unsolvable problems is to divert its growth to elsewhere…..

8. More to the point, what other ratepayer assets are you going to flog off, John?

   Instead of bullshit like this that wouldn’t fix a thing, and will never happen anyway under your leadership or not,bwe’ll all be paying shareholder dividends for our drinking water.

9. So the answer to gridlock is more cars, driven quicker into Auckland.

   Thats hilarious…and so very retro.

   Welcome to the “fundamental rule” of road congestion: adding road capacity just increases the total number of miles traveled by all vehicles.

   https://www.nber.org/papers/w15376

   • TBH what pisses me off is the woke has successfully associated The Green Party of Aotearoa-New Zealand with the radical left and socially awkward.

10. John T: I’m voting for you!
    Here’s my tuppence worth:

    THE BRIDGE
    We need a plan to replace the bridge. Its steel structure is heading toward the end of its life and a plan to replace it must be put in place. While we’re at it, include a cycle lane. Goff spent a million dollars on a secret study to build another rugby stadium. That money could have funded a concept design of a replacement bridge. He’s a disgrace!
    You’re quite correct in saying the harbour bridge isn’t Auckland’s. It’s an essential link that joins the bottom half of the north island with the top half of the north island. Auckland city just happens to be in the way. From studies done over a decade ago, the majority of the traffic on it is not going to, or coming from the CBD: It’s passing through.

    RAIL
    I’m not sure a rail bridge is worth investing in because it implies a rail line up the north shore, for which there is little need and the population density is too low to make it worthwhile. The limits to rail gradients starting at Britomart mean it would probably have to be put in a tunnel anyway. So my recommendation is to leave rail For another day, but there’s no harm in doing a feasibility study. If you fancy building a rail line, have a look at the existing track that goes to Helensville. A decent rail link out there would allow Auckland to grow in that direction and quickly alleviate the shortage of land for housing.

    THE COUNCIL
    Council staffing levels are now approaching double what they were before amalgamation and this excessive staffing is required to feed its Byzantine business processes . So your first priority must be to develop a more efficient organisational structure and then take a broom to the council and have a thorough clear-out. A case in point: I work with other volunteers maintaining a local bush reserve and when dealing with Council we have to work with three separate council organisations each of which has conflicting KPIs. You know something is fundamentally wrong when the council is suing itself! (it is!)
    While you’re doing a restructure, the CEOs need to have their wings trimmed so that they’re accountable to the electorate via the Councillors. It seems we have rogue CEOs in various areas.
    We need to flush out ideologues with hidden agendas. We know AT and others have a hidden agenda to deliberately hinder traffic flow to try and force us on to their crappy public transport or bicycles. They even brag about in meetings. If that is to be policy then it needs to face the test of democracy before it is implemented.
    Don’t think they won’t fight this tooth & nail. Crocodiles don’t like the swamp being drained!

    DEBT
    The Council is on the edge of a debt crisis thanks to 8 years of mismanagement. Looking at the financial statements, the problem is not in capital projects but in the bloat in staffing – the salary budget is out of control. So it is critical your restructure reduces head count to somewhere near what it was before amalgamation (around 6,500)
    We need to slash expenditure on inessentials until the debt is reduced. No more BS artworks. No more air travel for staff. etc.

    Best of luck John!

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