Think about the actual dynamics of this cycle bridge.
Commuters on the Harbor Bridge for the next 5 years watching this billion dollar glorified cycle lane grow ever slowly while they are stuck in traffic.
People will start yelling at the bridge as they drive by it. Aucklanders throwing garbage at it as they drive past will become as ubiquitous as Wellingtonians honking their horn through the tunnel.
This cycle bridge is a performance art piece called ‘helping National win the next election’.
Does anyone actually believe Labour will build this in 5 years? We all know they can’t build one house in a room full of lego!
This will drag on and on and on.
It will become the new monument to Phil Goff’s dreaded ‘progress’ where infrastructure dooms viable use of public space for years and we all have to pretend it’s great.
Don’t get me wrong, as a Gold Star Public Transport User who has never driven a car, I support any infrastructure that pisses off car drivers.
One of the true joys in Auckland is doing the fingers to cars stuck in traffic as you whizz past them in the bus lane.
All that said, announcing a billion dollar bike bridge because militant middle class pakeha cyclists demand it is going go down like a cup of cold sick with voters who already despise Labour and who live in places where basic roading is the issue and not peddle powered self actualization.
That’s why the middle class ev car welfare testosterone tax is such smart politics.
Labour’s power electorate are the 45+ women vote who had been charmed by Key and voted National in 2017 but voted with genuine Covid response respect for Jacinda in 2020.
That electorate of 45+ women will absolutely buy an electric car and will continue to support Labour because it’s middle class welfare. The testosterone tax on Ute’s will hit men who don’t vote Labour so fuck them.
This is clever politics by Labour, it boosts and maintains the electorate whose seismic shift has given them a majority while hitting the electorate who don’t vote for them hardest.
If Labour maintains support with the 45+ female electorate, Jacinda can win the next 2 elections.
It will feed the polarization of the Right but that’s a fight between National and ACT for 2023.
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The car levy/subsidy that applies to all newly imported cars is a tiny step addressing climate change. It says the more polluting, the more you pay. It’s the start of a conversation that isn’t going to stop. So in that respect it’s a good thing.
It’s not earth shattering, but the government has a hell balancing act not to shit on the less well off, not to obliterate the car industry and yet begin to bring about meaningful change.
As for the bridge. Surely some sort of very regular ferry directly between Northcote point and Westhaven would suffice for cyclists until a final decision in respect of a tunnel for rail etc is made. But to spend the phenomenal sums of money on a supplementary bridge is madness.
And no, the current bridge cannot withstand the extra engineering to safely accommodate cyclists.
Taking from tradies and rural people to give to rich urbanites.
I’ve previously noted the Labour/green pompous Ute Derangement Syndrome sufferers over at The Standard sublime in their moral superiority and ignorance of actual working or rural people – this is their moment.
Once governments would govern for all people, now it’s just partisan attack.
The key to fighting climate change is to make someone else make the sacrifices evidently.
The utes copping the new tax are needed rurally for farms, transporting gear, towing, there is no plug in hybrid or ev to switch to. There is no public transport and distances are well beyond current EVs.
They will subsidize city dwellers, who should already be using public transport, to buy EVs and continue congestion problems.
Scrap this further attack on working class tradies and farmers and introduce congestion tolls in all major cities to pay for public transport there.
Give rural people biodiesel options.
Shove the taxpayer bought cycle monstrosity for the wealthy few where the Lycra prevents the sun shining.
The bike lobby is so fascinating. The lengths they go to manipulate public opinion but especially that of politicians really knows no bounds, most importantly when it comes to crucifying honesty.
Burnt by the fact the cycling community are Ponsonby/Grey Lynn/Pt Chev privileged white folk who locked up Auckland’s motorways with their bratish attention-seeking wank and have been on the receiving end of endless bad press, they have regrouped and in an amateur focus group have come up with this absolute pearler:
This from Kirsty Wild from the Spinoff, who when not comparing cyclists to female victims of misogynous oppressors, published this kaka in the NZ Herald tonight:
“In low-income communities, cycling can be an important “survival tool” for those who can’t afford a car. This group of low-income cyclists is our most vulnerable group of cyclists. They often can’t afford lights, or a helmet. Their bikes are uncomfortable and less safe because they can’t afford to maintain them. They often ride more dangerous roads because they don’t have the work flexibility to take a bit of extra time to avoid busy routes. They should be first priority in our glossy cycling safety strategies, but they almost never feature”.
Where does one begin? It started kinda unconvincingly and then layered on the bullshit just a metre too thick. Apparently, these middle-class tossers went into bat for the riffraff. God bless their little lycra sockettes!
What a fucking insult you patronising creep. I work in poor areas, grew up in one. Cycling is not an aspiration, survival is. Bikes are not a go in these areas, they need to get about the place and have less time or enthusiasm for such amusements. Using the lower class as a vehicle to promote your pastime is appalling but strangely typical of the people that dwell in the well-to-do cycling fraternity. Spinoff’s Wild had to invent this crap because it is what she guesses happens in poor communities. She is so obviously out of her depth that not only is it embarrassing, it’s rotten.
Her article did nothing to change the unlikability of the militant cyclists who demand and stomp their feet wanting cycle lanes everywhere to satisfy their fair-weathered pastimes!
““In low-income communities, cycling can be an important “survival tool” for those who can’t afford a car. This group of low-income cyclists is our most vulnerable group of cyclists. They often can’t afford lights, or a helmet. Their bikes are uncomfortable and less safe because they can’t afford to maintain them.”
LOL When did you last see a brown person on a bike? Really? These ‘poor’ people ALL have cars. Often they stay poor because they buy utterly ridiculous cars they cannot afford, crash them and don’t get them serviced. (This from my motor mechanic relative who works at the AA and who gets paid by WINZ to fix them)
I just don’t understand how NZTA need to take so long and demolish the houses for the cycle lane. Can’t they just take out space?
I’d prefer there to be a ban on trucks for example between 7 and 10 am and 3 and 6 pm and the cycle walk way operate on existing lanes. Could do that this year!
Arguably the trucks are dangerous on this bridge after tipping over!
Government just don’t seem to have any instinct to save money but just expensive and long scheme, one after the other.
Betcha they will demolish the houses quickly though!
Stop the madness that is NZ construction and consultation ponzi!
Do the easy, quick thing, if it doesn’t work, then try something else. But the easy, quick solutions, first.
Why don’t they introduce pedal powered ferries. Put your bike on the back and when say 12 cyclists are aboard off they go. A lot cheaper than a bridge, everyone gets exercise, hard to see a downside really.
Yes, more Ferries are needed and solar powered ones! Happening overseas.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/indias-first-solar-ferry-wins-global-honour/article32291248.ece
Food for thought for our yacht industry too… move now to be more sustainable or our boat building industry will be Dino toast!
Ike, that’s is brilliant!
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