Weekly Roundup 13-December-2024
It’s one of the final Fridays of the year and we are getting into the last couple of weeks before the summer shutdown. We hope everyone’s excited to have a break! Here’s some of the stories that have caught our attention this week.
This week in Greater Auckland
On Tuesday we had a guest post from George Weeks reviewing the book; The Future Embraced by Kobus Mentz.
On Wednesday Matt asked if Auckland Transport was misunderstanding the governments new PT targets.
On Thursday Alex Bonham discusses what we should do around coastal retreat? Along with ongoing consultation by Auckland Council for shoreline plans.
Quick Survey for Consultation on Better cycling connections on Wellington St, Freemans Bay
Consultation closes today on a short stretch of potential cycleway on Wellington Street. Submit and show support for this and more!
Auckland Transport wins award for road safety work
Speaking of safety, while the Minister is busy trying to undo safety measures, AT is being recognised for the work it has done on speed limit changes. This from AT's GM of Transport Safety, Teresa Burnett.
Woohoo! I'm so proud that Auckland Transport has been recognised at the Prince Michael International Road Safety award for our 'outstanding achievement in road safety.' This is for our Safe Speeds programme to quote: "Auckland’s programme serves as a model of innovation, evidence-based policy, and community engagement."
So many people to thank here, AT staff both past and present, elected members, our partners and stakeholders. This award recognises the work of many people, not just AT staff. So thanks.*We couldn't be in London to pick up with award in person (obviously) so here's our guy on the ground attending for us.
Well done AT.
Highlighting the hassle of Hill St
Stuff have shown dashcam footage a driver nearly crashing with a police car, highlighting once again why the Hill St intersection needs to be upgraded.
As a reminder, this is what AT had planned for the intersection but funding for it has been pulled by the government unless they redesign it to make it less safe for people not in cars.
Not just Auckland
As we've been repeatedly seeing, it's not just Auckland suffering from the government's focus on speed and disregard for safety. Tasman District Council are getting pretty frustrated too.
Additional hurdles have appeared for Tasman District Council as it continues to try and lower speed limits after being forced to restart the process by the Government.
The unforeseen challenges have raised frustration among councillors, even leading the mayor to a swearing outburst during a Wednesday meeting.
The council is currently in the process of preparing to re-consult residents on lowering several speed limits across Tasman.
A suite of new speed limits for the district – which were widely supported by residents, approved by the council, and adopted by the New Zealand Transport Agency – were invalidated by the Government’s new rule for setting speed limits.
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Elected members’ patience was wearing thin with the uncontrollable and continued delays to the speed limit reductions that have been long-awaited by many communities around Tasman.
Mayor Tim King said the entire process seemed “entirely stupid” and was “such a load of shit”.
Urban form is important to climate change - sprawl is a big factor in emissions
Recent article by the World Economic Forum on how Urban Sprawl is contributing up to 30% of global greenhouse emissions. Car dependency, infrastructure, parking and more contribute to it.
This is not just an issue of planning – it’s a challenge of imagination. Many still believe growing urban populations require lots of car travel, segregated land uses and more built space per person.
The opposite is true: compact, walkable cities support well-being, opportunity, and far lower emissions. These cities aren’t places of scarcity; they’re places of abundance.
We can align population growth with climate targets by designing cities around people and planet. Per capita emissions in compact, mixed-use cities are typically two to three times lower than national averages.
How hot does Auckland get?
Auckland Council recently released a report highlighting the 'urban heat island' effect - the impact the urban environment has on temperature.
In a first for New Zealand, Auckland Council has released a report, Auckland Urban Heat Assessment, that highlights the impact of land cover on temperatures across the region, particularly within city areas where high-density buildings and infrastructure trap heat.
Chair of the Policy and Planning Committee Councillor Richard Hills says the report gives the council the data needed to understand the impacts of heat on Auckland’s vulnerable communities.
“While all of us feel the effects of summer heat, the research shows certain parts of the city have significantly hotter temperatures than others. Neighbourhoods with less tree cover, more concrete, and limited access to cooling infrastructure, experience even more intense temperatures.
New flash, too much driving makes our society worse
It turns out (who new) that too much driving is a bad thing. Other ways of travelling, like cycling, make us happier, and once you get past a certain threshold, car dependence decreases our life satisfaction.
Researchers from Arizona State surveyed more than 2,000 adults across the U.S. to understand how car dependence affects personal satisfaction in life. In moderation, they found, car use increases personal wellbeing by giving people better access and sense of freedom. “It’s not surprising that car use would increase life satisfaction,” they explain, “especially in the U.S. where the built environment and transportation infrastructure are developed around car usage.”
However, the benefits are only good up to a certain point, then car use has the opposite effect:
“In a typical week, relying on a car for more than 50% of the time for out-of-home activities is associated with a decrease in life satisfaction. This implies that at high levels of car dependence, there are negative implications that outweigh the benefits of car-based travel.”
Bringing New Zealand's Housing Upzone policies to America's attention The Atlantic's Good on Paper podcast
Eleanor West featured recently on The Atlantic's Good on Paper podcast talking about the success of upzoning in New Zealand, and what else we have to do.
And so for a long time, we’ve had zoning regulations in New Zealand that kind of restrict the ability to build anything other than a standalone home, usually two stories. And so as the population has grown, there’s been a lot more demand for housing, but developers haven’t been able to build housing in the places where people want to live, like the inner city, because these zones restrict the ability to build up, and there’s kind of no more space to grow out in the inner city. And so there’s just a lot of competition for these houses in the highly desirable areas. Unless we address the supply constraint, that competition is just going to keep driving prices up.
Notre Dame reopened recently, check out what they planned few years ago outside
With the Notre Dame Cathedral needing repairs after a fire in 2019, a competition in 2022 occurred to transform the gardens outside. The winner was a Belgian architect - Bas Smets.
While the cathedral itself has been finished, outside work is ongoing to transform the surroundings, to be finished in 2027.
“The area around Notre Dame has changed so much throughout history,” says Bas Smets, the Belgian landscape architect who won an open competition to redesign the area around the cathedral in 2022. “It’s like a privileged witness of a city looking for its form. The question now is what kind of spaces we need for the city of tomorrow.”
On Friday 29 November, Smets was first in line to explain his vision to Macron, on the president’s first visit to inspect the reborn Notre Dame, before its official inauguration tomorrow. They stood on the first completed piece of the “petit parvis”, the forecourt in front of the cathedral, which Smets plans to expand to mirror the full length and width of the building, with grooved limestone flags reflecting the chequerboard marble floor inside.
His plan – to be completed by 2027 at a cost of €50m, funded by the city – will create a much more open setting for the cathedral, encouraging visitors to explore more of the Île de la Cité at a slower pace, beyond just queueing up for a peek inside Notre Dame before hot-footing it to the Eiffel Tower. The new spaces will prioritise people over vehicles, seeing roads closed and pedestrianised, and reconnect the cathedral to the Seine for the first time in generations, with a new 400 metre-long riverside promenade. Plenty of shade will be provided by 160 new drought-tolerant trees, which will also help to shield queueing visitors from winter winds, while the hottest days will be relieved by an ingenious air-cooling water feature – with a splash of fun.
Navigating Auckland Traffic
The Spinoff answers a question on how to navigate Auckland traffic and in particular selfish drivers.
This is an interesting problem because you can’t really do anything about it. These people are strangers. You have no control over their behaviour. Getting mad about it only ruins your day. On the other hand, I think there’s a kind of freedom in futility. If the only thing you can control is your reaction, then maybe it’s time to get creative.
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My last suggestion is to practice the kindness you’d like to see on the road, with no expectation of reciprocity. Allow yourself to be overtaken. Let people in. Not because it’s the Right Thing To Do. But trying to make a habit of vehicular generosity will put you in a more relaxed and forgiving mindset. Even if nobody else appreciates your kindness, you’ll feel better, and that’s the main thing.
One of the great things about being on public transport is you have someone doing the driving for you meaning you don't have to worry about it and can instead spend your time doing something else, like reading a book, watching a video or reading a blog like this one.
Bikes can also be a great way to avoid the stress of driving, especially when there's safe infrastructure.
Study shows impact of physical activity on scooters
E-scooters have become a common site in our cities over the last few years and a study has looked at the impact they have on physical activity and muscle activity.
Introduction
Physical activity is an important consideration when it comes to evaluating the overall benefits of a particular mode of transportation. E-scooters are an increasingly popular form of micromobility but have generated concern over their impacts on active transportation modes. Although the transportation impacts of e-scooters have been widely studied, the physical activity impacts of these devices are uncertain. This study investigates physical activity and muscle activation from riding an e-scooter. We compare those outcomes to the two most common substituted modes, driving a car and walking.
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Results
The results reveal that riding an e-scooter provides light-intensity physical activity (energy expenditure = 2.14 METs). This is a significantly greater level of energy expenditure than that measured when driving (MET = 1.42), but less than that measured when walking (MET = 3.12). Compared to level walking, e-scooter riding had higher muscle activation in arms and trunk muscles. E-scooter muscle activation was higher in all muscle groups than driving. Driving a car is a sedentary mode, e-scooters provide light physical activity, and walking provides moderate physical activity.
Conclusions
The physical activity benefits of riding an e-scooter are maximized when people use them to replace sedentary travel such as driving. However, when e-scooters are used to replace moderate-intensity activities such as walking, net transportation-related physical activity could be reduced.
New future transit plans in Vancouver?
Interesting posts from the socials
Pt Chev is really starting to come together.
Here's an interesting thread on what cities can do to improve their downtown environments.
During the pandemic, New York greatly expanded outdoor dining options with things like parklets and it was incredibly popular but the city has been removing them. So some shops are getting creative.
Have a great weekend.