Weekly Roundup 17-January-2025
It's Friday and time for another roundup of things that caught our attention this week.
This week in Greater Auckland
On Monday Patrick looked at the idea for a new central rail station in Hamilton
On Tuesday Matt took a look at our road safety record for 2024.
Rail Replacement Buses
There are a number of problems with rail replacement buses and two of them have been on display this week as a lot more people head back to work.
Capacity
There were a number of reports on Monday that rail replacement buses were too busy.
Rail replacement buses in Auckland were packed on Monday morning as many in the city returned to work at the same time as a network-wide shutdown.
One Western line replacement bus just after 7.30am was 10 minutes late and full by the time it reached Glen Eden, which is the fifth stop towards Britomart.
Two stops later, the driver was forced to continue past bus stops and ignore waiting passengers.
Routes
Rail buses also take a more circuitous route, which combined with traffic and navigating intersections makes them much slower than trains. Even worse when they get stuck a level crossing that no train using.
The Herald reports that one bus got stuck at a level crossing despite the network being shut down.
A passenger on a rail replacement bus had to get off and direct traffic so the bus could navigate through closed barrier arms at a level crossing in West Auckland this morning - despite no trains currently running on Auckland’s rail network.
The bus was was stuck for at least 20 minutes during rush hour at the crossing on Fruitvale Rd in West Auckland before a “saviour” hopped off and asked cars behind to move so that the bus could reverse and make its way around the barrier arms.
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Adam Olszewski, KiwiRail’s infrastructure operations manager for Auckland metro and greater Auckland, confirmed that there was an issue this morning with the barrier arms at the Fruitvale Rd level crossing which has since been resolved.
Having caught rail replacement buses through this section a few times it seems odd that AT don't just run the buses down Gt North Rd rather than winding them through local streets lined with speed bumps and parked cars that make it difficult for two buses to pass each other, all to get the bus to stop right by the station. It would be an extra few hundred metres walk for some people but would speed up this section of route quite a bit and make it more reliable for everyone not going to Fruitvale Rd.
Light on Communication
Sticking with AT, their usual lack of comms/engagement means this "surprise" will just have poured more gasoline on the fires of the usual haters of the Pt Chev and Meola Rd upgrade.
Frustrated residents who hoped the end of more than a year of roadworks on a busy suburban Auckland road was in sight are irate that more construction is in the works.
Auckland Transport (AT) says it’s working to make Pt Chevalier, Meola and Garnet Rds “safer and more accessible and efficient”.
To do this, it will install traffic lights at the Meola Rd, Garnet Rd and William Denny Ave roundabout in Westmere to turn it into a “metered roundabout”, a letter sent to affected residents said.
The lights will only be for traffic driving north on Garnet Rd, and will be intermittently active when sensors detect a backlog of traffic on Meola Rd trying to get through the roundabout.
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AT said traffic queues have existed at the roundabout for years – before it began working in the area – and pointed to a public feedback report from July 2020 in which some submitters called for improvements.
AT told the Herald that introducing metering at the roundabout would help improve overall traffic flow.
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“The traffic light will only be active when it is needed on weekday mornings when there are long queues of peak traffic on Meola Rd, making it quicker and easier for those drivers to enter the roundabout. At all other times, the roundabout will function as normal.
Roundabout metering helps balance traffic flow at each point entering the roundabout. It has already been successful in other parts of Auckland.”
We're aware of this design being used on other roundabouts, like the SH2/Elizabeth St roundabout in Tauranga, but we're not aware of it being used in Auckland.
Journey Planner
Auckland Transport’s online journey planner appears to have been compromised, with a rude phrase appearing in the search engine of the website.
When one types a destination in the starting point search bar of the journey planner, the phrase “I suck cock” comes up in the results portal.
Perhaps their comms team were too busy coming up with this reply to deal with the Garnet/Meola roundabout properly
Auckland Transport’s online journey planner appears to have been compromised, with a rude phrase appearing in the search engine of the website.
When one types a destination in the starting point search bar of the journey planner, the phrase “I suck cock” comes up in the results portal.
Fences Gone
One last thing from AT, it seems someone is stealing their fences.
Auckland Transport has slammed the “appalling” theft of safety fencing, which could cost ratepayers $75,000 to replace.
About 76 fence panels have been stolen from around the North Shore, including 60 from a newly built retaining wall on Gills Rd in Albany and 10 from the recently repaired Glenvar Rd in Torbay.
The fences had been installed on the ridge roads for the safety of pedestrians.
“The appalling theft of these panels has put the public’s safety at risk, as these fences were protecting pedestrians from the drop-off of a steep embankment,” said Upper Harbour Local Board member Uzra Casuri Balouch.
Christchurch gets its wheels on
Cycling in Christchurch is at an all-time high, with more than 4 million trips clocked in 2024.
The Christchurch City Council’s cycle counter logged a record-breaking 4.08 million counts across the 31 locations.
“It’s great to see our network of cycleways being well used, with the number steadily increasing year on year from 3.8 million in 2023 and 3.6 million in 2022,” head of transport Lynette Ellis said.
“February was the stand-out month, with 405,000 trips clocked – the highest month since March 2021 and also the shortest month of the year.”
Another significant milestone was achieved when the counter on the Antigua Street Bridge near Christchurch Hospital recorded 500,000 trips for the year for the first time ever.
“Hagley Park is a hive of cyclist activity. There are three cycle counters around Hagley Park, with each averaging around 420,000 cyclists counted per year,” Ellis said.
Locals fighting for safety
Locals in Coatsville have been fighting for years to get a pedestrian crossing installed.
How does the pedestrian cross the road? It took five years and several changes for authorities to get to the answer, and even then a cost blowout has left the funding uncertain.
In 2019, and in response to community concerns, the Rodney Local Board said a solution was needed to slow down traffic and give pedestrians a safe place to cross the main road in the Coatesville village, in Auckland’s north-west.
Coatesville Residents and Ratepayers Association chairperson Jacqui Cantell said a crossing of some sort was needed due to there being a dairy, pony club, cafe, garage, offices, and two childcare centres along the busy stretch of road.
“There are a lot of comings and goings and no safe way for people to cross the road,” Cantell said.
It includes some classic bureaucratic time wasting
In 2023, the board opted for the raised zebra crossing, before AT informed members it couldn’t support it because the road had a 60kph speed limit.
The board, in mid-2024, instead decided to go with the traffic light crossing, as this was better than doing nothing, deputy chairperson Louise Johnston told Stuff.
But a new land transport rule introduced in October 2024 meant the NZ Transport Agency’s director of land transport could lower a speed limit if “there is good reason”.
In a memo to the local board, acting director of land transport Mike Hargreaves found there was strong support to lower the speed limit to 50kph, so a raised pedestrian crossing could be built.
“This will create a safe place for people to cross a busy road,” Hargreaves said.
It was now late 2024, and the Rodney board decided to revert to the original preferred option of a raised zebra crossing with a lower gradient than a typical speed table, after receiving feedback from the Coatesville Residents and Ratepayers Association.
At this point, the cost of the project had risen, exceeding the $200,000 which AT had agreed to contribute - by a further $125,000. AT was yet to decide whether it would approve the additional budget.
“The scope of the project covers significantly more than the raised crossing itself, and includes reinstating footpaths, rebuilding road kerbs and channels, drainage works, improved street lighting and line marking,” an AT spokesperson said.
How the minister will react. He says he's all for locals having more say in these decisions but also he's against raised crossings.
French Squiggle
Momentum Mag takes a look at an idea from the mayor of a small French town who was trying to slow cars down.
In a bid to combat speeding and ensure safety, the picturesque French village of Baune, near the city of Angers, has resorted to the unconventional method of what can best be described as a squiggle road. Frustrated by the inability of traditional traffic signs to slow down drivers in their 30km/h (19mph) zone, local officials decided to paint peculiar squiggly lines on the road surface.
These seemingly abstract road markings, resembling something of an art project, were introduced following concerns over motorists consistently breaking the speed limit within the village. According to Baune’s mayor, Audrey Revereault, the aim is to “create a visual disturbance” for drivers and encourage them to reduce their speed. Surprisingly, this novel approach appears to be working, with drivers successfully adhering to the speed limit.
Jean-Charles Prono, the mayor of Loire-Authion, a group of seven villages that includes Baune, expressed the difficulty of slowing down fast drivers and the need for effective solutions. He mentioned that the goal is to “make it difficult to read the landscape,” thereby forcing drivers to pay closer attention to the road.
Melbourne's Free Trams
The Guardian has a look at the impacts of Melbourne's trams being free in the city centre for the past decade.
A decade on, Bowen, who is a spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), says his predictions have come true.
“It has definitely caused more problems than it solved,” he says. “The trams are more crowded than ever. They are slower than ever. It is definitely not an upgrade for those paying customers.”
Over the years, several experts have also questioned the effectiveness of the free tram zone, including Infrastructure Victoria, which called for it to be scrapped in 2020.
But the zone, which extends from Queen Victoria Market to Docklands, Spring Street, Flinders Street station and Federation Square, remains hugely popular with tourists and visitors to the CBD.
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The department said when the free tram zone was introduced, the number of trips taken within the CBD almost doubled from 18.5m trips a year to 35.5m.
The majority of this increase was attributed to commuters taking “short tram journeys” instead of walking.
Yarra Trams said this surge in patronage “harmed the operational efficiency, comfort, passenger satisfaction, and farebox income of tram services” and forced trams to slow down throughout the CBD.
Dr Crystal Legacy, an associate professor of urban planning at the University of Melbourne, says the free tram zone went against one of the key objectives of a high-quality public transport system.
“The whole point of these sorts of incentives is to try to get people out of their cars and on to public transport,” she says. “Instead, we’ve seen a shift away from people walking short distances.”
Bowen argues it has also led to more cars around the city. He says the PTUA is aware of commuters driving to the edge of the free tram zone to take a tram for the remainder of their trip.
New York's Congestion Pricing is working
It's still only a couple of weeks old but all indications are that congestion pricing in New York is working.
The first week of congestion pricing bucked the years-long trend of increased bridge and tunnel traffic into Manhattan's Central Business District, initial crossing data show.
Morning commuter times last Wednesday, Jan. 8, dropped year-over-year on every bridge or tunnel into the tolling zone below 60th Street, the MTA told reporters on Monday — with an average drop of 34 percent between the eight crossings.
There is one business who is suffering though.
Gregg Reuben, chief executive of parking-management firm Centerpark, which operates 35 garages in Manhattan, said the number of customers has dropped 20% since congestion pricing went into effect. Centerpark operates parking garages inside and outside of the congestion zone and has seen a drop-off in business at all locations, he said.
“I don’t believe we will fully recover that 20% loss,” Reuben said.
There were quite a few other things we could have included in here. Was there anything that stood out to you?