Councils Holding the Country to Ransom

[speights boy]

You'll like this one then SB: http://www.interest.co.nz/news/73810...al-record-2014
Growth growth growth it is.
Despite it being the only option that is CERTAINLY not going to work long term, this is the one policy all countries follow.

Yes, I see you commented there.
Some of the other comments.....

My next door neighbour had his retired parents come to NZ on the family category two years ago. He and his wife and children left for Australia last year leaving his 70+ year old parents still living in NZ.
.............
Yip, parents and grandparents straight onto the waiting list for that expensive new hip, never paid a cent in NZ taxes.
.................
Young Asian couple moved in next door.
Scene changes a year later and their inlaws join them.
No English whatever. Then a baby comes along.
A year later the young couple dissapear stage left leaving the old couple in charge of the young boy.
I presume they went back to the old country to run the family business having successfully set up the bolt hole and got some good health care for the folks.
Question is who is paying NZ tax and is there a process to capture this apparent loophole.

[eri]

what can a tram do

that a bus can't?

at half the cost!

[speights boy]

What does

In AT's draft Regional Land Transport Plan 2015-2025,

say about that ?

[PTILoveYou]

Trams in AT's draft Regional Land Transport Plan 2015-2025?

Good luck funding that beast!

[speights boy]

Yes, you're right Gary.
It appears they have realised their error in not including them.

Thankfully, AT now acknowledges the flaw in its earlier 30-year plan, and is suggesting a solution employed by liveable cities all around the world. Modern trams.

[ivanp]

what can a tram do
that a bus can't?
at half the cost!

Apart from capital costs, everything else is in favour of trams:
- operating costs are lower
- higher capacity service
- dramatically less pollution (probably no one cares at all in Auckland due to its winds?)
- less noise
- exclusive right of way means trams are much faster than buses and cars in peak hours
- faster load/unload than buses due to multiple entrances, therefore shorter stops and shorter overall trips

General consensus among city engineers is that trams (and all other railway-type transport) are MUCH better for big cities than buses.

[eri]

another gold plated solution

for a bronze city issue

apart from capital cost

i'd probably be better off buying a new mercedes every year

but the capital cost doesn't just put me off the idea

it kills it stone dead

so i'll have to stick to my

imho

much better cycle

and with my cycle

i won't be asking you to fund my gastric bypass operation

or medication for chronic diabetes

[speights boy]

another gold plated solution
for a bronze city issue

Your solution is .....?

[eri]

something affordable

cng/lpg/methanol buses

stopping brown's social engineering programs

should free up enough cash for it

[speights boy]

Based on an Akl population of what size by 2050?

The only difference would be the type of fuel you put into the buses ?
How does that solve the future congestion problems again ?

[Davo36]

Based on an Akl population of what size by 2050?

The only difference would be the type of fuel you put into the buses ?
How does that solve the future congestion problems again ?

Oh come on SB, surely you can't be this dense.

Ok, so the question shouldn't be how are buses better, but in fact, how are trams better? Surely the people who want to spend billions on these antiquated things should stump up with the reasons why they are a good idea. Which is was some idiots in the council, at their own volition, on ratepayer's dime and time have attempted to do.

But people's brains seem to turn to mush when they consider trains/trams etc.

Just look at the examples around that have failed e.g. the Sydney rail link to the airport. Fantastic they said. Sooo many people would use it they said. Makes much more sense they said. But it loses money hand over fist each year.

OK, so how on earth is squeezing in some tram lines (that we can ill-afford) going to ease congestion. ivanp's answers above are all evidence of the brain-mush theory.

With buses, they can go anywhere there is a road. We already have these. We also have the dedicated bus lanes. Buses also have more than one door (shock horror). They can change routes if necessary (accidents etc.) any are basically just a shit-ton more flexible than a tram will ever be.

And cyclists wheels don't get stuck in the tracks of buses

[ivanp]

Davo, that's not brain-mush. I was born in a city with 10m+ population that has public transport in place, including rapid transit / undeground / trams, i.e. all sorts of railway-based transport, that move 3 times more people than buses (9 million vs 3 million passengers per day).

I can't imagine Auckland with population doubled (like they predict) and still without decent public transport system. With NZ attitude towards living in standalone houses, plus lack of skills and experience required to build non-leaky high-rise apartment buildings, more and more people will have to commute daily. Commuting on buses just doesn't work.

[Davo36]

But ivanp, see what you said in your first few words? 10 million people!!!!!!!!

That makes all the difference.

So, in fact, does the shape of the land. I bet that city wasn't on an isthmus, constrained by a skinny bottleneck at either end.

The guy I referred to on the radio the other day reckoned you have to look at the land use first, then design a transport use around it. We seem to always want to do it the other way around i.e. decide trains are good, then try to fit them to our city, which doesn't work.

[flyernzl]

On the very few occasions that I go to catch a train across Auckland (very few, because they only serve a very few suburbs) I generally seem to come across the news that "trains have been replaced by buses on this service today".

I have yet to come across "buses have been replaced by trains . . . .".

[eri]

death by paperwork

a well known bureaucratic system to prevent progress on an issue bureaucrats have decided to stop

but what have auckland planners got against housing?

maybe they just didn't think things through

unintended consequences and all that



Mr Goode said the shortage of inner-city student accommodation had been worsening for the last three years.

Auckland University Students' Association president Paul Smith said students were searching fruitlessly for accommodation close to the city campus.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=11394453