Short Sited Auckland

Just like a person who cannot see into the distance, Auckland transport are not looking to the future in terms of population growth and what this means for our roads. As most of you have noticed, there are extensive construction works happening in the viaduct motorway in Auckland City. This project includes building a north bound tunnel with 3 lanes and then opening up ALL 4 viaduct lanes for south bound traffic (Auckland Motorways 2011). The tunnel will greatly improve the flow of traffic from both southbound and northbound directions during peak times.

               Proposed result (Auckland Motorway, 2011)

So what is wrong with this you ask?
Well, there are several things actually. By failing to invest in southbound tunnel which would enable a demolition of the viaduct overpass lanes, the following points show what is wrong with this.


1. Missed opportunities for enhancing the space in front of historic birdcage building which connects with Victoria Park market and Victoria Park. By not grasping this opportunity, we have yet again failed to improve the connections within Auckland City. 

2. Failure to provide infrastructure for future growth in Auckland. By 2030, the proposed population of Auckland is to be around 2 million. Auckland Motorways have stated that the reason they have not built a southbound tunnel at the same time as the current tunnel is because of funding. I know that I am speaking as an outsider, but to me, it makes a lot more sense to spend that much more today and have a job done that will inevitable need to be done in the future. If they had done it now, then they would have saved time and money that could be better spent on other sectors (such as the health sector) as the workers would already be digging up that area. Now, when this tunnel needs to be built, they will have to spend hard earned taxes on re-digging up the same area.


Now i must admit that another main reason for not building the southbound tunnel now is because they are looking to tie it in with the proposed harbour crossing. Although this looks great for the future, these investments needed to be made years ago. And surely they can still build the tunnel now and then tie it in with the new harbour crossing???

      Proposed Harbour Crossing (Auckland Motorway, 2011)

If you would like to read more on this project and the proposed harbour crossing then follow these links:
Victoria Park Tunnel: http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/northern/victoriaviaduct.php
Auckland harbour Crossing: http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/northern/ahc.php
What are your thoughts with this? I'm keen to hear.

Enough is Enough

How many of you have experienced the shock fear when a car speeds past you while on a quiet street or footpath, doesn't see you on the pedestrian crossing, or even runs a red while your waiting to cross?

It's safe to say that I think the majority of Aucklanders' have experienced this feeling. This my friend, is a serious planning issue that EVERYONE can relate to. As a planner, we aim to develop the roads so that the pedestrian and cyclist are catered for before any private cars. Unfortunately this aim has not been implemented effectively enough.

                   Google: Picture of traffic in New York

Although this picture is From New York, it still symbolizes the speed of traffic to pedestrians.
 
To sum it up... there are far too many cars on the road, and the drivers in these cars do not have the right attitude. We can't just keep building roads to accommodate the growth. We must invest in pubic transportation systems, we must integrate land use and transport networks more effectively so as to increase the safety "shield" between car and pedestrian, but more importantly.. we must improve the attitudes of these drivers.

"The significance of pedestrian injury in the road safety picture increases for urban areas. From 1993-1997, on urban roads (i.e. those with speed limits of 70 km/ph or less), pedestrians accounted for 28% of road fatalities, 12% of reported injury crashes and 18.6% of the social cost of injury crashes" (NZ Transport Agency, 2000).

Another important issue is the number of accidents that involve a private car and a cyclist. In 2007 there were 12 reported cyclists killed, 181 seriously injured and a further 699 with minor injuries (can you imagine the number of unreported injuries??) (Transport, 2007). I can only assume that this number has increased over the past 4 years.

So there you have the facts.. It is disturbing to think that this number is to increase unless we change our driving attitude and the whole transport system perspective. I personally have lost a friend who was crossing at a set of lights when a car ran a red. He is now a statistic along with hundreds of others. This must stop.

We must improve our traveling behaviors. They say that "safety in numbers" in terms of pedestrian and cycling is effective for improving safety measures but how do we get to that point where more people are confident enough to travel that way. We can look at Amsterdam as an example. Amsterdam is labeled the bike capital of the world - and for good reason.They have 40% of their traffic movement by bike. Follow this link to read about how they have created this image for themselves.
http://www.virgin-vacations.com/11-most-bike-friendly-cities.aspx

Imagine how these effects help traffic? Less on street parking, more room for the pedestrian, and these effects will continue to be positive. Check out this video about the traffic in Amsterdam

 If you would like to read more information on the pedestrian and cyclists statistics you can follow these links:
Cyclist: http://www.transport.govt.nz/research/documents/cyclist-crash-factsheet.pdf
Pedestrian: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/nz-pedestrian-profile/6.html