The Wrong Side of my Car
The blog that wants to go obsolete
Let’s create urban villages, city centre edition
I have written before about the weird, lumpy population density of Auckland City. This is still the case, here is a similar map, from Census 2023 data. (I think dot maps are underrated for this sort of thing, there is no other way to bring out sheer differences in density like this)
Today I’m going to be looking at two of the areas where lots of people live on Hobson Street. That is the area I am more familiar with, and I’ve been there recently.
These areas have something in common: both of them are centred around a laneway. Or better: what could be a laneway, because both of them are currently languishing as sad little parking lanes. But there are also a few differences.
A stroll on Hobson Street, in 2025
A recurring theme around here is walking in places where you’d not normally walk as a tourist, and today we revisit Hobson Street, which is basically the origin story of this blog.
It is always interesting to see if anything changed. Is it still all just parking? Well it is not Antwerpen so it must be, right?
First, Vogel lane, which we visited back in 2018.
Uh, well, the parking lot degraded a bit — contrary to popular belief parking is not cheap, and I suspect many commercial body corporates are painfully aware of that.
But if we keep walking on Hobson Street we do find a change.
On progress in Auckland in 2025
Ray Delahanty, aka Citynerd, did a video about Auckland, and wow, it has electric trains and a new underground rail tunnel. And actual bike lanes.
Yeah I liked that video. When watching it, I got a distinct feeling of nostalgia.
The vibe in the video reflects quite well the sentiment among urbanists in Auckland — up until around 2018. Even me — me — I was still writing optimistic blog posts about Auckland. And for good reason. When I arrived here in 2011, we still had diesel trains. The rails weren’t even electrified. *1 By 2015 we had modern electric trains.
City or kids?
There is one stage in your life where this urbanist stuff makes complete sense. Back when you were Young, perhaps Unmarried, and definitely still without kids.
This was once my life. I was a yuppie in Milford. All this urbanism stuff made sense. I could walk to the town centre, or to the bus station if I wanted to go to the city, and I could ride my bicycle to work. If I would have had access to car rentals or car share, I would perhaps have sold my car.
And you can probably still do this in Auckland, today. If you’re a single, or a couple without kids.
Should we wear bike helmets?
Ah yes. Bike helmets. What are they? A simple piece of protective equipment? Or some ritual object which hopefully, after blessing it with the right incantations, will levitate you out of the way if a truck left hooks you? Or is this just the brain damage from this discussion speaking?
Not many things get cyclists up in arms as this simple object. And probably even cyclists who wear these things. Why is that?
Driveways: we’re still doing it wrong
A while ago it was time again to complain about footpaths.
So what is it this time? Auckland Transport has rebuilt the footpaths on Birkenhead Avenue. While this is by itself a good idea, they have, on the northbound side, once again gone for the pump track design. So for their effort, they get a significantly less useful path than what they could have gotten for their money.
So what is wrong with it? Are we even supposed to build it like this?
The myth of permanently supervising children
A point that comes up again and again in discussions about streets is whether or not children should ever be outside of their homes by themselves.
(If you’re Dutch, this entire discussion is going to seem insane, and it frankly is, but it is worth appreciating how unusual the situation in the Netherlands is)
And for sure, it seems the obvious answer to many people is that of course not, it would be totally irresponsible to let children out unsupervised. Also, it is The Law, you have to supervise them until they’re 14 years old.
Wait, fourteen. Fourteen? Really?