The Wrong Side of my Car

The blog that wants to go obsolete

9 Mar 2022

Living in parallel universes

We are living in two parallel universes.

Auckland transport is consulting on roadworks on a roundabout near me.

Proposal drawing, Auckland Transport

The good news first: three of the pedestrian crossings would be traffic light controlled. This should make it much easier to cross Glenfield Road if you’re catching the bus. No more watching people miss their bus while waiting for a gap in traffic.

But the outcome is still kind of weird. You now have 3 traffic lights right next to that intersection, but they are not actually controlling the intersection. And the pedestrian crossings are in the wrong place to create direct paths for pedestrians. It is instructive to look at that new roundabout right next door, and note how much closer those speed tables are.

Also, that drawing looks familiar. Too familiar.

Existing roundabout (Google Earth)

It seems so much work on laying kerbs, islands and footpaths to end up with a more or less identical roundabout.

It is also important to remember that Glenfield Road is a proposed main bicycle route. Due to how the hills shape the road network here, you just can’t go around this intersection when riding from Glenfield to Birkenhead. Do you see any bike lanes here?

It is an equally important bus corridor, similar in significance to those arterials on the isthmus like Mount Eden Road or Sandringham Road, or maybe even AMETI for the south east. I don’t know how they are going to combine these things, but they seem to be in no hurry to make progress. Be it here, or elsewhere.

In the background is the incessant beat of impending climate change doom. We have to drastically reduce our carbon emissions, like yesterday.

A few days ago pictures of flooding were washing over social media.

Image: The Guardian / Erica Murray

Sydney got their serve of unusually heavy rainfall. These sort of events used to be called things like ‘100-year events’, but they seem to be a dime a dozen now. Last year parts of Belgium and Germany flooded in one of those “never seen before” events. Or do you remember a few years back when Auckland skies turned orange, not from sudden onset Industrial Revolution, but from wildfires burning 1000’s of kilometres away. Never seen before.

And every New Year’s Eve, you can tell yourself this was probably the least crazy year we’ll see in a long time.

So I’m not sure what to think of this proposed upgrade. It is something, for sure, but not quite enough to fit into this new world full of urgency.

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