The Wrong Side of my Car
The blog that wants to go obsolete
The big traffic choker contest
I'm talking about the traffic calming device. This narrow thing where only one car fits side-by-side. Back in Belgium we know them as “verkeerspoortjes”, traffic ports.
I used to play a racing game called Stunts when I was a kid. Well, now my generation has grown up and has applied what we have learned in real life:
The pink path
There’s a new cycle path in town. It is very pink and called Te Ara I Whiti or LightPath. The path starts at the end of Nelson Street, where it goes from what is now the only proper cycle path in this part of town, to Upper Queen Street, where you can then continue on the Grafton Gully cycle path and the NorthWestern Cycle path. It takes you right over the spaghetti junction.
Oh there’s an advertisement for— wait, what?
Spotted this one a while ago at the City mission in Auckland. You don’t see these in Belgium.
And meanwhile the LED ticker goes like “PLEASE DONATE”, and “HELP A FAMILY”. Sure, sure.
The unavoidable traffic infarct conjecture
What is it with cities that always causes them to suffer from congestion all the time?
Auckland is still quite OK compared to what we’re used to in Belgium, but it’s catching up fast:
It seems unavoidable that as a city grows, its traffic grinds to a halt. But why?
You could argue that this happens because there are not enough roads. You’d be right, but why don’t we just build more roads as the city grows? Judging from the discussion about rate increases for the next 10-year plan in Auckland, one issue seems to be funding.
It got me thinking. Why is that? Are we doing something wrong? Or is it just a consequence of how cities work?
So, to “Auckland 2040” and other NIMBYs…
I see it’s fearmongering time again…
Secret housing plans for Auckland
Tens of thousands of homes in Auckland’s leafy residential suburbs are being rezoned for multiple townhouses and apartments and Auckland Council says homeowners will not be notified about the changes.
Anyone following this saga over here can probably guess who is behind that article…
Auckland 2040 and Herne Bay Residents Association co-chair Christine Cavanagh said there were serious issues of natural justice for residents of the single-house zone.
Oh, boo-hoo.
And by the way, check out the cover image of one of those other articles about this issue:
The Tow-Away sign, the measure of success in Auckland
In Auckland, the way to show you have successfully established your business, is by displaying a Tow-Away sign:
Figuring out again how a bicycle works
Here in Auckland, riding a bicycle is a distant memory at best. Something people did once upon a time, before the industrial revolution. Or back when the animals were still speaking. Or something else long time ago.
So it’s not really surprising to see warts like this in the newspaper:
A bicycle registration system will be introduced so that future cycle lanes will be built when the fund accumulated from cyclist registrations allows for it.
That’s one David Rankin running for council. So I think he’s serious (correct me if I’m wrong). What about this idea:
Restore the access to all the volcanic peaks as it existed in 2011
Yeah sure. Anyone who has ever driven his car up one of those peaks during a sunny summer weekend knows how stupid that idea is.
But I digress. You know there’s trouble when people start talking about bicycle registration, and seriously think it’s a good idea. I guess after being on a car-only diet for too long everything starts to look like cars, and these little things about driving a car—like you need a license, a rego, etc.—just seem normal things for everyone underway on our streets.
But no, they all have a reason, specific to the fact you’re driving a car, and not a Segway or a step or a bicycle. Applying what you know about cars to other transport leads to all kinds of weird ideas.
When you realize that a bicycle is in fact not a miniature car, it’s easy to debunk these ideas.