Monday, April 23, 2007

Auckland's transport woes

Severley time limited this morning due to a set of circumsatances that don't matter.

Front page is taken over by a piece talking about the amalgamation of the Aussie and NZ dollar. I didn't have time to read it but in my superficial reading of the proposition throws up many more positives than negatives. The main negative would appear to be sentiment and I am a little unsure as to how aligning an economy largely dependant on mineral wealth would sit being tied to an economy that still is mainly agricultural. My latter concern is amplified by the currnet parlous state of food production in Australia which is likely to get worse as the drought lengthens. This whole issue is a topic that merits a bit more study - I will do that, I think.

Public transport in Auckland is a joke. I can say this from a position of strength as I sit in the daily traffic wrecking the planet. We should all use public transport more. Who has beeen slipping the mind altering substances in the Marmite I hear you cry? No it is true, we should all be using the buses and trains more. There are good reasons for this all of which have nothing to do with climate change. If done properly it would save you, and more importantly, me loads of loverly dosh. It most certainly ain't done properly at present. There is a piece on page 2 this morning saying the government is looking more at the stick as opposed to the carrot to get us out of our cars. Best bloody idea they have had in eons. First get a decent public transport system in place (not present at the moment) and then get out the big stick to get us all to use it. Here's the go. Big, I mean seriously big - nick it from the DoC budget, money spent on railways, buses, monorails, ferries, helicopters - anything that works and then the big stick to get us to use it. Toll roads, city centre surcharges, f. expensive central city parking etc. I would happily concede to the latter if, and this is a huge if, the former were put in place.

As it is I can look forward to driving 390 bhp everywhere very slowly for the rest of my life because this and succesive governments haven't the balls to do anything other than organise talk fests about anything that really matters.

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