As Auckland examines how to make its roads safer and more functional, one city has already shown us how it’s done. Teuila Fuatai looks at how slowing down changes the way a city works. On the other side of the world, one Swedish city’s dedication to driving down road deaths and serious injuries (DSI) has … Read more
Twenty-one years after Steph Martin’s mother was killed in a road crash, she reflects on what’s been happening on New Zealand’s roads. Last year, 378 people died in road crashes – more than one life lost per day. Of those, 53 were under 20, and 16 hadn’t even reached the age of 15 – too … Read more
Teuila Fuatai is introduced to one of the most dangerous stretches of road in New Zealand. Between Albany and Silverdale is Auckland’s Dairy Flat Highway. The 15km stretch of road used to be how a few local farmers and their families would get around. It was a quiet piece of Auckland’s infrastructure. Today, it’s a … Read more
Plans for two massive concrete mooring structures jutting out from Queen’s Wharf are another assault on our harbour. We must stop endlessly eating into Auckland’s most valuable asset, writes Michael Goldwater of Stop Stealing Our Harbour Four years ago I made a rash phone call to my friend Barry Copeland. We had just attended a … Read more
Urban designer Ben van Bruggen spoke to Jeremy Hansen about why we should stop listening to the vocal minority attempting to block change, and be inspired about Auckland’s development. WH Auden once said “we would rather be ruined than changed”. It’s a quote urban designer Ben van Bruggen refers to when I ask him about … Read more
The Monday Extract: John Walsh and photographer Patrick Reynolds join forces to present a handsome new book about some structures in Auckland. Mackelvie Street Precinct, Ponsonby Road and Mackelvie Street The treatment of the shops’ white cement-sheet façades may be inspired by the pressed-tin ceilings of their Victorian and Edwardian neighbours, but on a blue-sky day … Read more
It’s supposed to be a shared path, but Auckland’s Northwestern Cycleway has been deemed too dangerous for a local school’s walking bus, reports Rowan Quinn for Radio NZ. Auckland primary school children have been verbally abused and almost hit by high speed cyclists on one of the city’s most popular cycleways. A primary school in … Read more
Here are the six designs being considered to memorialise the Erebus plane crash, courtesy of RNZ. Six designs are being considered for a new memorial to mark the Erebus plane crash in Parnell, central Auckland. Ministry for Culture and Heritage chief executive Bernadette Cavanagh said six anonymous design teams were selected in December to submit … Read more
Auckland Transport’s plans for the Queens Wharf ferry terminal include a wide bus lane designed to serve cruise ship passengers on the wharf’s eastern side – effectively closing the wharf to the general public over the busy summer months, writes Matt Lowrie of Greater Auckland. “Today, Queens Wharf becomes the public’s wharf,” said then Auckland … Read more
In a new exhibition, photographer Michelle Hyslop explores kauri dieback through the personal stories of the people close to the trees and their fight to save – and protect – the giants of the forest. In December 2017 Te Kawerau ā Maki placed a rāhui on the Waitākere Ranges in an attempt to prevent the spread of … Read more
Catherine Woulfe spends a day at the Auckland Blade Show, a celebration of knives of all kinds. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. To make pasta you force a lump of egg and flour flat, fold it back on itself, force it flat, fold. Maybe half a dozen times. Making Damascus steel is the … Read more
Aladdin the musical is currently playing at Civic Theatre. Madeleine Chapman sat down with the star of the show, Gareth Jacobs. There was a standing ovation at the Civic theatre in the middle of the musical Aladdin. It was genuine and long, a rarity. And it was all for Genie. The role of Genie, while … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, the glitzy premiere of Aladdin at Auckland’s Civic Theatre. Sam Brooks, culture editor The musical Aladdin fixes the main problem with the film Aladdin: not enough Genie. What’s even better is that it does it right from the top. … Read more
After the release of an Auckland Transport survey claiming two thirds of Aucklanders support more cycleways, Mike Hosking stepped into the ring to fight Statistics. Madeleine Chapman crunched the numbers. This post was first published June 20 2018 David v Goliath. Roe v Wade. And now, Mike Hosking v Statistics. These will be the battles … Read more
Smaller, cheaper, cleaner: e-bikes and e-scooters are already disrupting even transport giants like Uber, writes Greater Auckland’s Patrick Reynolds. The electric revolution on our city streets, already underway, looks much more like a scooter than a Tesla. Why? Physics and geometry: size really matters for both energy consumption and spatial efficiency. And both drive affordability and therefore … Read more
The answer to the Lime scooter/pedestrian conflict is right in front of us, says Jessica Rose of the group Women in Urbanism. A confession: I didn’t think Lime scooters would take off when they appeared on our streets overnight. Now I believe Limes could be the transport tool the people of this city both need … Read more
The operator is pushing for major investment across the Hauraki Gulf to overhaul the ferry network. David Slack wants to know why his ferry home to Devonport is so often out of service. Can they find a common dream? I have a dream that we will one day live in a city where you can … Read more
This year the Basement Christmas show enters its tenth year with Work Do, written by superstar comedians Rose Matafeo and Alice Snedden. Alex Casey talks to the duo about office parties, Christmas fantasies and Michelle Obama. Somewhere in London, Rose Matafeo is lying on her bed, embroiled in a late night battle with what she … Read more
Cycleways are under fire this week following an incredibly misleading Herald story. Hayden Donnell goes in search of some transport projects to actually get angry about. A peloton of bullshit rode forth from NZME headquarters this week. Its journey began with a story by the Herald’s supercity reporter Bernard Orsman on Monday, which claimed several … Read more
‘Cycleway figures in doubt’ says the print headline on an article by Herald journalist Bernard Orsman, and Mike Hosking has prematurely leapt in to agree. But what’s really in doubt may be some basic reading comprehension, says Jolisa Gracewood of Bike Auckland, who argues that critics compared apples with oranges – and ended up with … Read more
Every year an 18 metre tall Santa is pieced together and bolted to the front of the Farmers Building on Queen Street. Aucklanders seem to love him, outsiders not so much. José Barbosa argues from his heart why this Santa belongs in everyone else’s. I’m not an Auckland native. I grew up in the Bay … Read more
If the rhetoric on cycling and walking means anything, why are they the only modes now set to lose their specialist focus and public champion at Auckland Transport, asks Jolisa Gracewood from Bike Auckland “This project represents the future of Auckland’s streets and the future of travel in Auckland,” said Auckland Transport’s Walking, Cycling, and … Read more
The City Rail Link could have been an opportunity to rejuvenate one of Auckland’s most unlovely thoroughfares. Instead, Albert St seems likely to end up looking worse than before, writes Matt Lowrie of the urban design blog Greater Auckland. Last week in the Herald Simon Wilson lamented the mess that has been made of Albert … Read more
People are freaking out about the potential hazards of Lime e-scooters. Hayden Donnell asks whether we could apply these same standards to another type of vehicle causing even more harm. At first the reaction to the introduction of Lime e-scooters was positive. There were explainers. Stories about how far people had travelled in a single … Read more
Last week, Auckland Theatre Company announced their 2018/19 programme – one with a glaring lack of representation for women and new New Zealand work. James Wenley takes the company to task. Auckland Theatre Company’s response can be found at the bottom of this piece. During the uproar over the Pop-up Globe’s decision to use an all-male cast … Read more
The waterfront stadium debate bubbles up once every couple of months in Auckland. But why has the debate over a waterfront university never resurfaced, asks editor of Interest.co.nz Gareth Vaughan? A group of Auckland business interests has come up with the latest proposal for an Auckland Waterfront Stadium. Ever since the concept was seriously looked … Read more
New building consents in Auckland are almost keeping up with the region’s population growth, reports Greg Ninness of interest.co.nz. According to provisional estimates from Statistics NZ, Auckland’s population increased by 38,600 in the 12 months to June. Since Auckland has an average household occupancy of three people per dwelling according to the 2013 census, an … Read more
In their pursuit of an abstracted planning perfection, the designers have seemingly been prepared to sacrifice some people’s experience for the sake of a cleaner looking system, argues miffed North Shore bus user and design lecturer Peter Gilderdale When a huge new public transport initiative rolls out, as it did recently on the North Shore, … Read more
Madeleine Chapman rode to Huntly on an OnzO bike. Sadly, she won’t be doing the same with a Lime scooter. Imagine a life with no ups and downs. No struggles, but no cruise mode. An infinite plateau. It would be boring, yes, and mundane, but you’d never have to sweat. I thought my life would … Read more