Open mike 17/08/2023

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 27 comments
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27 comments on “Open mike 17/08/2023”

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  1. 1

    Decided to work in Albany yesterday so I went from Morningside to Albany, with one bus change (20 to the NX1). The commute took 55 minutes door to door. The North doesn't need more PT options. The busway is amazing. And the Busway seems to have all the flash thrusting hip young buses, compared to the pack a day 52 year old wheezers you seem get down south.

    1. 1.1

      Maybe..the South actually needs more Public Transport. Buses and Rail.

      Many commuters would use same

      1. 1.1.1

        Public transport usage across Nelson and Tasman has increased by more than 40 percent since the new electric bus service began a week ago.

        The eBus service was launched on 1 August and data from the first seven days shows 15,500 thousand trips were taken around the two regions.

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/495458/electric-buses-see-large-spike-in-trips-across-nelson-tasman

        https://www.orc.govt.nz/public-transport

        Public Transport gets cars off roads. Cuts vehicle emissions.

        The mega billions being spent on roads..should go to making Public Transport work. For all.

      2. 1.1.2

        Te Ngaru, The Tide, a high frequency bus service running from one end of the city to the other, is a hit here, too.

        Horizons Regional Council’s manager transport services Mark Read says, “Public transport trips in Whanganui increased 86 percent in March 2023 when compared to March 2022 – this is a massive boost. Forty-five percent of all Whanganui trips are now on The Tide.”

        https://letsgowhanganui.org.nz/the-statistics-are-in-te-ngaru-the-tide-has-contributed-to-a-large-increase-in-the-number-of-people-using-public-transport-in-whanganui/

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018902257/whanganui-s-first-regular-public-transport-service-an-update

    2. 1.2

      Auckland's west doesn't get services, it gets announcements.

      Anyone remember the promises announced at this point in the election cycle in 2017?

    3. 1.3

      Well, as Councils are not permitted to own bus services and are required to contract the routes out (thanks to Ruth Richardson and a past National Government) the niceness of the bus depends on the contractor for the routes. If it a service run by Pavlovic – the buses will be newer and the drivers will be less grumpy. If it is NZ Bus, the bus will be more likely to dirty, the aircon probably does not work and the driver is more likely to be hungover. Your #20 is not an NZ Bus service and neither is the NX service.

      Hop on the #22 into the CBD one day, but check the seat before you sit down. That is an NZ Bus service.

      1. 1.3.1

        Well things are looking up in bus public transport partly down to the maligned Michael Wood, bus driver shortage numbers are lessening, which has to have something to do with the $30 urban and $28 regional base rates for drivers which Mr Wood was instrumental in getting addressed in the 2022 budget.

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/477681/61m-to-be-spent-on-lifting-bus-drivers-wages-conditions

        The contracting model the natzos bought in has a grim reality, and illustrates their basic antipathy to public transport.

        1. 1.3.1.1

          Why does anyone have to make a profit out of public transport?

          It's so massively and deeply subsidised now in both Opex and Capex that it should all just be brought in house.

          Like back in the day.

          1. 1.3.1.1.1

            Of course local authorities should run public transport rather than contracting out to the vultures. Capital expenditure and operating capital apply to virtually any business, but lets face it public transport that gets 1 person occupied vehicles off the road is a positive.

    4. 1.4

      The busway is good, however, it is often packed during rush hour with people having to wait for multiple buses before getting a space. It is also poorly served by feeders to outlying suburbs and for people wanting to go from the North to the West, East or South past the City not or any particular merit.

      Add to that the latest fiasco …

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-ferries-suspended-birkenhead-te-onewa-northcote-pt-bayswater-to-stop-running/

      …and things ain't wonderful in terms of public transport for those in the North.

    5. 1.5

      Surely the amount of public transport needed comes down to the amount of people needing to travel?

      Not whether you fit into some arbitrary demographic age/ethnic profile?

  2. 2

    Thomas Coughlan at the Herald has written about the lack of climate change policies of the so-called government in waiting. This is unacceptable given the climate emergency and really needs to be reiterated; we cannot afford to go backwards:

    The Herald put that allegation that the party was light on climate to the party’s Climate Change spokesman Simon Watts, who said it was a bit “biased” to call National out for a lack of climate policy. He said National was the only to release an agricultural emissions policy, for example.

    There are several shades of wrong with this.

    National does have an agricultural emissions policy, but it’s only to to delay the start date at which agriculture will pay an emissions price to 2030, from Labour and the Greens’ date of 2025.

    It’s a sort of un-policy – a policy to undo a policy. It won’t reduce emissions.

    It’s not even correct that National is the only party with an agricultural emissions policy. The idea of delaying the start date is a watered-down version of on an Act idea, which is that New Zealand farmers should not pay an agricultural emissions price until our major trading partners do.

    Not only is National not the only party with an agricultural emissions policy – it’s not even the only party with their policy.

    This problem bleeds through all of National’s climate agenda. The party is committed to the Government’s emissions budgets, and New Zealand’s Paris Agreement commitments, but doesn’t have a credible plan to reach these goals.

    …

    The choice is currently between a flawed status quo and a leap into the abyss.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2023-nationals-concerning-lack-of-climate-policies/2JKNFA6UL5FQVIEP5RFMJONHII/

    1. 2.1

      Simon Watts..Nats Climate Change spokesperson.

      Watts stated his objectives in politics are giving more government support to the health sector and building more roads

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Watts

      He obviously doesnt see the incongruity of being a Climate Change spokesperson and building more roads.

    2. 2.2

      Meanwhile our pm was recently in China promoting tourism- if there was a climate crises how does flying millions around the world daily help? That’s right as per link international travel does NOT count. So that is all good we can go overseas and it doesn’t matter to the climate !! Either it is and all attention is required or it isn’t – from actions I gather there is NO climate crisis

      And “The second is how aviation emissions are attributed to countries. CO2 emissions from domestic flights are counted in a country’s emission accounts. International flights are not”

      https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation

      1. 2.2.1

        He's doing it because our economies are highly fragile houses of cards optimised for profit and efficiency. If tourism to this country declines, then lots of businesses fail, people lose jobs and there is a follow-on cascade of nasty effects that ripples out from there. The economy has to be constantly buzzing and growing in the goldilocks zone (not too fast not too slow) for it all to work. Major disruptions – either external factors like climate change or endogenous shocks from its inherent pathologies – cause crises. It is hard to be sanguine about how this mad machine can cope with the what is needed to deal with climate change. Hence the appeal of technology solutions that might allow it to keep running.

  3. 3

    Would a post on FNZ's reliance on Fonterra, and the agricultural lobby resistance to agricultural emissions, be of interest? It will take a bit of work so just checking in.

    1. 3.1

      This Kirsty Johnston piece is out today:

      Agriculture is warming the earth faster than any other industry in Aotearoa. Yet attempts to rein in the sector’s emissions have fallen short once more. In a three-part series, Crown vs Cow, In Depth reporter Kirsty Johnston investigates how a “world-leading plan” was born, and how it fell apart. This is part one: Deny, deny, delay.

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/in-depth-special-projects/story/2018902262/crown-vs-cow-the-inside-story-of-how-we-failed-to-regulate-our-worst-climate-polluter

    1. 4.1

      No Chris, most realise that the repairs and shortfall caused by the storms must be paid for. $52 a year seems reasonable to meyes

      Those who won’t cost their Policies worry me.. How much..???? Who pays???? Nacts Policies are more “Statements of Intent” not costed and planned imo. ( $34billion, even Act asked where’s the money coming from?)

      1. 4.1.1

        I agree entirely, but what they're doing is giving fodder to luxon and co to bellow back with "Labour's the party of taxes". Just another reason for the ill-informed voting public to ditch Labour.

    2. 4.2

      Just another code for climate change effects.

      Can certainly see why National are proposing to shift $500m around from Road Safety to beefing up road maintenance.

      Labour are dead right in the move, but they will need to sell that message with exquisite accuracy to land well.

  5. 5

    Ad’s politics confuse me.

    The Spin-off is talking about the country essentially wanting a National government led by Chris Hipkins. And the Spin-off is positing that this is what we have now. Is that about where Ad sits? Is that fair?

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