(My thoughts put into words with the help of ChatGPT)

For years, Aucklanders have been told to expect and embrace a more sustainable future in how we move around our city. We’ve been encouraged to take the bus, catch the train, or hop on a bike — all while being reminded that driving simply can’t be the long-term solution. But for those living in and travelling through East Auckland, the present reality feels less like a green transport revolution and more like a grinding, dysfunctional compromise.

Nowhere is this clearer than around Panmure and the Lagoon Drive corridor. The old Panmure roundabout has been replaced with a complex network of signalised intersections. Lagoon Drive and other key arterials have been reduced to a single lane each way for general traffic, to make room for future rapid transit. In theory, this is urban design moving in the right direction — prioritising buses, people, and more sustainable forms of transport.

In practice? It’s chaos.

Drivers face increased congestion with fewer lanes and longer delays. Meanwhile, buses — the very vehicles we’re meant to be shifting towards — are still caught in the same jams. The dedicated lanes and bus priority promised by the Eastern Busway are only partially delivered, and the benefits won’t be fully realised until the busway is completed all the way to Botany — likely not until 2027 or beyond. In the meantime, we’ve created the “worst of both worlds”: a system where driving is worse, but public transport isn’t good enough to replace it.

It’s a frustrating situation made worse by decades of land use decisions that never accounted for a shift away from cars. East Auckland has sprawled outwards with disconnected subdivisions, poor cycling infrastructure, and limited integration with high-capacity transit. Try walking from your home in Flat Bush to a bus station — if you can even find one nearby. These neighbourhoods were built with the car in mind, and it shows.

The challenge now is that we’re trying to retrofit a modern transport network into a city designed for the exact opposite. That takes time — but right now, it also takes a toll. It’s not unreasonable for residents to feel disillusioned.

If Auckland Transport and local and central government want East Aucklanders to actually make the switch, the answer isn’t just to remove car lanes and hope for the best. It’s to follow through — urgently — on completing the Eastern Busway, redesigning the feeder network, building safe walking and cycling connections, and rezoning around transport hubs so people can actually live close to the network.

Because the real risk here isn’t that people won’t change. It’s that they’ll stop believing any meaningful change is coming at all.

It’s time to get this done — before we’re stuck in this broken in-between state for another decade.