car-dependency

Auckland Public Transport – Narratives not met with action

Fergus Young, , ,

Despite the powers to be narrating about modal shift in terms of our obligations towards emission reductions / climate change, “Vision Zero” / “Road to Zero” (where no deaths / serious injuries occur on transport), and congestion reduction – The initiatives to encourage people out of cars and on to Public Transport and Active modes at least in Auckland have not been adequate. Frankly the policy narratives on the part of many government agencies don’t match their actions.

There are a few major things playing against modal shift in Auckland. These include…

  • Auckland Council (possibly pressured by Central Government to do so?) approving greenfield subdivisions with no access to public transport. The only way to get in out of those neighbourhoods would be to drive a car. Of course, new residents moving into those developments will need to buy a fleet of cars, and it’s no guess where those cars are going to end up – Adding more cars to an already over saturated and congested region wide roading network. We see this occurring in the South East area of Auckland in Ormiston and Flatbush where Ti-Rakau Drive suffers from some of the most severe congestion in the region. A major issue is once travel patterns are set, it then becomes that much more difficult to get people to leave their cars at home and adopt alternatives.
  • Constant Rail system incidents that cause train cancellations. Even with the Central Rail Link up and running, the system simply lacks the needed redundancy and resilience elsewhere to property absorb these incidents, so the constant rail service disruptions are sadly likely to continue at their current cadence. For people to leave these cars at home, they need to be able to depend on the system when they need it. The lack of reliability represents a multi-agency failure to deliver this

I’m of the opinion that unless you go into the Auckland CBD regularly or you are lucky enough to be on a direct Public Transport route to where you need to go to or require only a single transfer across two high frequency services, then Public Transport as it’s structured today in Auckland isn’t going to meet the needs of many if not most commuters.

In terms of my own situation…

I work in East Tamaki in an I.T. / Software development role. To get from my home near Meadowbank Shopping centre to my work place in Kerwyn Avenue, East Tamaki Industrial, I would need to take a minimum of 3 buses with a travel time of 1.5 hours each way. Sure, you can fritter away on your phone for that time or simply look out the window and observe the world go by, but with the number of transfers. It’s no soon you have to remember to push the “bus stopping” buzzer, prepare to alight and look out for the next service to catch.

Car takes around 25 minutes in (Morning) and about an hour to get back (Afternoon). However, the travel time is increasing each year as more people move to Auckland resulting in increased traffic volumes in already saturated roads. Agencies and councilors are championing the Eastern Busway as some transformational thing… It is not. Unlike the Northern Busway, the Eastern Busway is full of “at grade” intersections at arguably very busy intersections.

I’ve tried to use public transport for most other journeys, particularly in the weekends. It works Okay if you’re not in a hurry to get any where, but have found it’s still quicker to drive. This applies even for busy events (festivals) where it’s quicker to drive, park up further out and walk to the event.

The final nail in the coffin for me has been the frequent enough cascading “missing tag” errors when paying for public transport.

In conclusion…

Given the current trajectory and the competing incentives even within Auckland Council itself. I’m not confident that Auckland will meaningfully ween itself off of Car dependency / Car-centricity for the foreseeable future, at least not in the next few decades. This I feel is caused in large part by a multi-agency failure to work together and deliver for the public.

 

 

 

 

 

Auckland Public Transport – Narratives not met with action

Aucklanders, expect your commute to get worse

Fergus Young, , ,

Update 28/02/2026: Had a chat with NZTA / AT at the Drury Open day 28th February 2026 to relay my concerns. In aggregate…

  • They understand the situation with Corridor protection and why it’s needed. They assure me that Mill Road and the extension to Pukekohe has now been protected.
  • They concur with my concerns around circuitous bus station designs agreeing that any buses services need to stop as close to the train platforms as practicable to enable efficient and timely transfers.
  • AT Travel Wise will relay my concerns regarding bus service provisioning to East Tamaki Industrial. In particular having direct Bus services to and from East Tamaki to terminate at Glen Innes (to better connect with TMK, 75, 65) instead of Panmure (where Bus Route 352 currently terminates at)

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We keep sprawling out while failing to protect needed future transport corridors. This is unusual for a city in a developed nation.

Look at the area East of the Tamaki River in Auckland. Endless sprawl without either a grade separated transit (busway or rail) spine or a motorway spine.

East Auckland lack of proper Urban planning outcome (Map from Open Street Maps)

Instead we have endless traffic light infested arterials. Worse, traffic lights that do not seem to be optimised to keep platoons of vehicles flowing smoothly in either direction

Even Worse, many of those newer developments such as Flat Bush and Ormiston aren’t any where near a bus service, so what are residents / households who move into the area going to do? Buy a fleet of cars adding ever more cars into an already deeply constrained Auckland wide roading network. Once household travel patterns becomes establish it is then very hard to reverse. This basically guarantees we will be stuck in a cycle of car dependency and abject congestion as a city for the foreseeable future.

Any bus services we have are made to “zig zag” over the area.

It is clear (unlike cities in other developed countries) we have not learned from our past mistakes and this is personally the bit I find hardest to reconcile.

Of course once the concrete is laid down, it is often very difficult and costly to fix it later on especially if we haven’t reserved any corridors. Look at the Eastern Busway. We ended up having to acquire and demolish houses at huge cost. — I for one am going to say up front this project isn’t going to be the saviour of East Auckland as we believe it is going to be. Too many “at-grade” intersections, unlike the Northern Busway.

As an ordinary rate-paying resident, I’m at a total loss at what I can do. I’ve submitted my views where I can to the Council, AT and other government agencies involved both during consultations and outside of it but feel like I’m being stonewalled. I’m surprised transport advocates whether they are pro-PT or Pro-car haven’t also spotted this and kicked up a fuss.

Aucklanders, expect your commute to get worse

A warning to businesses using Parking Services Ltd

Fergus Young, ,

If you employ Parking Services Ltd (PSL) to manage your customer car park, you WILL lose me as a customer.

There have been repeated reports of this Tauranga based company issuing inflated breach notices, engaging in fairly aggressive collection tactics and even issuing notices incorrectly to genuine paying customers of some businesses.

While fortunately I haven’t had to deal with Parking Services Ltd as a motorist nor been a recipient of such a notice myself. As a (prospective) customer and member of the public, my concerns are that…

  • I certainly don’t want to risk the stress and wasted time of dealing with disputing an incorrectly issued notice (which if the news reports are anything to go by, they appear to regularly do) and…
  • I certainly do not at all appreciate having some firm monitoring (via CCTV) my car park movements like a hawk for the slightest breach ready to pounce and issue with me a $85 – $95 breach notice.

If I see the Parking Services Ltd (PS Ltd) logo at your site, I will simply take my business elsewhere. A line I feel has to be drawn regarding these sorts of practices.

Note: This is an entirely separate organization to the Wilson parking’s owned Parking Enforcement Services / PESNZ.

Reviewed 26 May 2026: Since publishing this post, I have heard from a business owner who commented experiencing genuine difficulties with unauthorised parking and who view private parking enforcement through PSL as a necessary service to ensure parking remains available for their customers.

While I acknowledge those concerns and understand why some businesses might feel compelled to engage such services from the likes of PSL, my  perspective remains that of a (prospective) customer / member of the public. While businesses must weigh the costs and benefits of different parking management approaches, I am equally entitled to consider those same approaches when deciding where to spend my time and money.

After taking the time to reflect on the business owner’s account regarding her situation, as a consumer I am choosing to continue to exercise my natural rights here, continuing to firmly stand my ground on this morally and shall continue to refuse to do engage with any retailer who chooses to contract PSL given PSL’s track record of conduct. If any business who uses PSL thinks this is “bullyish” on my part as a consumer, then I firmly ask them in return to reflect on the behaviour of their supplier, Parking Services Ltd.

Zooming out and speaking more broadly, many of our larger centres continue to rely heavily on private vehicle access. To some extent, disputes over parking availability may reflect wider questions about transport choices, urban design, and our dependence on car travel.

A warning to businesses using Parking Services Ltd

Auckland’s poor urban planning entrenching car dependency

Fergus Young

Email I sent to Auckland Council back in March regarding my concerns over urban planning that continue to entrench a culture of car dependence, but never got a response.

Good Evening,

I apologies if this is not the right channel to provide this type of feedback on. (If this is not the right channel, please kindly direct me to the correct channel. Thanks)

I’m writing to relay a generalized concern I have as a ratepayer regarding urban planning in terms of intensification and the access to adequate transport links.
Have noticed several town house developments popping up in places such as Takanini, Papakura, Redhill, Flat bush, Ormiston (South) and Glen Eden, Kumeu (West) that is being established so far away from frequent Public Transport routes (2 km or more walking distance or only served by an infrequent bus route).

The issue this presents is that without easy access to well served public transport routes many residents will simply buy a car and then park it on often very narrow streets. Other than the issue of entrenching car dependency adding ever more private vehicles into an already (ridiculously) overloaded roading network, it also means emergency services are blocked or impeded and presents a safety issue for road users (of any transport mode) with so many cars parked on narrow streets and berms.

I ask, are the teams responsible for urban development and approving townhouse developments within Auckland Council actually liaising with the Likes of Auckland Transport to ensure these new Higher density neighbourhoods and developments are well served with easy access (less than 1 km walk) to frequent and reliable Passenger transport routes?

Thanks and regards,

Here is a screenshot of Auckland Transport’s Journey planning being unable to suggest services to get you to Flat Bush…

Very curious urban planning by the former Manukau City Council and allowed to continue under Auckland Council. Entrenchment of Car dependence as well as introducing further cars into the city’s constrained roading network.

Clicked the Give Feedback (in vain) and dashed this off in exasperation…

This won’t be solely AT’s fault obviously, but by golly, if the Council wants to encourage a transport modal change away from car dependency, their Urban planning department certainly isn’t helping matters. Swaves of Flat Bush. Large houses squashed on to small sections. Cars parked everywhere and about 30-40 minutes to the nearest bus stop! Is there a proper channel / department / person that I as an ordinary member of the public could raise my concerns to?

 

Why oh why are we approving new “Green fields” development so far away from Public Transport?  48 Minutes walk to Bremner Ridge St from the nearest bus stop???

Car dependent Urban sprawl of Flat Bush, Auckland. Planning like this ensures we will remain entrenched in car dependency for the foreseeable future.

It’s not just Flat bush either, but a lot of places across Auckland. Parts of Takanini, Red Hill, Kumeu are similarly affected. Very little in the way of established Public Transport, yet people are moving there, and when they move there, what are those residents going to do? You guessed it, they’ll likely buy a car, or two, or three and park any that won’t fit on the front lawn on the streets instead.

As an aside, seriously contemplating a possible move out of Auckland. Living here with it’s inadequate infrastructure (particularly surrounding transport) isn’t doing my mental health any favours. (Will keep the house and rent it out, in case at some point I want to come back)

Auckland’s poor urban planning entrenching car dependency

Commentary: Auckland Transport’s war against the private motor car and the motoring public.

Fergus Young, , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In light of Auckland Transport’s announcement regarding removing of kerbside parking, it’s probably worth highlighting Auckland Transport’s (AT’s) current ethos has effectively been to discourage car use in favour of alternative transport modes in order to achieve their various visions and goals, including…

  • To make better use of existing road space in favour of higher occupancy vehicles, which at least on the surface sound like a laudable goal. However question the current ambition to retrofit these changes at high cost and high disruption to existing neighbourhoods as opposed to working with Auckland Council to implement and promote high density development along with high capacity transit corridors to new greenfield sites such as Mill Road, Flat Bush, Papakura, Karaka, Ramarama.
  • ‘Vision Zero’ – being that… “no deaths are acceptable”, “People make mistakes (behind the wheel)”, “Public Transport is the safest option”. We’re now seeing this in the form of enforcement and the forceful dropping of speed limits to what many may feel are ridiculously low speed limits. Auckland Transport’s ‘‘marketing’ material can be found here however question whether any possible outcome would ever be as rosy as they paint it.
  • Climate change – With their parent organisation, Auckland Council, having followed other government departments to declare a “climate emergency” – encouraging a gradual move to carbon-free transport modes by way of promoting Public Transport, Cycling and Walking.

While I am certainly and staunchly in favour of developing and rolling out accessible alternative transport options in Auckland, particularly in areas currently beset with high levels of car dependency, it appears from all intents and purposes in order to achieve the aims as listed in the bullet points above, Auckland Transport have declared all out war against the private motor car and the motoring public. While I can see where AT are trying to head, they’re choosing to run roughshod over people’s current living arrangement and applying the ‘stick’ in the hope of encouraging modal shift by way of making private motor vehicle use such a hassle so much so that Auckland commuters will hopefully shift to other modes such as walking, cycling and public transport. Continue reading “Commentary: Auckland Transport’s war against the private motor car and the motoring public.” →

Commentary: Auckland Transport’s war against the private motor car and the motoring public.

Auckland Light Rail – My own thoughts

Fergus Young,

Dropped in to the Auckland Light Rail marquee at the Balmoral Flea Market to try and get a better understanding as to what this project is all about. The current focus they have advised is that the project most certainly is going a head and we are now choosing between “Light Metro” and “Modern (street level) trams”.

Promotional brochures can be found here.

Overall, they’re a friendly and approachable bunch manning the stand and were found to be willing to at least provide their take on any questions and concerns I had about the project.

They were at pains to note that this project is not about trams alone, but a transport and urban building project initiative combined where development will be intensified along the Tram routes. Continue reading “Auckland Light Rail – My own thoughts” →

Auckland Light Rail – My own thoughts