Sanctuary comments on my blog about the Waikato
Expressway by saying: ‘I commute a lot between Auckland
and Napier. I welcome with open arms the idea of
bypassing Smallville, Waikato on my way down to
Hawkes Bay. I reckon this expressway already has
knocked 20-30 minutes off the journey, and completing
as advertised will knock 30-40 minutes off the trip.’
Thanks for the comment, mate, but it invites the response:
So? When you’ve knocked another 20 minutes off, what
then? Another 20 minutes off that? And another? As
corners and curves and dips and bends are one by one
straightened out, the logical conclusion is a road running
in a perfectly straight line from Auckland to Napier. With
four lanes; four lanes good, two lanes bad. But why stop at
four? Six sounds good. Let’s have six lanes. Und so weiter.
Sanctuary should have a look at a report in Wednesday's
New Zealand Herald and see there comments by a former
oil industry executive who says, among many other things,
that quite apart from running out of fuel for vehicles, in 20
years’ time New Zealand will have no more bitumen for
maintaining roads.
See also an excellent post by Hamilton-based Labour MP
Sue Moroney on the party’s Red Alert blog, in which she
calls the huge weighting of funding towards the expressway
a 'great leap backwards.' Funding for public transport in the
region, says Moroney,
will only increase by 3% next year and then will be frozen
for the next two years. With 9% growth in the use of buses
in Hamilton, this means that either services will have to be
cut and/or passenger fares will have to increase significantly.
Both options will force people off buses and back into their
cars. Smart, eh? It also makes it virtually impossible for the
Hamilton to Auckland passenger train service to be
established even if the proposed trial is successful.
Mind you, if, as the current government believes, there is no
tomorrow, then we may not have a problem. So that could
be all right then.
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1 comment:
Well, think about this - 20 minutes less is 20 minutes less fuel used. Multiply that by several thousand vehicles a day and you've got thousands of litres saved fuel and happy citizens getting somewhere quicker. That's a good business case right there. This road will pay for itself in less than ten years, regardless of your chicken little "futurist strategist" who primary qualification seems to be he saying what you want to hear.
The road and the expressway is a response to a clear transport need and it seems to me in lieu of any other coherent strategy it has to be built.
You know, I am a committed Labour supporter, voted "yes" in the referendum and support spending a lot more on public transport - and I know the Climate Change is a reality.
But you and your mates always seem to behave like arrogant cocks and I don't have a lot of time for the whole smug Green superiority complex and the sneering middle class "we know best" elitist politics.
Frankly, you should try climbing down off your high horse and try engaging with people instead of lecturing them. Otherwise, you can just take your full of shit arrogance and stick it up your eco-friendly arse.
No wonder we got a kicking last election. With "friends" who indulge in the hectoring and lecturing wankfest that most Greens like you and Bradford do when people point out something that goes against their fundamentalist thinking, who needs enemies?
Yes, this an an intemperate post. but you, my friend, and the rest of the Greens need some serious attitude ajustment.
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