Fresh post for your Friday: another week, another weekly roundup of all things cities. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/21/w...

As we’ve noted for a while now, National’s much-touted “Roads of National Significance” programme would bankrupt the nation. In today’s post, Matt looks at transport minister Chris Bishop’s significant walk-back of the frankly unaffordable RoNS fantasy. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/20/m...

Auckland Transport should make it a requirement tha staff and contractors working on cycle lanes are cyclists too! Putting a pole in the middle of a cycle lane is costly stupidity! FYI @greaterauckland.bsky.social @livingstreetsnz.bsky.social #NZpol www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

“The more options people have, the more they’ll use the one that works best for their needs. And for many trips in a city, that won’t always be a car. What’s not to like about freedom of choice?” Great op-ed by @connorsharp.bsky.social on the immense value of complete and connected bike networks. 🚲

As we’ve noted for a while now, National’s much-touted “Roads of National Significance” programme would bankrupt the nation. In today’s post, Matt looks at transport minister Chris Bishop’s significant walk-back of the frankly unaffordable RoNS fantasy. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/20/m...

Op-ed of mine in The Post today on behalf of @greaterauckland.bsky.social on why urban cycling infrastructure is really important (and why urban roading infrastructure is not) www.thepost.co.nz/business/360...

Matt @greaterauckland.bsky.social drills down on Chris Bishop's speech about how expensive all the mega-roads his government keeps promising will be. If they ever get built. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/20/m...

“Upgrade station access”… but you can’t actually access the station unless you’re in a car.😖 What gives, NZTA?🤨 Pedestrian access was clearly shown in earlier planning docs—but now there‘s “no space”? Is this removing footpaths to add more turning lanes? Or what? www.gets.govt.nz/NZTAHNO/Exte...

Another Friday, another weekly roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. ☕️ 👍 Auckland’s new councillors set their goals 🚲 A new bike lane takes shape 👏🏼 Govt unanimously legalises (de)congestion charging 😟 Residents share chipseal woes …and more! www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/14/w...

Breath-testing, speeding, seatbelt compliance, mobile phone usage while driving - Matt Lowrie digs into recent road policing stats.👮🚨📈📉 Featuring a bunch of illuminating charts, plus some thoughts about targets and how it all correlates with public safety. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/13/r...

Auckland’s grand neo-classical museum “sits all alone, out of the city, on the tihi of Pukekawa; commanding a great view and set in fine grounds. Exquisite apart.” @patrickreynolds.bsky.social makes the case for better more equitable access to this taonga. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/12/a...

Today’s post: we’ve got the scoop on the latest (early) designs for the Northwest Busway. This is shaping up to be a big - and big budget - project. But imagine if it been sorted when rebuilding the interchanges and widening the motorway only a decade ago? www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/11/m...

#BusNews: NZTA has shared some of the early designs for the Northwest Busway and stations along the way with Greater Auckland. Via @greaterauckland.bsky.social: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/11/m...

Today’s post: we’ve got the scoop on the latest (early) designs for the Northwest Busway. This is shaping up to be a big - and big budget - project. But imagine if it been sorted when rebuilding the interchanges and widening the motorway only a decade ago? www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/11/m...

Here's our weekly roundup for your Friday happy hour/ weekend reading—stories that caught our eye this week from the realms of housing, transport and all things urbanist.* *featuring a dash of leadership inspo for New Auck City, from New York City 🎉🍎🥝🙃😍😉 www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/07/w...

FRESH POST: @connorsharp.bsky.social's recent op-ed on Simeon Brown's legacy for transport in our city... ...gains extra relevance with the minister now attempting to personally redesign the (not yet completed) Rā Hihi/ Reeves Road flyover, on the fly. 🤨 www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/06/t...

Mamdani: "[Congestion pricing] is an opportunity to reshape the streetscape of the central business district of Manhattan. We have an opportunity here to do immense amounts of pedestrianization for the entire congestion pricing zone..."

If this election proved nothing else, it proved once again that OPTIMISM IS A POLITICAL ACT. Believing we *can* make things better — that we, together, have the power to create change — is always the first step towards actually making them better.

“What risks should we consider? Which homes are safer in a warming world?” Today’s guest post from @threesixtysix.news looks at how to buy a home when climate change looms ever larger. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/11/05/h...

Great short Low Traffic Neighbourhood explainer - looks like heaven! via @streetfilms.bsky.social youtu.be/iaRcd5hEY1Y?...

*taps sign*

#BusNews: One of Aotearoa's achievements hidden in plain sight is the huge expansion of Tāmaki Makaurau's frequent bus network, making it one of the best, if not the best, in Australasia. By @darrendavis.bsky.social via Adventures in Transitland: adventuresintransitland.substack.com/p/the-freque...

My fave thing is all the people in the Herald comments saying cycleways are pushed by the 'ideological left'. When these are the initial paragraphs of my article😂

Op-ed of mine in the Herald today: www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/this-gove...

Stopping sprawl and turning Auckland into an efficient, green city? Sign us up, Mayor Wayne Brown! A standoff is shaping up between the Mayor & the Minister on the question of sprawl. Matt Lowrie looks at how this (along with the 2026 election + CRL opening) may play into the hoped-for "city deal".

ICYMI: This is my STARTER PACK specifically profiling urbanists OUTSIDE of North America! If you love cities and want them to be better for people, please consider following these folks and orgs, and please share this pack as much as you can! Thanks very much.

Stopping sprawl and turning Auckland into an efficient, green city? Sign us up, Mayor Wayne Brown! A standoff is shaping up between the Mayor & the Minister on the question of sprawl. Matt Lowrie looks at how this (along with the 2026 election + CRL opening) may play into the hoped-for "city deal".

Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport www.economist.com/internationa... "In London cyclists now outnumber cars in the City by two to one and in Paris, they outnumber motorists across the whole city. In Copenhagen bikes account for almost half of commuter journeys to work and school."

Take care out there this evening, whanau! 👻🎃😱 Whether you celebrate or nah, one of the magical things about Halloween is how it spotlights the joy of walkable communities. All streets should be safe enough for kids to happily trundle around their own neighbourhoods for fun, every day of the year.

I’ve changed my name to Ron S. and the Nz government has just sent me a cheque for $18bn

Happy Halloween! The scariest thing about tonight isn't the costumes, it's the road safety stats. Halloween sees a 30% spike in crashes involving people walking or cycling w/ 1/3 of these crashes between 4-8pm, peak trick-or-treating hours. Drivers: slow down tonight so everyone gets home safe.

Take care out there this evening, whanau! 👻🎃😱 Whether you celebrate or nah, one of the magical things about Halloween is how it spotlights the joy of walkable communities. All streets should be safe enough for kids to happily trundle around their own neighbourhoods for fun, every day of the year.

🤔💡😆 (See also this week's post for more thoughts on the colossal costs of "more RoNS"... www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/10/29/m...)

Another Friday, another roundup of the week in transport, urbanism, and Auckland angles. Including fresh pics from CRL of progress on the platforms for the new Karanga-a-Hape station... www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/10/31/w...

"Attract people into cities with stuff that’s worth visiting, or that they can’t get online, like music, culture, history or public realm that encourages you to stay there a little longer.” From dilapidation to delight: @patrickreynolds.bsky.social digs into CityEd's take on Manchester's revival. ❤️

Wild to have a Government simultaneously claiming they *can't* pay essential public servants more because they just don't have the money, but also being hyped to drop $18b on a road. They are fundamentally unserious people.

18 billion dollars would pay for the best interisland ferries ever made and still have plenty set aside for NZ Defence Force replacement of old ships and planes. Or about a dozen new hospitals around the country.

The money National and NZTA are planning to waste on the road tunnels in Wellington could give you light rail in Wellington with enough change left over to make the entire South Island leg of State Highway 1 a 2+1 road complete with bridge replacements. I know what I rather have!

Just noting that $54 billion could pay for 150,000 really good quality state homes which could fundamentally change our economy in a way that benefits all of us *and* would directly. pay for themselves.

The Northern Expressway we were told would cost $10 billion is now priced at $18 billion, or six times the Cook Strait crossing we were told was unaffordable. This is fantasy stuff. www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-adv...

our govt wants to spend 327 times more on a single road ($18b) than they are currently spending yearly on all of basic science in new zealand ($55m) #nzpol

"The New Zealand government is now basically a road-building authority with bits tacked on." thespinoff.co.nz/politics/28-...

ICYMI: our last Friday roundup was chock-full of great reads for the long weekend – and is still fresh and topical this week! 📚 Perfect for a cuppa & catch-up with timely news on transport + urbanism + Auckland + how to make our cities better all the time: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/10/24/w...

"Collectively, we spent 70 years investing shared resources like public land and public money into making driving cheaper and easier. Now, we must take some of those resources and upgrade them to create climate-ready transport systems." A guest post by Tim Adriaansen on the limits of electric cars.

Huge price-tag inflation. Shocking costs per km. Wildly implausible travel time claims. And: the immense opportunity-cost of this government's mega-motorway mentality. Matt Lowrie follows up last week's banger of a post with more insights on the ludicrously unaffordable plan for "more RoNS". #nzpol

What’s the cost of Railways of National Significance? newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/23/5...

Progressive or conservative? Constructive vs obstructive? The flavour spectrum of local body politics is nuanced - and can be surprising. Here’s @connorsharp.bsky.social on how the new Auckland Council line-up could shape the supercity’s transport future: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/10/23/a...

New from me: Just eight of the Government's 17 Roads of National Significance have already seen costs blow out by $5.1 billion - before any shovels are even in the ground. The full programme would cost $44-$54 billion on the latest numbers. newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/23/5...

Auckland's long-planned Rapid Transit Network will deliver express services on key routes in all directions. It's clearly needed – so, how to hurry it along? In today's post, @patrickreynolds.bsky.social shares suggestions on ways to quickly fill the gaps: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/10/22/p...