4D chess move. First, central gov't passes laws forcing contractors to use excessive road cones Then, central gov't complains about contractors' excessive use of cones & creates a hotline to report Finally, councils start charging contractors for excessive road cones www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

Two orange distractions leading the news today…

I could teach an entire course on the importance of infrastructure. Oh wait, I do! In fact I teach 3 courses on infrastructure and it’s still not enough to cover how important this stuff is for our cities and people.

Transforming a car-dominated train station with one small project: ✓ Thousands of e-scooter/e-bike trips ✓ Hundreds of bikes parked (up from just one!) ✓ Public transport use increased ✓ 36.9 tonnes CO₂-eq emissions prevented Partnerships + community = people-first spaces

How NOT to code in R 😬

A graphic from AT's 2016 Auckland Cycling Account. And yet, our national government says that no one wants their rates to pay for cycling infrastructure...

Great example of why flex posts and paint are bullshit

Auckland is wildly off track in reducing its transport emissions, which account for about 41% of its greenhouse gas inventory. Appreciate the opportunity to add my 2¢ to this story, and if you don't already follow @eloisegibson.bsky.social, do it now! www.rnz.co.nz/news/environ...

I saw a few lanes closed for resurfacing. Traffic didn’t collapse. The city kept moving. If this much road space can go unused without chaos, what else could we do with it? People and place over cars and concrete.

📊 New Zealand Road Deaths Calendar: Visualising the human cost of road crashes day by day. Each colored square = a day someone didn't make it home. Explore the interactive version: nzroads.tfwelch.com/calendar/ #RoadSafety #NZ #DataViz

Auckland trains have been shut down 48 days in just 4 months—40% of the time. While the network upgrades continue, buses keep the city moving. Here's what 1 hour of service looks like, animated in real time.

Post-holiday traffic is back, and so are the road fatalities. Be safe out there, please. nzroads.tfwelch.com

One crisis is easing. Another rolls on — quietly, daily, and deadly.

100 lives lost on New Zealand roads this year. But here’s something rare: we’ve just gone 3 days without a single road death — the longest stretch in a long time. Over Easter, just 1 fatality was recorded — still tragic, but fewer than usual. Every day without a death counts. nzroads.tfwelch.com

Hilarious headline hardly a hard-hitting happening.

For anyone interested, I will undercut OpenAI by $5 for doctorate-level HI (Human Intelligence).

Ever wonder how many bike trips happen each day or over the year on Auckland’s cycleways? Or how much CO₂ those trips are saving? Alongside nearly every cycling stat you can think of, the NZ Cycleway Dashboard now has a live* trip counter. Check it out: cycleway.tfwelch.com *modelled in real-time

Guess there’s no way this doesn’t make me sound like a creeper—but I was touring a housing development in Auckland this week and snapped a photo of a bike in someone’s bedroom… because it had @tomflood.bsky.social’s sticker on it. Cool to see that message crossing hemispheres.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery... but when GCN drops a video with almost the same title and ideas I’ve been presenting for over two years, it feels more like déjà vu than tribute. 🎥 GCN (2025): www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVq7... 🎙️ Me (2023): soundcloud.com/university-o...

Every day without a road death counts. I’ve built a new dashboard tracking when, where, and how people are dying on NZ roads — updated daily, freely available, and often confronting. See the data: nzroads.tfwelch.com/dashboard #RoadSafety #VisionZero

13 days without a road fatality — our longest streak in years — happened during lockdown, when roads emptied. The lesson isn’t about travel bans. It’s about how deadly our “normal” really is.

This is the guy defunding education and healthcare, banning important initiatives on diversity, equity and inclusion. This is the guy tanking your retirement funds, killing the U.S. economy, deporting immigrants and threatening global security. It’s this guy…

Usually you’d joke that someone had a stroke when making the graph - but in this case I think someone must have had a stroke when making the tariff ‘policy’

I know it’s been raining all day, but ahhh - should we be worried? (This is the reported dam level)

Auckland Cycleways Dashboard (beta) 🚲 Transforming public cycling data into visual insights for better urban planning. Explore patterns across the city since 2016. Try it: cycleway.tfwelch.com

This is easily the most depressing little widget I've ever made. Since implementing the NZ Road Deaths Tracker on Monday, we haven't gone a single day without at least one fatality on our roads - I'll admit, this might have been a mistake. Every day without a death counts! nzroads.tfwelch.com

Yesterday I built a tracker for NZ road fatalities. When I started coding: 3 days since last death (75 total this year). By the afternoon: counter reset to zero—two more lives lost that day. Today: 1 day without a road death. Every Day Without a Death Counts! nzroads.tfwelch.com

Cycling in Auckland is growing! February 2025 showed a 3.7% increase vs 2024 (adjusting for leap year). Daily averages are approaching pre-Covid peaks, with a steady upward trend since 2022. Can't wait to see the March Madness numbers!

Don't buy a car! Journalist Vince Beiser argues for what we in active and public transport planning have been saying for ages...

Te Huia train service shows strong growth since 2022. Adjusting for service days (accounting for Dec-Jan closures), ridership increased by 320%, showing growing interest in rail. Peak: 9,466 passengers (May 2024), highlighting NZ regional rail potential.

I've always hated the car sewer that is Symonds St running through the middle of campus. These kinds of busy roads don't mix with high levels of walking and cycling. I hope everyone is OK. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3606...

The government’s own reports show the true cost of higher speed limits. This evidence must be front and center in the judicial review of the rollback on speed reductions. www.1news.co.nz/2025/03/04/e...

Today on @theconversation.com I wrote about how NZTA’s own commissioned study shows speed limit reductions provide big economic benefits and a massive drop in fatalities and serious injuries—yet the government is still increasing speed limits. theconversation.com/false-econom...

Despite community resistance and legal push back, the govt is going ahead with its plan to raise speed limits. But this goes against both expert advice from transport officials and solid economic evidence of benefits from slower speeds; by @twelch.bsky.social theconversation.com/false-econom...

Auckland Uni's new $400M+ rec centre is open—meanwhile, unionised academic staff (myself included) are still waiting on a cost-of-living increase. Our contract expired in August 2024. Inflation at 2.2%, last raise was Feb 2024. Glad to see where the priorities lie. 🙄 thespinoff.co.nz/society/25-0...

We've been left off countless maps throughout history, but today we make our move...

An official White House tweet: - Boasting about killing off the decision-making power of a domestic sovereign stat; - Declaring Tump the King. They aren't even trying to hide it anymore...

Congestion Pricing is creating tremendous benefits. Subway Ridership: ⬆️ 13% Bus Ridership: ⬆️ 6% (⬆️ 21% weekends) Transit Crime: 🔻36% Fatal Car Crashes: 🔻44% Trip Times: 🔻10-30%

Joined RNZ's Nine to Noon today (filling in for Bill Mckay) to discuss what Auckland's slower trains and higher road speeds mean for our city's future. Have a listen ↓ www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

So far this year, 16% of road deaths in NZ have been pedestrians and cyclists—yet walking and cycling make up only 1.6% of total distance traveled. This is an unacceptable level of danger for vulnerable road users.

Watched the Cap Jervis greet Aucklanders this morning this with 15 minutes of black carbon and other toxic pollutants. Hard to believe we allow this in our country’s most populated urban centre.

We drive our car maybe once or twice a month. Every time it’s completely covered in spider webs - which is saying a lot in low-spider New Zealand.

Who knew golf cart batteries are so heavy?

If only we could also do this with busses and car traffic! "Auckland Transport said the ferry, heading to Bayswater, had the right of way" www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-...

What's a 15-minute neighbourhood like? In one morning, I can: - go to the doctor - pick up a few groceries - get a blood test - get a haircut - pick up some library books All in a 10-minute walk. No car, traffic or parking. 15-minute neighbourhoods aren't prisons; they are absolutely liberating!

Already off to a horrifying start...