Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: You can Roughan but you just…, in reply to Angus Robertson,
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Paying for this plan is going to be objectionable to a majority of people in Auckland, because it is a useless plan for most of us most of the time. It is a plan that is designed to spend money on services that are NOT "convenient, quick, reliable, comfortable and affordable public transport options" for a majority of Auckland. Can you see this point?
I can see it without agreeing with it. You don't or won't acknowledge that if you take pressure off the roads that the public transport (and every other kind of transport too) on the roads gets better. It doesn't matter that most people don't work in the CBD. It's still the transport bottleneck, and that cascades all the way back out into the suburbs. It's getting steadily worse, no matter how many suburban motorway improvements you make. As it chokes, the city sprawls, and the transport problem gets worse and worse, because the distances increase.
Yes, if CRL is put in, it will disproportionately improve the CBD. Obviously, since it will be in the CBD. Just as the huge tunnel being built under Oakley Creek disproportionately improves the suburbs surrounding that location. I'm a big beneficiary of it. But it also takes pressure off the central motorway junction, diverting significant traffic from west to south via an alternate route. So it has a much wider justification. The CRL is like that, but in spades, because every passenger using it is not on the roads at all.
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Hard News: You can Roughan but you just…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
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Actually, Angus, it’s a practical impossibility to run trains west-east without the CRL. The switching is already possible through the Parnell yards to have Western Line trains go out east (and vice-versa) instead of through Britomart, but since they’ve already spent nine minutes travelling from Newmarket to the waterfront why not just go to Britomart and turn around?
Angus can speak for himself, but I presumed he actually meant west-south, since south in Auckland is mostly to the east. I'm still inclined to think of Remuera, Greenlane, Ellerslie and Penrose as East Auckland. But if he genuinely meant that we can use the western line which goes through Glenn Innes, then you are dead right, it makes no sense to have that as a route at the moment. But I don't think even a west-south route is needed. You can always change at Newmarket, and it's highly competitive with the bus routes in terms of time, but cheaper, and IMHO, nicer. I could take my bike on that route, if conditions got too crappy for me to want to come home on the bike.
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Hard News: Dressing for the Road,
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Was out cycling with my son and mentioned that cycling was more efficient than walking. He was a little incredulous.
I'm pretty sure my boys already know it, even at 3 and 7. They have balance bikes and several times we've gone for long trips with them riding and me on foot. I have to jog to keep up, and they can go on for half an hour. There's no way they could keep up with me jogging at all, let alone for that length of time. That's without any of the efficiency of pedaling, just the pure effect of having a seat on wheels.
ETA: Well, actually they could probably go a lot longer than that, but I'm not really willing to push a 3 year old along like some kind of sadistic coach. And I don't really like jogging.
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Hard News: You can Roughan but you just…, in reply to Joshua Arbury,
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It's frustrating how "mode oriented" public transport debates often are. Buses, trains, ferries and even trams all do different things and it's almost certain we need all of them to complement each other and create a world class PT system for Auckland.
Yup, it's like there's no such thing as your job. Intuition is all we need. And, of course, a monorail.
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Hard News: The War Stories, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
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The mean age for army personnel at that time was around 29.5 according to this study. So I think comparing to the general population, rather than just the 20-29 year old population, is relevant. Although that is quite an interesting stat.
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Hard News: Dressing for the Road, in reply to Richard Grevers,
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"chinese cycling speed" - 2-3 x walking pace, which is reportedly the most energy efficient means of transport known
I'd believe it. Occasionally I've rambled around like this for 3-4 hours without feeling noticeably tired at all - it's less effort than concerted walking for the same amount of time, and 50km slips behind you. Somewhere around 15km/h on the flat is like walking around at a shopping/dawdling pace, without getting sore feet. Can get a sore bum though.
It's barely exercise at all. I only do it if I'm browsing around looking at stuff, rather than riding for fitness. It was pretty much how I cycled in Holland, for instance. It's a bloody great way to see a whole city without costing much, or getting exhausted. I also felt unusually safe, because if someone is hassling you, they won't do it for long once you jump on the bike. Beggars, scammers, and annoying hassly salespeople following you for miles don't bother with cyclists. I wish I'd had one in Bangkok.
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Capture: Autumn lite, in reply to Hebe,
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Two metres??? We have 12 metres and wondering if that will be enough!
I wish I had a fireplace at all. Next house. But I can't complain about the heating in here, we have HRV ventilation and above/below insulation. The HRV is doing it's thing at the moment, it's really an autumn/spring thing. Just enough sun to give me warm air to push down. In winter the roof space temperature is less than the house so it switches off. In summer the house is hotter than we want, so it switches off. By "off" I mean it goes into the lowest air exchange setting, so it still keeps the air fresh.
My folks have the same setup in a big high ceiling villa. We all noticed how much more effective the open fireplace became when they put in the ventilation system. I speculate that's for 2 reasons - the air is drier, and the positive pressure created by the air pumps forces into the fire, which roars on only smaller amounts of fuel.
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Capture: Autumn lite, in reply to Russell Brown,
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Perhaps signs also of the efficacy of good insulation? I haven't felt the need for heating in the house yet.
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Hard News: The War Stories, in reply to Ana Simkiss,
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The particular devastation of the world wars on Maori can't be underestimated. I don't know, but would not be surprised to learn, that they are a high proportion of the armed forces today.
They are. Somewhere around 20%. Interestingly, Maori women are even more represented, as a proportion of the female armed forces, over 25%. The overall proportion of women is still quite low, though, less than 20% of the army are women.
Just a pedantic thing here, but it's better to say they "shouldn't be underestimated" rather than that they "can't be underestimated". The latter phrasing implies they are zero.
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Capture: Autumn lite, in reply to Simon Bennett,
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Great shot, great eye to see it. It looks like a nuke went off just past the city.