Two a penny

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Auckland’s legendary transport problem has become a national issue now that all of New Zealand is being asked to foot the bill for fixing it – but where should the city start?

Auckland’s legendary snarl-ups are driving the locals crazier than ever. Time-wasting traffic jams and hour-long commutes are the reason many people quit the city, and why others choose not live there. And for most Aucklanders who don’t have a reliable train or bus going their way there’s no way they can get out of their car any time soon. Two weeks ago, Transport Minister Stephen Joyce scrapped the regional tax that would have paid for $710 million of rail, bus and ferry improvements, then announced that instead $500m for electric trains would come from smaller increases in national fuel taxes.

Auckland’s transport mess has now become everyone’s problem. The changes have been slammed by the Auckland Regional Council, Labour and the Greens who last week revealed that even cabinet thinks Auckland will lose financially if the planned transport improvements don’t go ahead.

It’s become a case of too little, too late, the critics say. A report from its business committee shows if you leave in $110m of “niceties” station upgrades, integrated ticketing, real time information you get $3-$4 back over 25 years.

But now that rescuing the commercial capital from an infrastructure disaster is a national issue, the Sunday Star-Times has asked three leading international transport gurus and an Auckland expert to identify where the city needs to go and quickly. Remove them and get $1 back per $1 spent over 40 years as fewer people use public transport, resulting in money lost from fares and workers sitting in traffic.

Investing in the future

A cabinet paper, released to the Green Party under the Official Information Act, shows Auckland would have got back $3-$4 for each $1 spent on a $110 million package of public transport “extras”. One of the more controversial solutions is to take away free parking and to charge developers who build car parks.

This is because without the “extras” ferry wharf upgrades, smart card integrated ticketing, and real time information for buses and ferries fewer people will want to use public transport, which means higher congestion costs and loss of fares. By comparison, spending $500m on rail electrification alone the only public transport funding the government pledged after scrapping the regional fuel tax means Auckland will get back just $1 for each $1 spent. Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons accused the government of “penny pinching”. Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons accused the government of “penny pinching”.

If rail isn’t upgraded, 130km of roads would be needed at a cost of $3. The total $860m public transport rollout planned by the Auckland Regional Council would have cut 18,000 car journeys during morning and afternoon peaks, and reduced congestion costs to motorists by $200m a year. Transport Minister Stephen Joyce said the ARC could ask the New Zealand Transport Agency to help plug the funding gap, or raise the money itself.8 billion to cope with anticipated demand. Activist academic, author and past president of Melbourne’s Public Transport Users Association

Auckland has spent more on roads, per head, than any Australian city and look at the results, Mees says.

AUSTRALIA: Paul Mees

Senior lecturer in transport planning at RMIT University, Melbourne. Auckland has that, and yet it has worse traffic congestion than larger cities that don’t have it.

“There’s nothing remotely comparable to Spaghetti Junction in any Australian city nothing on the scale of that. Putting bikes and buses in the same lanes is crazy, says Mees.”

He recommends a halt on new or extended motorways until a proper rail system is in place, and high-quality buses as feeders to rail stations.

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Auckland has 1.4 million people; the same population as the city and suburbs of Zurich, in Switzerland. Aucklanders made 52 million trips last year; Zurich residents made 542 million. Around 6% of Aucklanders take public transport to work; 42% of Zurich residents do.

“Auckland’s population density is a little over half of Zurich’s, so maybe you shouldn’t aim quite this high, but 1.3 million people is more than enough to support a viable public transport system,” Mees says.

“If you live in Auckland you don’t appreciate what an extreme case it is, but it’s had the most unbalanced transport policies of just about anyone in the world. Even in Los Angeles they put a bit into public transport eventually. There’s been very little road building going on in LA for the past 20-30 years.

They’ve stopped, but in Auckland you’d think it was the 1950s, from the way the road lobby and the government carry on.

“I actually use Auckland in some of my books on the basis that it’s one of the most extreme cases in the world of a city that’s spent 50 years putting all of its eggs in the motorway basket. It isn’t reasonable for someone to say Auckland should have invested more in motorways, because there’s no one who’s invested more in motorways, relative to its populaton in income, more than Auckland.”

CANADA: Paul Bedford

Former chief city planner of Toronto, Canada. Influential in developing a $C90 billion transport plan for greater Toronto.

Bedford says Auckland should stop spending on roads and vastly improve public transport. When he visited in August he hardly saw a bus outside of the central city.

“One person per car clogging up the roads doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense in terms of how you allocate limited road space. A bus holds 40-50 people so you’re taking 40-50 cars off the road.”

He would put on more buses; have more suburban trains connecting to Britomart; and bring back trams to the central city and to nearby shopping and eating main streets such as Ponsonby and Parnell roads.

Auckland’s central business district doesn’t have the population density to justify subways, but trams would be great. “They’re quiet, they go through the heart of the city, they’re clean.” Where trams ran, they would take priority ahead of motorists “a very tough political decision”.

There’s no point spending money on expensive trains if you don’t concentrate development around key transport points, so he would have taller buildings clustered around rail stations in suburban centres, resulting in more people travelling to homes or offices on public transport.

He says there is no magic bullet as long as politicians and drivers have expectations that traffic gridlock can be solved by playing around with road capacity.

“The reality of expressways is that they fill up and there is generally no more room to widen the road. Even if you did, it fills up almost immediately. .”

SCOTLAND: Professor George Hazel

Chairman of transport consultancy company MRC McLean Hazel, Edinburgh. Former director of development in Edinbugh, awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for services to transport, wrote Making Cities Work (published 2004).

Start with a backbone of good public transport whether it’s busways, light rail, heavy rail, or a combination of the three, supplemented by feeder buses. In rural or more remote suburban areas, public bodies could subsidise taxis off-peak, when they’re sitting empty. People would pay the equivalent of a bus fare to get a taxi. What it cost to subsidise taxis, transport authorities would save by not running buses.

Fast-forward to the future where there is one electronic transport card, like the Oyster card in London or Octopus card in Hong Kong, or phone device, that does everything pays for petrol, parking, taxis, tolls, transit, bike hire, food at shops next to stations. People store money on it, paying a percentage on each transaction which they don’t mind because they don’t have to queue.

The device could give loyalty points for using public transport off-peak.

“That’s much more deliverable than road pricing [congestion charging], which is extremely difficult politically. [The device] is very sellable politically because everybody will like the concept of this joined-up transport, because people want the one ticket that will do everything. Suddenly you’ve opened up a device that generates a lot of money,” says Hazel.

IT companies are developing the technology and see it as a big business opportunity, he says. “So a business model for the future might well be to say to the Siemens or IBMs of this world, you handle this device for us, we’ll give you a franchise for the value-added services, and you pay for the infrastructure to put it all in.”

AUCKLAND: Stuart Donovan

Transport engineer at MRC’s Auckland branch. Advises the New Zealand Transport Agency, Auckland Regional Council and Auckland Regional Transport Agency.

Donovan says parking is transport’s silver bullet. “If you provide a whole lot of free parking, it’s very likely that people won’t catch public transport.”

More people on public transport means more revenue, which can be spent improving services. He says free parking in suburban shopping areas should be abolished, and meters installed. Already, developers don’t have to provide free parking in parts of Auckland’s central business district, which is where public transport works.

Developers and businesses should not be forced by local councils to provide parking spaces when building homes and offices. Instead, they should pay a levy for each parking space, with revenue spent on local roads. Perth already does this.

Donovan says companies would probably provide as many parking spaces as they could afford, but fewer than they do now.

Who would pay the biggest levy? “Big box” retailers, which generate a lot of traffic. Companies might find it cheaper to develop land for retail or other business activity. They might give staff a bus pass instead of a free car park.

He would also lower fuel taxes and make up the difference in “road pricing” (also known as congestion charging). He likes Stockholm’s system where drivers buy “smart sensors” which sit in their cars and pick up signals as they enter the central city. Instead of a flat fee, as in London, people pay more to drive in the height of the peak hour, and less earlier or later.

He’d replace flat fees for toll roads with on- and off-peak fees meaning cheaper travel for holidaymakers and commercial vehicles, and more expensive trips for commuters.

“If you look at congestion, it’s caused by commuters, and they’re best suited to public transport.”

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Outdoor workers’ health at risk from sun, study finds

By MARK HOTTON – Thursday, 26 February 2009

Outdoor workers are at risk of eye disease and skin cancer because of overexposure and under-protection in the sun, a University of Otago study has found.
The problem of high UV-radiation exposure was made worse with less than a third of the 77 workers in the study applying sunscreen and only 5 per cent wearing a wide-brim hat.
Unless adequately protected, all of them would have received more UV radiation than the recommended level of 1.
The workers in the study, conducted by postgraduate student Vanessa Hammond, included construction, horticultural and road workers employed at 14 Central Otago workplaces.
An exposure of about 1.08 SED (standard erythemal dose).0 SED could cause sunburn to someone with unprotected fair skin.5 to 3.3 SED between 11am and 4pm. The average daily summer exposure of the workers was 5.
Study co-author Dr Tony Reeder, director of the university's Cancer Society social and behavioural research unit, said employers had an important role in protecting their workers from the sun.
Hammond said any opportunity to work in the shade could make a real difference in reducing the risk of a worker developing skin cancer. .
Outdoor work between 11am and 4pm needed to be undertaken in either natural or constructed shade in summer, he said.
"It all sounds very nice but there'd be a big cost with it.
However, Amalgamated Builders health and safety manager David Baker, of Dunedin, said movable shade structures were impractical given the scale of building sites.
"You can provide but it's up to the guys to use the stuff," Baker said."
The company supplied personal protective equipment such as wide-brim clip-on hat options and sunscreen, but it was up to each employee whether they used it.
"I've just put a lid on [the tractor] for that reason.
Gore farmer Hamish Smith said he had taken steps to address his exposure to the sun. But it can just get too hot. There was always sunscreen in the tractor and that was used too.
Builder Barnaby Lamb, who was wearing a sleeveless top on a Queenstown building site yesterday, said sunscreen was supplied on site and he regularly applied it."
Work was started early to avoid the day's heat and a hat was essential.

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All-you-can-tan offers have critics seeing red

By KEITH LYNCH and KIM THOMAS – Monday, 16 February 2009

Salons offering all-you-can-tan sunbed promotions have been branded as irresponsible by doctors, who say such promotions highlight the need for stricter controls over solarium operators.
Dr Judith Galtry, a skin cancer adviser with the Cancer Society, said offering people the opportunity to tan many times in a month was potentially unsafe. Those who used the beds at any age were 15 per cent more likely to develop skin cancer.
"Research from an international agency on cancer found people who used sunbeds before they were aged 18 were 75 per cent more likely to develop melanoma.
Manager Kerry Middleton said the salon strictly monitored its all-you-can-tan customers."
Christchurch salon Skin Deep Solariums is offering an all-you-can-tan promotion for $60 a month.
"In the vertical [tanning bed], it's a max of nine minutes; in the lay-down [tanning beds], it's a maximum of 25 minutes.
"All-you-can-tan is a one-month offer that is strictly within the health boundaries."
Some customers did flout the guidelines, and tanned every day, but the all-you-can-tan system was closely monitored, Middleton said. And we recommend people tan at most every second day, as the skin needs time to recover. We are looking after their skin.
"Our customers are in a controlled environment where we can check exactly how much time they go in for."
Parental consent was required for customers under the age of 18, but sunbeds were off limits to people under 16, Middleton said. .
Galtry said the Cancer Society would carry out "stings" on sunbed operators this year to gauge how many were flouting the guidelines.
This year, Standards NZ and Australia published new guidelines for the tanning industry, including advising against the use of tanning machines by people under 18.
"Good salons should offer people the benefits of tanning without the risk of burning," she said.
Gabrielle Brown, of the Indoor Tanning Association, advised people to tan moderately.
"We've tried to get together with a couple of our critics to talk to them about educating people on how to moderate their tanning behaviour and how to avoid sunburn.
"But our critics' position is they see no benefit to tanning and would like to see the industry completely disappear."

. But they've said, `we can't work with you'

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All-you-can-tan offers have critics seeing red

By KEITH LYNCH and KIM THOMAS – Monday, 16 February 2009

Salons offering all-you-can-tan sunbed promotions have been branded as irresponsible by doctors, who say such promotions highlight the need for stricter controls over solarium operators.
Dr Judith Galtry, a skin cancer adviser with the Cancer Society, said offering people the opportunity to tan many times in a month was potentially unsafe. Those who used the beds at any age were 15 per cent more likely to develop skin cancer.
"Research from an international agency on cancer found people who used sunbeds before they were aged 18 were 75 per cent more likely to develop melanoma.
Manager Kerry Middleton said the salon strictly monitored its all-you-can-tan customers."
Christchurch salon Skin Deep Solariums is offering an all-you-can-tan promotion for $60 a month.
"In the vertical [tanning bed], it's a max of nine minutes; in the lay-down [tanning beds], it's a maximum of 25 minutes.
"All-you-can-tan is a one-month offer that is strictly within the health boundaries."
Some customers did flout the guidelines, and tanned every day, but the all-you-can-tan system was closely monitored, Middleton said. And we recommend people tan at most every second day, as the skin needs time to recover. We are looking after their skin.
"Our customers are in a controlled environment where we can check exactly how much time they go in for."
Parental consent was required for customers under the age of 18, but sunbeds were off limits to people under 16, Middleton said. .
Galtry said the Cancer Society would carry out "stings" on sunbed operators this year to gauge how many were flouting the guidelines.
This year, Standards NZ and Australia published new guidelines for the tanning industry, including advising against the use of tanning machines by people under 18.
"Good salons should offer people the benefits of tanning without the risk of burning," she said.
Gabrielle Brown, of the Indoor Tanning Association, advised people to tan moderately.
"We've tried to get together with a couple of our critics to talk to them about educating people on how to moderate their tanning behaviour and how to avoid sunburn.
"But our critics' position is they see no benefit to tanning and would like to see the industry completely disappear."

. But they've said, `we can't work with you'

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Helen Clark’s UN job interview

By ANTHONY HUBBARD – Sunday, 08 February 2009

Former Primeminister Helen Clark is in the running for a top United Nations job, and the National government is supporting her bid.
Clark is a candidate for the post of administrator of the UN Development Programme, third behind UN secretary-general and deputy secretary-general.
It was too early yet to predict whether she would be successful, Key told the Sunday Star-Times.
Prime Minister John Key confirmed yesterday that Clark was a candidate, "and she has all the support of the New Zealand government".
If Clark was successful her appointment would be comparable with former Labour leader Mike Moore's job as director-general of the World Trade Organisation or former National foreign affairs minister Don McKinnon's post as secretary-general of the Commonwealth.
Auckland University foreign policy expert Steve Hoadley said the UNDP post was one of "major international importance".
The present administrator, former Turkish economic affairs minister Kemal Dervis, is due to retire at the end of his four-year term in August this year.
The UNDP had the largest budget of any UN agency, Hoadley said, and was a major presence throughout the world. A government source said she would be "a very strong candidate".
It has long been expected that Clark, a foreign affairs specialist all her adult life and with a wide international network, would try for an international post. It's a very senior position and will be hotly contested by a number of candidates.
Clark said: "This position came up at short notice. Hoadley said the government would have to lobby General Assembly members for the job. .
The UNDC is the UN's global development network, overseeing a budget of $US5 billion. It would be interesting to see how much it was prepared to spend in supporting the Clark candidacy in a time of financial stringency.
The Clark-led government in its final term increased its aid budget to $400 million, about 0. Its head office is in New York, and it has 140 offices around the world.

.3 percentof gross national income

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BOP businessman accused of drugging, raping woman

Friday, 06 February 2009

A Bay of Plenty businessman has been accused of raping a woman after allegedly stupefying her with the party drug ketamine.
The Tauranga man, in his early 40s, who was granted interim suppression of his name and that of his business, faced two charges in Tauranga District Court yesterday of sexual violation by rape.
The man was granted bail by Judge Thomas Ingram despite strong objections from police, the Bay of Plenty Times reported.
He also faced a further charge of trying to intimidate the complainant the day prior to his arrest on February 4, after she was allegedly threatened by a woman known to the accused.
He said without more substantiative evidence to support the allegation, he was prepared to grant bail on the basis that the accused observed a 24-hour curfew to live outside the Bay of Plenty.
The judge said he had real concerns over any allegation involving intimidation of a witness but at this stage there was no evidence linking the defendant to the alleged threat.
Police allege that last weekend the accused and the his alleged victim met at a Tauranga address where she was plied with alcoholic drinks and stupefied with ketamine – a prescription-only sedative – then raped.
The man is also also barred from having any contact with his alleged victim and other police witnesses.
During a search of the man's address police allegedly found a small amount of ketamine. .
Judge Ingram said the issue of bail and the suppression order would be revisited on February 11 when the man is due back in court.
But the accused's lawyer told Judge Ingram the allegations were absolutely denied.
Judge Ingram said on that day he wanted to see a sworn statement by the complainant to substantiate her claim of intimidation, plus an affidavit from the accused setting out the grounds why suppression should continue.

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NZ storms harbingers of climate change

By CHARLIE GATES – Wednesday, 14 January 2009

The storms, droughts and floods that hit New Zealand last year could be a harbinger of climate change, weather scientists say.
New Zealand's weather extremes in 2008, from droughts in January to storms in July and August, are comprehensive in asummary published yesterday by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).
The July and August storms that wreaked havoc across New Zealand caused $68 million damage and killed five people, Niwa said.
Niwa principal scientist James Renwick said the extremes could be a preview of how global climate change would affect New Zealand weather.
The drought in the west of the North Island early last year cost $1 billion, it said.
"The idea of a sunny year, but with some pretty violent storms, is consistent with climate change.
"I am not saying 2008 was a result of climate change, but we should expect to see more years like that," he said.
"We should expect to see more of those rainfall extremes.
"It is really quite a challenge for agriculture."
Renwick said the extreme weather expected to be sparked by global climate change would affect New Zealand agriculture.
"There will have to be some thought about where the different activities take place. The good conditions you need to grow certain crops and raise stock will move around the country," he said.
"They will probably be quite viable in the South Island in the close to future. For example, kiwifruit were first grown in the Bay of Plenty, then Hawke's Bay."
The South Island had some of the most dramatic weather of 2008."
The South Island had some of the most dramatic weather of 2008.
Canterbury recorded the highest temperature of the year with 34.
Christchurch was also the driest of the five centres, with just 704 millimetres of rain compared with the 1662mm that made Wellington the wettest.
The sunshine and arid conditions were occasionally broken by violent rainstorms in the South Island.8 degrees celsius at Timaru Airport on January 12 and March 19. . Marlborough, Canterbury and eastern Otago had more than three times the normal rainfall in July.5C at Mount Cook on August 20.
Weather extremes:
Coldest temperature minus 9.8C at Timaru Airport on January 12.
Highest temperature 34.
Highest rainfall catchment Cropp River, in the Hokitika River catchment, had 10,940mm of rainfall for the year.
Highest rainfall catchment Cropp River, in the Hokitika River catchment, had 10,940mm of rainfall for the year.
Heaviest snowfall Arthur's Pass closed three days after 1 metre fell, August 15-17.

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First Christmas off in 35 years

By KATHERINE NEWTON Tuesday, 23 December 2008

CHRIS GORMAN/The
A DAY OFF: For the first time since he was 22, Life Flight Auckland’s Bruce Blanche will take Christmas off, swapping saving lives for a cruise from Auckland to Sydney on luxury liner Diamond Princess.

A yearis long enough for most of us to wait for the Christmas break, but Bruce Blanche has been waiting for 35.
For the first time since he was 22, the Life Flight Auckland crew member will take Christmas Day off, swapping saving lives for a cruise from Auckland to Sydney on luxury liner Diamond Princess. I really don't know what to expect.
"I'm very excited.
This year he decided it was finally time to take a break. .
Accompanying him on the cruise will be his mother and his son Jamie, 32, who has never had the chance to spend Christmas Day with his dad before.
His mother was as excited about the cruise as he was, Mr Blanche said.
The Diamond Princess leaves Auckland on Christmas Eve and arrives in Tauranga on Christmas Day, which Mr Blanche will spend with some old friends.
"Everyone ends up at my Mum and Dad's place, and Mum's said for the last year or two that it's getting too much. "She's over the moon because she doesn't have to do all the Christmas palaver.
Mr Blanche said he had seen nearly everything in his 35 years in the aviation industry."
The 12-day cruise will head south on Boxing Day, taking in the sights of Fiordland before sailing over to Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney.
No particular Christmas Day stood out in his memory, however.
No particular Christmas Day stood out in his memory, however. "To me, it's the perfect Christmas Day."
But this one he would treasure."

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Festival of light

The Saturday, 20 December 2008

ROSS GIBLIN/
PIECES OF EIGHT: As lights went up on Christmas trees around New Zealand, Moriah Kindergarten children Hamish Simcock, Solomon Emet and Miya Dring-Thorpe, all 3, were mesmerised by the candles on a menorah as part of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.

The Jewish kindergarten in central Wellington lit the menorah as part of celebrations for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.
The kindergarten's children, Jewish and non-Jewish, had been examining forward to Hanukkah for weeks, principal Heidi Greenwood said.
The festival celebrates the rededication of the temple of Jerusalem, where oil meant to last one day kept the temple flame burning for eight."
Traditionally, one candle is lit on each of the eight days of Hanukkah. "We do all the festivals and this one is an absolute highlight. . But as it begins tomorrow – after the last day of school – the kindergarten lit them all yesterday."

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"You often get feedback from the non-Jewish parents saying how their children have brought all these little things home and want to talk about it

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Extent of Bay DHB’s animosity revealed

Saturday, 20 December 2008

The animosity between Hawke's Bay District Health Board members and their chief executive revealed in court documents suggests a rocky road ahead as they work together to run the region's health services.
The board has been reinstated by Health Minister Tony Ryall after being sacked by predecessor David Cunliffe in February.
The judicial review was discontinued after the board was reinstated this month.
But evidence and affidavits lodged with the High Court for a judicial review into the sacking contain claim and counter-claim by both sides and reveal a high level of distrust between the board and chief executive Chris Clarke.
The board claimed Mr Clarke began trying to "create a conflict" in late 2007 after board members held a forensic audit of the board's computer system.
In the documents, obtained by The yesterday, former board chairman Kevin Atkinson said the board had long-standing performance concerns with Mr Clarke and had meetings with an employment lawyer as early as mid-2007 for advice on addressing these. .
Board members believe the audit revealed "clear and inappropriate behaviour" by Mr Clarke in a conflict of interest concerning service contracts.
The board started "actively seeking my dismissal" late last year, he said.
But Mr Clarke claims the relationship between the board and senior management began deteriorating in 2004 after he had been in the job for a year.
"I was appalled at this suggestion .
The board was surprised that anonymous staff had told the review panel they felt "bullied, battered and bruised" by the board and asked Mr Clarke to arrange meetings with management to discuss the matter…
The board was unhappy with Mr Clarke's reluctance to support the meetings and threatened disciplinary proceedings last November. This was particularly inappropriate given that staff members' disclosures clearly indicate that some felt intimidated and bullied," Mr Clarke said. Any normal relationship ceased soon after. At this point Mr Clarke employed his own employment lawyer, he said.
The harshest criticism of Mr Clarke is in the affidavit by John Newland, a professional business mentor and former chief executive of Farmlands, who was employed by Mr Clarke to review board and management processes.
"All of the seven-strong management team regarded the situation as intolerable" and five said they would resign unless governance was changed, Mr Clarke said.

. He said he considered Mr Clarke was poor at managing his team