New Zealand is badly in need of a government that understands good decision making and the economic consequences of those decisions. We have not had one since late 2017. The current lot of reprobates are 69 individuals, playing at being in charge and having no idea of how to go about the task before them.
These people, by reason of their backgrounds as trade union officials, political back office gophers and community workers, are unfit for the task for which they were elected. Their decision-making makes their lack of experience obvious to all. They have no idea how business works nor of its value to the economy. They say they do, but their decisions prove otherwise. Their recent transport decisions are a glaring demonstration that they deal in fantasy rather than reality.
They are using our money like it’s Monopoly money. To them, a bike bridge is Mayfair in value, and Mill Road is the equivalent of the Old Kent Road. To those who understand the economy it is the other way around. Spending $685 million, which in reality is probably over $1 billion, on a cycle and walkway bridge over Auckland harbour is plainly fantasyland.
According to Transport Minister Michael Wood, it will provide “a quality option we can all be proud of”. This perfectly sums up how this government goes about its decision making. I assume this means we can be proud of it whether two or two hundred cyclists use it. Was any thought given to how $685 million could be better spent?
Immediately Mill Road, from Manukau to Drury, comes to mind. It will have to be widened at some stage. It will never be cheaper to do than now. The population of Drury is set to increase to 40,000. This government thinks (again in fantasyland) that those residents are all going to use the train. It simply will not happen. The Southern Motorway is currently choked in that area at peak times. It can only get worse.
Grant Robertson says cost blowouts are the reason for ditching the project while at the same time telling us that the economy is going gangbusters and $685 million will be wasted on a harbour crossing for bicycles!
If Mill Road has had such a big cost blowout, as did the CRL, then so will the dopey bridge idea. I guarantee that more cyclists will use it at weekends than on weekdays. The same will apply to pedestrians. Meanwhile, the people of Ashburton who desperately need a second bridge will be left without one.
These are economic priorities, not “a quality option we can all be proud of”.
A bridge for cyclists will not assist the economy.
Nobody is arguing public transport doesn’t have a role to play, but it is a minor one and always will be. Julie Anne Genter might cycle everywhere but most of us need a vehicle. According to Simon Wilson buses travelling up Queen Street carry on average 2.6 people. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s that many.
For about 90 per cent of the network it would be cheaper to have a contract with Uber to ferry the average 2.6 people around.
Simon Wilson, referring to last weekend’s gathering of fruit loops, said the police and NZTA, by their own inaction, caused traffic to back up to Newmarket. This annoyed motorists when those authorities could have used the lane changing machine and made it three lanes each way with no inconvenience to anyone. He said by not doing so it’s as if NZTA were deliberately trying to make people angry. These people have no idea, do they? Weekend traffic flows are different to weekdays. They get busier at different times and motorists would have been inconvenienced and equally annoyed.
Simon did make one good point, suggesting a trial before going ahead with the ridiculous idea. So a lane each way permanently shut for say six months. I suppose Simon thinks no one would be angry. Michael Wood was obviously listening as he is now pressuring NZTA to do just that.
Here’s the thing. NZTA, the experts, appear to be at odds with all this nonsense. They are being forced into it. This is all about the likes of Simon Wilson and his loopy greenies wanting something that is nice to have, under the guise of cutting emissions. I wonder how many more emissions will be burnt on motorway car parks by not prioritising the likes of Mill Road?
It’s the wasteful expenditure that needs cutting, not the emissions.
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