I’m not going to say anything. I don’t have to. I just need to let this wordless Brazilian video, showing planned transport changes in Rio de Janiero in the leadup to the Olympics, speak for itself.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU4TedxVqDs&w=560&h=315]
The Save the Basin Campaign supports Wellington City Council’s position in asking the government to have the consent application for the proposed Basin Reserve flyover heard by the Environment Court. History shows that Boards of Inquiry, with members appointed by the government, are simply rubber-stamping exercises for government policy.
In Monday’s Dominion Post Councillor Morrison was reported as saying that the Basin Reserve ‘desperately needed the $12m stand’ that would be built in a deal with the government to try and hide the flyover. But in official documentation, NZTA says the design of the building is not complete and is subject to the decision of the consent authority on the form of mitigation required. Does Councillor Morrison know something the rest of us don’t, or is he just trying to make himself look important again?
“There are three key things the public should know about the so-called stand,” said Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Joanna Newman. “The first is that the government is not proposing to build a stand: it is a narrow building to accommodate players and officials, with no public seating. The second is that according to NZTA official documentation no decision has yet been made on the building as this is subject to the Consenting Authority confirming it is required for mitigation purposes. Perhaps the government has done another ‘Sky City’-type back room deal and Councillor Morrison has let this slip in his talk with the press.”
“Finally, Councillor Morrison has the cheek to say that the cricket ground is in real danger of losing its test match status if facilities are not drastically improved. The only reason this is likely to happen is because the Basin Reserve Trust, of which he has been a member for many years, has been grossly negligent in its management of the facilities. It has, for instance, let the Museum Stand deteriorate to a shocking state.”
“There has been far too much behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing when it comes to the proposed flyover,” concluded Joanna Newman. “It’s time for the proposal to be considered in an open, transparent legal process where arguments will be considered on their merits, not on the basis of who makes them.”
Joanna Newman
Spokesperson
Save the Basin Campaign
Phone 027 7577 984
Auckland. New Zealand’s largest city.
After several years of pooh-poohing the idea, the Government reverses its stance on funding (or at least partially funding) the Auckland central city rail loop. (Update: We have been told quite firmly by Auckland transport friends that it is not a loop!)
Even though the Government is delaying the project by five years and is coy on where the money will come from and how much it will pay, it’s still a big step forward for sustainable transport in Auckland and a triumph for Auckland mayor Len Brown, who has stubbornly maintained his support for the project in the face of Governmental and NZTA opposition. Well done, Auckland, and well done, Len Brown!
Wellington. New Zealand’s capital city.
The Government and the New Zealand Transport Agency push ahead with a roading-based transport ‘solution’ for Wellington that includes a proposed Basin Reserve flyover. The NZTA, Greater Wellington and the WCC release a public transport spine study that claims light rail will be too expensive for Wellington. The Mayor gives her support to a “bus rapid transit system”.
No sooner have the study’s conclusions been released than two Victoria University transport researchers expose how NZTA has cooked the books to greatly inflate the apparent cost of rail relative to other options. And transport researcher Kerry Wood also points out the biased costings in NZTA’s study.
A tale of two cities. In Auckland, civic leaders keep advocating for the best solution, and eventually, after much derision from their opponents, they get what they stood up for.
In Wellington, the Government and NZTA are using similar tactics. They have tried to tilt the playing field in favour of the ‘solution’ they want. They’ve been caught out.
Will Wellingtonians and their civic leaders see through the spin and continue to push for the best possible sustainable transport solution for Wellington, or will we cave in?
It’s up to us.
The Dominion Post has a firmly – some might even say rabidly – pro-flyover editorial stance. But, to give them credit, they are prepared to publish opinion pieces to the contrary. On Wednesday, they published an excellent piece by Mary Varnham entitled “Why Flyover Madness Must Stop”. Mary was a Wellington City Councillor from 1998-2001 and co-founded the successful “Chaffers Park – Make It Happen!” campaign.
A few choice quotes from Mary’s article:
“Building a flyover for cars at a time when fast, non-polluting rapid transit is dramatically enhancing the charm and liveability of cities across Europe (and increasingly North America) would make our city the laughing stock of modern transport planners.”
“It’s long been known that, no matter how much you gild the lily with euphemisms like “bridge” and drawings showing trees and smiling pedestrians, elevated roads resting on concrete pillars are a seed bed for ugliness, urban blight and crime.”
“It is clearly crazy to create a monstrosity just to save rush-hour drivers a few minutes driving from the eastern suburbs to Taranaki St.”
Well said, Mary!
You can read the full article here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/8813005/Why-flyover-madness-must-stop
The Save the Basin Campaign today said that the New Zealand Transport Agency could spin its proposed Basin Reserve flyover however it liked, but the very fact NZTA felt it necessary to come up with various new cosmetic measures to try to hide the flyover showed that the project remained ugly, unnecessary and unjustified.
“NZTA can dress up their proposed flyover however they like, but no amount of spin and no amount of cosmetics can disguise the fact that the agency is trying to impose an ugly, outdated transport solution on Wellington that does nothing to meet Wellington’s transport needs,” said Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Joanna Newman.
“Flyovers might have been cutting-edge in the 1960s,” Ms Newman continued. “But in the second decade of the 21st century, the idea of building a flyover near the centre of a modern nation’s capital city is ludicrous.”
“All over the world, from Seoul to Seattle, from Portland to Leicester, cities are tearing down flyovers and replacing them with good urban design and sustainable transport solutions. Unfortunately, the Government and the NZTA seem to think that Los Angeles and Auckland are the transport models that Wellington should follow.”
“The Basin Reserve has come under many threats over the years,” said Ms Newman. “In the end all retreated in the face of public opposition because Wellingtonians have placed a high value on the unique character of this reserve, held in trust for them by the Council.
“Yet again, the Basin is under threat, and we are sure that, as they have in the past, Wellingtonians and cricket fans from around the world will rally round to protect it.”
“The Save the Basin Campaign is committed to stopping this ugly blight on the urban landscape from ever being built,” Joanna Newman concluded. “We have a range of methods available to us, and we look forward to using them.”
Joanna Newman
Spokesperson
Save the Basin Campaign
New Wellington City Council Chief Executive Kevin Lavery has been in Wellington for 10 weeks. He says he misses British television, British TV news, and his family. We sympathise.
Unfortunately, he also seems to be missing the point that he is a paid servant of Wellington City Council and of Wellington ratepayers, not their master. Not content with proposing the demolition of Wellington Town Hall, he has now told The Wellingtonian that:
“I could understand the debate over the Basin Reserve flyover, but the decision has been made and it’s time to move on, just making sure there is good mitigation.”
It seems to have escaped Dr Lavery’s attention that no decision has been made about a Basin Reserve flyover. Wellington City Council voted neither to support nor oppose a flyover, and not only has no resource consent been issued for a flyover, no resource consent application has yet been made.
And as for mitigation – if Dr Lavery thinks that a 9-metre-high, 380-metre-long flyover can be mitigated, then he is living on a different planet to the rest of us.
Wellingtonians pay Kevin Lavery a very handsome salary to do his job. We suggest he stops trying to set the agenda and gets on with the work a paid employee of Wellington’s ratepayers should do.
A number of us from the Save the Basin Campaign spent last Saturday at Whakarongotai Marae in Waikanae, at a hui organised by Save Kapiti spokesperson Bianca Begovich, and wonderfully hosted by the tangata whenua.
Save Kapiti are campaigning against the proposed Kapiti Expressway, which, like the proposed Basin Reserve flyover, is one of the current National Government’s “Roads of National Significance” proposals. The Kapiti Expressway would be a massive and (yet again) unnecessary motorway, designed to meet the interests of the trucking industry, that would destroy many homes and split Kapiti Coast communities apart.
The Government sent the Kapiti Expressway proposal to an EPA Board of Inquiry hearing which, true to the EPA’s role as a rubber-stamping mechanism, ignored the evidence presented to it by anyone other than NZTA, and decided in favour of the Expressway. Save Kapiti have appealed this decision, and their appeal will be heard in the High Court on 10 July – but, whatever the result of the appeal, they are also exploring other means of opposition that will become public in due course.
Save Kapiti, and other groups such as Alliance for Sustainable Kapiti (ASK) have spent three years and a great deal of money fighting this appalling proposal. It’s been hard, demanding work. But guess what? They are still going strong.
100 people attended the hui – even setting aside the contingents from Save the Basin and Generation Zero who attended, that is 90 Kapiti Coast residents who said, loud and clear, that they are not going to give in to NZTA and Government bullying, that they are going to keep fighting, and that the Kapiti Expressway is going to be stopped.
I was inspired by their commitment, determination, and unity. I was impressed by the strong support for Save Kapiti expressed at the hui by Greens transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter and Labour transport spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway (Labour and the Greens being two of the five parties who also oppose a Basin flyover). And it was great to get a sense of where Save Kapiti is going next. Much as NZTA and the Government would wish otherwise, one place they aren’t going is away.
But the hui was also a valuable source of tactical insight for the Save the Basin Campaign. One of the most interesting contributions came from a former NZTA manager who had resigned in protest over NZTA’s Expressway plans. I asked her what NZTA hated most, and the answer was: bad publicity. Every critical media release, every Letter to the Editor slamming their plans and calling attention to their bad faith, is something NZTA’s managers have to explain away to their bosses and to the Minister.
So the takeaway message here is: keep the bad news coming for NZTA. Keep writing letters to the paper. Keep commenting on flyover-related articles on Wellington Scoop and elsewhere. Tell your MP and your councillors that you don’t want and will oppose a Basin flyover. And watch out for some major opportunities to help Save the Basin with publicity over the next few months.
Also, remember that one of the best ways you can help right now is by donating to Save the Basin. Find out how here: http://savethebasin.org.nz/donate/
Todd Litman, a transport expert visiting Wellington from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, told a recent Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Centre seminar that the Government’s Roads of National Significance plans (which include the proposed Basin Reserve flyover) are a decade too late, because car use has peaked.
As reported by Wellington Scoop, Todd Litman said:
It’s time to employ a new urban planning model – one that favours accessibility over mobility – in order to meet increased consumer demand for walking, cycling and public transport.
Todd Litman went on to make some points that all New Zealand transport planners – and political parties – should be listening to. To again quote the Wellington Scoop report:
Decline in the auto industry is due to an ageing population, increases in fuel cost, urbanization, traffic and parking congestion, roading costs, changing consumer preferences, environmental and health concerns. He cited an Economist article from 22 September 2012 that went further, showing how the next generation is less inclined to get behind the wheel, and not even learning how to drive until later in life, if at all.
“Change in consumer demands is a terrific opportunity to save money and satisfy people’s demand for walking, biking, and public transport,” he added. “Unfortunately, the planning community is not taking advantage of this. We need to expand the scope of planning objectives. Formerly, it was focused on the speed of travel. I think there are a number of other objectives.”
The full presentation and audio from Todd Litman’s presentation have now been placed online by Motu. You can access them here:
http://www.motu.org.nz/building-capacity/past_public_policy_seminars#2013
We’d like to congratulate Motu for having the foresight to organise this seminar – and thank Todd Litman for bringing a reality check to a New Zealand transport planning scene that is dominated by outdated assumptions and business-as-usual thinking.
When people hear about the 9-metre-high, 380-metre-long flyover the New Zealand Transport Agency is planning to build next to the Basin Reserve, one thing above all else comes as a surprise to them – that the proposed flyover runs only one way.
That’s right – NZTA’s proposed flyover would run from east to west – that is, from the Mt Victoria tunnel towards the National War Memorial and the new tunnel under Memorial Park.
So if people from the western suburbs try to tell you that the proposed flyover will make it easier to get to the airport, you can quickly put them right.
(Of course, even if you were travelling from east to west, the proposed flyover will only lead you to a long wait at a set of traffic lights – so it’s not like eastern suburbs residents gain anything, either.)
Want to look good, spread the “No Flyover” message and help us raise money? Then buy a “No Flyover” T-shirt (standard or Barmy Army-branded) from the Save the Basin Campaign. Or take advantage of our special offer on orders of 2 standard Ts!
Two Types of T-Shirt: Standard, and Barmy Army Souvenir
We have two types of “No Flyover” T-shirt available for sale: Standard, with the “No Flyover” image on the front, and the special Barmy Army-branded March 2013 Basin Test souvenir edition, with the Barmy Army logo and the dates of the March 2013 NZ v England Test at the Basin on the back, and the “No Flyover” logo on the front. With our “ print my logo” campaign going on, it is the perfect time to try stuff out!
Check them out:
Buy the Barmy Army Souvenir T via TradeMe
The Barmy Army Ts are also available through TradeMe. Buy them here:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=592515021
The information below relates to ordering Standard and Souvenir Ts directly from Save the Basin.
Sizes
Standard T-shirts are available in XL, L and M
Barmy Army T-shirts are available in XL and L
Please specify the size(s) you want in your order.
Making your order
Please email your order to stoptheflyover@gmail.com with the subject line “T-shirt order”.
Please specify:
Prices
Orders within NZ (prices include p&p):
Standard “No Flyover” Ts
One T-shirt: $20
Two T-shirts: $30
Barmy Army-branded “No Flyover” Ts
$24.50 per T-shirt (no volume discount)
Overseas orders
For overseas orders, send your request to stoptheflyover@gmail.com, and give your address details.A quote for the P&P will be emailed to you.
Payment
Please pay by making an online payment to Save the Basin Campaign Kiwibank account: 38-9011-0725227-01
In the reference fields, please include your name and “T Shirt”.
If you’re not able to pay online, please send a cheque to “Save the Basin Campaign” at
Save the Basin Campaign, PO Box 19-056, Courtenay Place, Wellington 6149
Important note: Orders will not be sent until payment has been received.
This is an easy way to spread the message while looking good and helping us financially. We look forwards to your order!