Comments
Wellington Unite!
Claire is on the warpath once again against the Wellington City Council. Despite the lessons of cities like London (more roads = more cars), it appears another road will be built int he near future.
On a Wellington wide scale, this goes against the wishes of those who submitted their opinions and will further move us AWAY from a safe and clean city. On a personal level THEY ARE BUILDING IT RIGHT NEXT TO THE APARTMENT I WANTED TO BUY.
A note from Claire…
Despite public consultation urging against the Basin Reserve flyover, the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) has recently agreed on plans that would see construction begin in 2011/12. This would inevitably lead to increased congestion at the Mount Victoria Tunnel requiring further expensive roading projects to remedy.
Of the submissions received by the GWRC regarding the flyover, 79% did not support its construction.
Wellingtonians have been ignored.
We need YOU to show the Greater Wellington Regional Council that we have a VOICE and that their decision does not reflect OUR vision for the future.
Come DEMONSTRATE
Where: GWRC, 142 – 146 Wakefield St
When: 12:30pm, Friday 31st October
Hello, my name is Natalie, I have a business called 
October 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
> Of the submissions received by the GWRC regarding the flyover, 79%
> did not support its construction.
Hardly surprising. The vast majority, who do support improvements to infrastructure, are seldom heard from.
Fortunately the GWRC knows this.
I guess there are three basic ways to decide what and whether such projects happen:
a) a market process, in which entrepreneurs build things and make a fortune if people use them and go broke if they don’t.
b) a scientific process, in which professional experts impartially decide what is best for everyone. That would be the GWRC.
c) a political process, in which the loudest voices win.
There is something to be said for each approach, but if we’re to have c) then let’s make it a region-wide referendum so that everyone gets a say, not organised submissions and demonstrations by one faction only.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:39 am
Hi Bruce.
To say that option c is somehow unfair is totally wrong. The whole point of an open submission process is that it is OPEN. ANYONE can have their say, and if they remain silent it’s only themselves they can blame.
Yes it does tend to be those anti-whatever-it-is who are the loudest, because generally, if they don’t speak up, the plan will go ahead. Whereas supporters achieve their outcome even if they stay silent.
On the flyover issue, we’ve already had the submission process – where EVERYONE got a say, if they wanted one.
I think that it is undemocratic to rely on the idea that the council somehow ‘knows’ they have all these silent backers, which therefore makes it ok to ignore the people who actually speak up on the basis that they are (illogically) the minority!
October 31st, 2008 at 9:56 am
Easy solution, move to Churton Park where I live now. Quiet nights, warmer days and 10 minutes from Willis Street. MOst bars are staggering distance to the bus – or so my daughter tells me.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:06 am
Bruce – we are not against improvements to infrastructure, in fact some improvements would be warmly received. We are against the philosophy that a constant stream of road building projects will improve the transport network.
The construction of the bypass pushed traffic back to the basin reserve. Once they ‘fix’ the basin reserve, the traffic will be pushed back the the Mt Vic tunnel so they will then ‘fix’ that by building a 172 million dollar tunnel duplication. At this point around 205 million dollars will have been spent on roading when it is obvious to most traffic engineers these days that trying to solve traffic problems by adding capacity is like trying to fix obesity by loosening your belt.
If they were to invest this money in the ‘far too expensive option’ of light rail, which would cost around $140 million, they could target the demand side of the problem and reduce the cars on the road in the first place, taking away the neccessity to build more roads. I hate to be a spoil sport and mention climate change and peak oil, but at a time where there’s a lot of lip service being paid to these problems you’d think decisions like this at the Regional level would simply not be possible.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:39 pm
They put trams back in and make way better trains. 30 minutes to waikanae on germany-inspired S-Bahns please. That would be awesome. :D