The warm fuzzy more genial (guinea pig?!) message:
At Facebook:
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At Facebook:
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 ODT: On the buses over Easter weekend
Heritage buses will be back on the road over Easter weekend, providing public transport over the public holiday. Otago Heritage Bus Society treasurer/secretary Jacqui Hellyer said Dunedinites could ride the buses, which serviced St Kilda, St Clair, the Octagon, Brockville, Halfway Bush and Normanby, for a gold coin donation on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The services would run hourly and the timetable would be available on the Otago Heritage Bus Society’s Facebook page, Ms Hellyer said. Passengers could take service dogs or pet dogs on a leash.
The St Kilda service had stayed like its former route – to Brockville then Halfway Bush – and the other services took the routes used on non-public holidays, she said.
The Otago Regional Council, in a statement published on its website, said there would be no bus services on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. However, the standard Saturday timetable would apply on Saturday, and Easter Monday would run on the public holiday timetable. Normal services would resume on Tuesday.
### ODT Online Mon, 27 Mar 2017 Delay in approving pool site irks trust
By John Lewis
The Taieri Community Facilities Trust has made a decision on the preferred site for the new Mosgiel pool, but will have to wait another two weeks before it is considered by the Dunedin City Council …. [Trust chairwoman Irene Mosley] said the trust voted about 10 days ago to ask the DCC to go with an amended Site A, which was near the existing pool. “The trust had 447 responses; 52% were for Site B (Memorial Gardens), and 40% were for Site A …. However, once the comments were taken into consideration, along with the actual votes, the trust discovered that many of those in favour of Site B were in favour because of concerns about the existing pool being closed during the new pool build, potential parking issues and road safety concerns at the proposed entrance off Gordon Rd. The trust believes by locating the new pool further into the existing caravan park, and moving the park towards the Reid Ave side of the fields, these concerns can be mitigated.” Read more
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Old footage / older survey:
Channel 39 Published on Aug 13, 2015 Proposed Mosgiel pool site submissions being analysed
More than three hundred public submissions on the proposed Mosgiel pool site are being analysed. The city council’s earmarked four possible locations for a new swimming complex. And a clash with existing assets is upsetting some residents.
“It’s horrific. What’s meant to be a festive and family time have been completely shattered by these accidents.” –Greally
### NZ Herald 6:21 AM Wednesday Jan 4, 2017 Holiday road toll ends, 19 dead
Nineteen people lost their lives on New Zealand roads over the Christmas and New Year period. The youngest victim was 2-years-old. The official holiday road toll ended at 6am today. It began on Friday, December 23. Last year’s holiday road toll saw 12 people killed on New Zealand roads, with 71 people seriously injured and 296 minor injuries, according to the Ministry of Transport. […] National road policing manager Steve Greally said earlier the high number of deaths was disappointing and devastating for families. Read more
Published on Dec 13, 2016 Meet the Blind Man Who Convinced Google Its Self-Driving Car Is Finally Ready | WIRED
Google is getting serious about self-driving cars. So serious that it put a legally blind man in one that drove him around safely on his own. The successful trip means that the tech giant can now launch its own self-driving car company, which it’s calling Waymo.
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Consumers will probably get their first taste of automated driving in the backseat of a robo-taxi.
### bloomberg.com 3 Jan 2017 1:01 p.m. NZDT It’s Aye, Robot, as Driverless Cars Finally Steer Near Showrooms
By Keith Naughton and Mark Bergen
● 140 CES exhibitors from Google to Audi seek auto-tech buyers
● Autonomy is ‘next major battlefield’ for global automakers
Car electronics supplier Delphi Automotive Plc went coast-to-coast in 2015 in a self-driving Audi Q5 sport-utility vehicle to prove the autonomous automobile had arrived. Now, Delphi is shifting from stunts to selling. In Las Vegas this week at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, the company will give test rides to hundreds of potential customers in driverless Audis over a course of rugged terrain and tunnels. The goal: to walk away from this critical conclave with a handful of hot prospects for its self-driving system. “The last two years at CES have been more about just showcasing the technology and saying, ‘Look what it can do,'” said Glen De Vos, Delphi’s vice president of advanced engineering. “This year, the discussion is all about the path to production.” Self-driving cars are finally making the leap from the lab to the showroom. Tesla Motors Inc., BMW, Ford Motor Co. and Volvo Cars have all promised to have fully autonomous cars on the road within five years. Alphabet Inc. just spun off its Google Self-Driving Car Project, renaming it Waymo, and then promptly unveiled its driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivan and said it’s in discussions to put its technology into Honda Motor Co. models. When CES officially opens Jan. 5, the talk won’t be about proving technology — it will be about selling to automakers, ride-hailing companies, transit services and, ultimately, consumers.
At a show once known for mobile phones and video games, vehicle technology will cover an exhibit space the size of four football fields, some 21 percent more than last year. Some 138 auto-tech exhibitors will all be seeking a piece of the autonomy business that Boston Consulting Group says will increase to $42 billion by 2025 and account for a quarter of global sales by 2035. And since it takes about four years to bring a car to market, now is the time to cut deals with suppliers and tech partners to outfit models with self-driving systems that will debut early next decade. Read more
█ For a QuickTake on issues surrounding driverless cars, click here.
Lee Vandervis was very impressive at the transport strategy hearing on Monday. Lee challenged all the ridiculous assumptions that the strategy is based on. He did this using factual well researched arguments. Council staff were forced to back down on many points because there was no factual basis for their conclusions. Lee’s performance was remarkable because there was one of him against 4 Councillors and the Transport Planning/City Development staff who had a whole weekend to find ways to respond to Lee’s challenges. Although Lee helped to make some improvements to the strategy, the thing is still deeply flawed and will be harmful for Dunedin if it is accepted by the whole Council.
The Network Operating Plan (fig. 24) has been kept quiet by the DCC and the ODT. The plan is to make a big chunk of the CBD either car-less or mostly car-less. The methods of hindering motor vehicles haven’t been described but will be achieved with total bans from some streets as well as removing parking and restrictions on turning and entry. Another plan is to fiddle with the timing of traffic lights so as to cause intolerable delays to motorists. Have a look to see which streets are affected. While in their vision they see hoards of cyclists and pedestrians, more likely the CBD will become empty and turned into an economic dead-zone. The Network Operating Plan and the rest of the Transport Strategy are among the biggest threats that Dunedin faces.
Figure 24. Draft Network Operating Plan for the central city
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Email received.
Tuesday, September 03, 2013 11:05 PM
—— Forwarded Message From: Lee Vandervis Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 09:06:00 +1200 To: Wendy Collard, Sarah Connolly, Emerson Yeoman, Sue Bidrose, Sandy Graham, Paul Orders Cc: Kate Wilson, Andrew Noone, Jinty MacTavish, Teresa Stevenson Conversation: Draft Transport Strategy Hearing additional data requested. Subject: Re: Draft Transport Strategy Hearing additional data requested.
Ta Wendy,
Questions as follows:
Can I see Data to justify claims of:
1 – significant car ownership increase in the last 15 years/many Dunedin households now do not have access to a car. [A graph would be ideal]
2 – reduced fatalities and serious accidents [increasing safety] when transferring from automobile to pedestrian and cycling modes of transport [Elvik’s opinion on safety in numbers is not data and suggests only possibility with very large numbers of transfer not possible in a hilly city]
3 – increasing fossil fuel prices since 1974 “rising fuel costs” “Rising fuel prices are likely to lead to changes not only in travel behaviour and people’s choice of transport mode” “Assumption 1: The cost of fuel will continue to increase”
4 – increasing fuel efficiency of cars since 1974
5 – “much of car travel in Dunedin [or anywhere else] is non-essential”
6 – “other options are available for most trips”
7 – “deaths/serious injury of vulnerable road users [cyclists pedestrians] around schools” and “Safety problems at the school gate” “The research highlights that the transitory nature of traffic around schools has tended to hide the risks this situation presents to all users, but especially to children.”
8 – “poor provision for other modes and little congestion has led to high crash rates”
9 – “In part due to wide, high-speed urban street environments (such as the one-way system, Andersons Bay Road, Princes Street, and Hillside Road) and poor provision for other modes (such as buses, walking and cycling), road safety has suffered in Dunedin”
10 – “provision for private motor vehicles has also meant amenity, pedestrian connectivity and, in some instances, surrounding land use value has suffered”
11 – “Demand for cheap, convenient, and consistent on and off-street parking availability is no longer a realistic expectation with Dunedin’s modern high level of car use”
12 – “despite the fact that many children would prefer to cycle, scooter or walk to school”
13 – “it appears the cost of transport fuel will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. This is already having an effect on the way people are choosing to travel.”?
If reliable supporting data is not available, then these unsubstantiated claims and resultant aim to spend $47 million on cycling infrastructure should be removed from the Draft.
Kind regards,
Lee
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On 30/08/13 5:44 PM, “Wendy Collard” wrote:
Hi Lee
The deliberations have now finished. Kate has asked if you could please have the questions that you require to be answered be [sic] to staff by 12 noon on Sunday.
The hearing is going to carry on at 1pm on Monday as Public Forum has now been cancelled.
Regards
Wendy Collard
Governance Support Officer
Dunedin City Council
50 The Octagon, Dunedin; PO Box 5045, Moray Place, Dunedin 9058, New Zealand
Telephone: 03 474 3374, Fax: 03 474 3594
With your discussion of the alignment I hope you’ll also take the time to read the article above on the Anzac Avenue trees. The alignment construction looks as though it has severely affected a critical area of the city’s landscape heritage which is linked to the work of prominent architect Edmund Anscombe.
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Images supplied by Anonymous*
The image dates relate to Google Earth snapshots: 2005 January, 2006 March, 2009 July, 2011 January, and 2011 September. 2004 is available but heavy cloud cover obscures the view.
SH88 – Google Earth images including the quarry and Logan Park sports field.
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SH88 – The same images cropped to SH88 entry and exit points.
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SH88 – The Google Maps image which marks the road.
*Several contributors at this website use the title Anonymous.
What if? Dunedin... 