Road cones in Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Throughout history nations have had to deal with petty tyrannies that hurt the long-suffering public. In our case a silent but malignant force has descended on our city in the form of plastic cones accompanied by roaming foot soldiers.
I suppose that's okay, you mutter, as parking spots are painted over and parking meters extended. Any inquiry is met with the 1984 Newspeak "it's for health and safety purposes". The revenue grab that accompanies this is breathtaking.
Cones appear everywhere in Auckland like spring mushrooms, on motorways, streets, driveways, where an arrival of a fleet of cone trucks heralds non-entry unless you can produce evidence you live in the property whose driveway they are blocking, This tyranny is visited on us by Auckland Transport and selected contractors, who, not content with ruining small business all over Auckland with their uninvited changes, now inflict endless indignities on anyone with the temerity to want the independence of their own vehicle.
Aucklanders have their lives and pockets disrupted by these unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who pretend to consult the public but ignore rational suggestions. It is time they were brought to heel.
Tony Hartstone, Ponsonby.
A frequent user of Auckland's Onewa Rd, I was alarmed to read Friday's article on the proposed installing of 60-plus cameras there to catch people who don't have the required three occupants. I would have to think this is another revenue-grabbing scheme that will do nothing to improve the traffic flow.
These transit lanes create more congestion. You can travel on Onewa when the transit lanes are enforced and often see not one bus or car in the lane.
It's time to think of other solutions and not just revenue grabbing. Perhaps Harbour Bridge tolls might be a better idea, which would also help with its maintenance.
Paul Bucknell, Auckland.
Transport money wasted
Why is Auckland Transport wasting so much money in Onewa Rd? Installing 68 cameras is more a money-grabbing exercise than a traffic solution. Why are they not installing the same system Whangaparoa Rd and Pakuranga Highway have? It would be a logical solution, and less stressful for motorists and the residents near Onewa Rd.
Trish Mahon-Adams, Totara Vale.
"Avoid ED, Hospital in Code Black, Staff overrun". We have heard it all before so many times. The tragedy would be if there was a reflex pouring of more money into secondary health care. We need public health interventions to tip the pendulum towards healthier living. For example, it is estimated alcohol costs the health service $1 billion a year from violence, injuries, and alcohol-related illnesses. Meanwhile, the recommendations of experts in the alcohol field remain unimplemented.
Tweaking alcohol laws will reduce demand on our health service. There are many other examples. We have listened to public health experts re Covid. It is time we listened to them about other ways of keeping our population healthy.
Richard Hursthouse, Browns Bay.
I cringe when I read just what the "experts" are trying to foist on us to answer the question of a further Waitematā crossing. The idea of a bridge alongside the existing one solely for buses, cyclists and pedestrians is at the top end of the stupidity scale and should have been reserved for your April 1 edition. To remove about 1200 vehicles (the buses) from a daily crossing total of some 170,000 would make little or no difference, but bring never-ending joy to the cycling and walking fraternity. And all for a cost of just $4 billion! Unless Government and councils do something substantial in the next few years, the upcoming generation will face an almost insurmountable problem.
Park-and-ride facilities need to be doubled or trebled, maybe at a cost to the motorist and, feeder bus services greatly increased. And yes, the North Shore needs a rail service.
All this will cost a fortune but if Covid-19 has shown us anything, it is that money is available when a crisis hits, and a transport crisis is due to land on us. Think about this, major waterway blocked by one ship, result chaos.
This could be the same scenario on our Harbour Bridge with the same result.
Hugh Nettleton, Windsor Park.
Simon Wilson has again trotted out that old chestnut that if you build cycleways the cyclists will come. Given the tens of millions of dollars spent on them so far and the disruption for pedestrians and motorists, isn't it time AT produced statistics showing an exponential rise in the use of cycles in Auckland? As a resident of the inner city I have seen no evidence of a huge increase. Perhaps Simon is referring to the use of rented electric scooters and cycles which have certainly proliferated.
So, AT, let us know our money is being well spent before you embark on another expensive and disruptive exercise somewhere else in Auckland.
C Fraser, Freemans Bay.
Following Michael Neilson's article (March 26, NZ Herald) on drinking treated sewage, readers might be interested to know that not only Perth, Western Australia, but Dubbo in the dry Western Plains of NSW have used treated water since the days of World War II.
When my father visited his old birthplace there in the 1950s, he was given a tour of the plant and offered a drink of water; he said it was "absolutely pure and sparkling". When New Zealand starts experiencing the same water shortages as our Tasman neighbour we may be glad to look at their schemes and rethink our culturally sensitive ideas.
Lorna Clauson, Papakura.
Recent trouble in the Suez Canal coincides with Phil Goff's comments about the Ports of Auckland.
I lived in Hong Kong for over a decade. I attended the launch of a 12,000 TEU ship; a container ship that carries 12,000 containers. Ships such as these have a draft, the depth of water it needs to sail in, of about 17 metres. To sail this depth of water a channel needs to either be already available and/or be constructed and kept clear. This work creates voluminous amounts of silt and changes the waterflow of the harbour. As well, the sheer size of these modern vessels has an environmental impact, e.g. nautical noise pollution. The effects of shipping traffic and the need to dredge, constantly, lead to extensive environmental degradation and as ships get larger the effects are greater.
Channel dredging is a repetitious degradation of our beautiful harbour.
In my time in Hong Kong, the issue became critical, the harbour had become silted and polluted. The government responded — its actions restored the despoiled waterway to the "fragrant harbour" of the past.
Auckland should not "miss the boat" on this issue and act now to limit development and/or relocate the port (or some of it) before our "fragrant harbour" has a pong to it.
Mike Schmidt, Sunnyhills.
It seems people who own rental houses no longer think of these as homes for people to live in, but as businesses. Yet they consider themselves above the vicissitudes of normal businesses where if there's a downturn, the business owner has to swallow the losses and struggle to survive.
This is happening to hundreds of businesses today in New Zealand. Landlords, however, see themselves as exempt from this. If new regulations mean they will get less profit, they simply dig deeper into tenants' pockets, demanding a top-up of rent to preserve the level of profit they have become accustomed to.
Luckily for landlords, in today's market people are so desperate for housing that they will somehow pay even if it means they sink into true poverty. There seems to be no recognition that landlords have simply got lucky because they are riding the wave of a housing bubble.
Where's the kindness and the wish to help those not so lucky? I see only grab what you can even if it's grabbing from those who are already on the bottom — their tenants.
Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
A man known to the victim has been charged with assault.