Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Steading it real...
Well, whaddaya know, one of the most informed commentaries on the Auckland mega-motorway proposal comes not from a planner or urban functionary, but from a novelist, CK Stead.
In the Herald he writes:
Never unwilling to make themselves ridiculous, Mayors Banks and Curtis predict land-value rises. Are we to expect real-estate advertisements reading "Come and live by the motorway"? What is most likely is the development of a wide ribbon of low-grade living and industrial degradation, a no-go zone.
Those of us who prefer to use the car (and I include myself) must be disciplined, or at least learn the facts of urban life, one of which is that if you live in a city of a million or more and insist on using your car during rush hours, you must be prepared to spend some time going nowhere.
If billions of dollars are wasted in an attempt to defeat or disprove this basic fact of modern living, the relief will be short-lived, the cost and the damage enormous, and in a very short time the problem will have re-created itself.
[...]
It has recognised that motorways solve nothing and that there are values and qualities to be preserved for the future. Vancouver has spent money on public transport, including its excellent skytrain services, and is reaping the benefits.
To the south is Los Angeles which preserves a few havens of comfort and beauty for the rich (Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air) and is otherwise a network of clogged motorways, with their attendant smog, low-grade commerce, dingy housing and industrial wastelands.
These are the futures Auckland must choose between. Our two mayors are pointing us in the wrong direction.
Lots of good points there. The first one is incontrovertibly true: no matter how large and expensive the new eastern expressway, the problem of congestion will recreate itself, and the expressway will become a parking lot.
It is true that Vancouver lacks motorways as Aucklanders know them. There is one real highway, and it doesn't go downtown, or even that close to it really. There are a number of other roads that are called highways, but have traffic lights every couple of hundred metres, and speed limits of 60-80kph. And what do we see along these "highways": strip malls, marginal industry, redundant warehousing, abandoned offices, etc.: precisely the "low-grade commerce" that CK Stead talks about. Can't think of a better description for it.
I will say however that Vancouver's Skytrain is hardly a panacea. For a start it covers only a small proportion of the total urban area. Secondly, it takes a long time to get anywhere on it. For example, I live 8 minutes walk from a Skytrain station, but it would still be a lot quicker for me to drive to my usual destinations than to take the Skytrain, notwithstanding the absence of motorways. Not owning a car precludes this possibility. Then there's the freak show aspect of public transit, which reaches its zenith in Vancouver.
p.s. anyone know if Fleming dropped any more catches?
In the Herald he writes:
Never unwilling to make themselves ridiculous, Mayors Banks and Curtis predict land-value rises. Are we to expect real-estate advertisements reading "Come and live by the motorway"? What is most likely is the development of a wide ribbon of low-grade living and industrial degradation, a no-go zone.
Those of us who prefer to use the car (and I include myself) must be disciplined, or at least learn the facts of urban life, one of which is that if you live in a city of a million or more and insist on using your car during rush hours, you must be prepared to spend some time going nowhere.
If billions of dollars are wasted in an attempt to defeat or disprove this basic fact of modern living, the relief will be short-lived, the cost and the damage enormous, and in a very short time the problem will have re-created itself.
[...]
It has recognised that motorways solve nothing and that there are values and qualities to be preserved for the future. Vancouver has spent money on public transport, including its excellent skytrain services, and is reaping the benefits.
To the south is Los Angeles which preserves a few havens of comfort and beauty for the rich (Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air) and is otherwise a network of clogged motorways, with their attendant smog, low-grade commerce, dingy housing and industrial wastelands.
These are the futures Auckland must choose between. Our two mayors are pointing us in the wrong direction.
Lots of good points there. The first one is incontrovertibly true: no matter how large and expensive the new eastern expressway, the problem of congestion will recreate itself, and the expressway will become a parking lot.
It is true that Vancouver lacks motorways as Aucklanders know them. There is one real highway, and it doesn't go downtown, or even that close to it really. There are a number of other roads that are called highways, but have traffic lights every couple of hundred metres, and speed limits of 60-80kph. And what do we see along these "highways": strip malls, marginal industry, redundant warehousing, abandoned offices, etc.: precisely the "low-grade commerce" that CK Stead talks about. Can't think of a better description for it.
I will say however that Vancouver's Skytrain is hardly a panacea. For a start it covers only a small proportion of the total urban area. Secondly, it takes a long time to get anywhere on it. For example, I live 8 minutes walk from a Skytrain station, but it would still be a lot quicker for me to drive to my usual destinations than to take the Skytrain, notwithstanding the absence of motorways. Not owning a car precludes this possibility. Then there's the freak show aspect of public transit, which reaches its zenith in Vancouver.
p.s. anyone know if Fleming dropped any more catches?
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