Full roads won’t cope with growth

The connection between population growth and traffic congestion is not population growth per se, it is adding population within an unexpanded road network, by means of infill, redevelopment, and intensification.

Let’s look at three vital data resources. Demographia’s “World Urban Areas”, for accurate data on cities’ population density. (Wikipedia’s data is useless). The TomTom Traffic Index. The UN Habitat Program report, “Streets as Public Space and Drivers of Urban Prosperity”.

The idea that cramming people in tighter = more public transport use and reduced traffic congestion, is obviously “insanity”: doing more of the same and expecting a better result next time. It does lead to “more” public transport use, but the rate is around 5 per cent increase for an added 100 per cent of population, which also means 95 per cent more cars on the same roads. Eureka!

In cities comparable to Auckland: European cities’ street and highway networks are twice as intense, and alternative transport modes have their own space — “planned in” decades ago. American cities have highway and arterial networks three to five times the capacity while their population density is less than half. Auckland’s model is Nashville not LA.

Phil Hayward, Naenae.

Election coverage

With the amount of space taken up in our media by Trump it is hard to remember we have our own election in under six months. NZ media should note that the American media’s love affair with Clinton overshadowed the candidates who would have given Trump serious opposition.

The American election is over and we have our own problems to deal with. National’s policies have worsened the housing crisis and given us failing education, health and social services. Just look at the mess they have made of our taxi services. Their free market principles and budget cuts have provided us with a lack of disabled taxis and an often unreliable service. And now they are flirting with Uber. National has proven it has no credible answers — fortunately the Labour Party has a proven track record of repairing National’s mistakes.

Their policies are well thought out and achievable and yet where are the frontpage editorials on their policies or the indepth interviews of their politicians? A few weeks ago I found an interview with Andrew Little on page A19. In eight years Key only made things worse so it’s hard to think the B team will do any better. It’s clearly time for a change of government.

Trevor Lowe, Hamilton.

Light rail to airport

Why do we focus on light rail to the airport? Main trunk services are only a few kilometres away at Manukau City. NZTA already have allowed for connection to this line in its wider transport plans. It makes sense when you also consider moving the inter-city bus terminal to Manukau City. It allows better access to tourists arriving in New Zealand or returning to the airport after travels. There aren’t many other transport options that don’t involve commuting through our already over-congested city and motorways. Surely promoting the airport connection to Manukau City would be a quick solution and less expensive. Craig Wilson, Ellerslie.

Redirecting tax cuts

For an economic growth rate well above the population growth rate, more NZ-owned wealth creation, and keeping our NZ Super entitlement age sustainable from age 65, what about converting any contemplated tax cuts into national and personal retirement wealth creation through being allocated to personal accounts within the NZ Super Fund?

This would also make the NZ Super Fund more fair, because in the case of death before a personal account has been consumed by financing its owner’s NZ Super, it would be part of its owner’s estate to benefit the next generation.

Jens Meder, Pt. Chevalier.

United States influence on NZ

As Brexit begins I can’t help thinking we should initiate divorce proceedings from USA. New Zealand would be much better off without their influence in my view. The Los Angeles model of more and more motorways and more and more cars has been a catastrophic failure in Auckland with gridlock most days. The European model of electric buses and light rail is clearly a much smarter way of moving people around any big city.

USA has brought us misery in the health sector too. Fast foods have caused nothing but obesity and rotten teeth. Asian food with a predominance of vegetables and a minimal amount of meat would be way more healthy for our population. We certainly don’t need fizzy drinks of any description. Just good old NZ bottled water will do.

With Donald Trump in denial about Global warming and taking USA backwards by promoting coal mining we would do well to distance ourselves from them on that as well. Divorce them now!

Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.

Purpose of e-cigarettes

Why are David Seymour and others endorsing electronic smoking?

Surely the whole idea of progressively raising the tax, apart from an income from excise tax on tobacco products, was to discourage smoking and encourage others not to take up smoking?

With all the years of “education” about the bad affects of smoking why is the message not getting through not to start?

Encouraging the sale of electronic cigarettes and essences that can be added to them, like nicotine, is surely only going to encourage people to take up smoking. Just like the synthetic drug fiasco.

Max Wagstaff, Glendowie.

Driver sentencing

I am appalled at the woefully inadequate sentence handed down to Tauranga woman Nicole Reynolds who killed two people and permanently injured another while driving impaired. While I understand the judge was bound by the law and Sentencing Act, in that Reynolds was sentenced for driving while impaired rather than for causing death, it is an insult to the dead, the injured man and their friends and families.

It is time to reassess the penalties relating to causing death with a vehicle, particularly when drugs, alcohol, mobile phone use or careless or dangerous driving are involved.

Sentencing which only considers the driver’s reason for impairment minimises the harm caused by their selfish choice to drive. It is pathetic that the penalty for taking two innocent lives and causing permanent injury is only three and a half years and a five-year driving ban. She should never be allowed to drive again and the penalty should be the same as for killing with any other weapon.

Fiona McAllister, Mount Maunganui.

Student cheating

If the claim that students have cheated in examinations and then been allowed to pass is proven correct, then those institutions which allow that are in effect prostituting themselves. A qualification from a place like that is not worth the paper it is printed on and furthermore, it would make New Zealand into more and more of a third world-type operation.

That is, if proven correct, but there would seem to be enough of an outcry to warrant an investigation into a practice that surely cannot be permitted here. If you cheat you should be out. Simple.

Paul Beck, West Harbour.

Public transport options

There is a simple, flexible, cheap, and rapid solution to the problem that, unlike trams or trains, offers the door-to-door transport that travellers now expect.

All that is needed is to expand the existing fleet of airport shuttles, monitor their location with GPS, and use a central computer to take bookings by smart phone or touchscreen so that it can select the shuttle that will get travellers to or from the airport with the least delay.

Such a system could be up and running within a year or two.

Trying to solve today’s problems with last century’s solutions will be enormously expensive and do little to solve the congestion problem.

Bryan Leyland, Pt Chevalier.

Revenue vs standards

I read with horror today’s story on tertiary educational institutions which I applaud you for investigating and reporting. It seems to me that corruption is not too strong a word to use here considering the allegations made by the over 1000 academic staff surveyed.

I speak as a now-retired nursing lecturer — a role I held for 30 of my 45 years in the nursing profession, the latter 15 teaching years within the tech system.

Was I surprised by the issues highlighted? No. These matters, related to income winning over standards, were starting to rear their ugly heads during my time; 1989 to 2004. But with the obvious deterioration in standards that has taken place since that time, would I now keep quiet? No way. Althea Hill, Thames Coast.