Bridge chaos has a solution

The chaos on the Auckland Harbour Bridge (NZ Herald, September 3) highlights the lack of resilience and forward thinking in transport planning. The incumbent mayor wants to do nothing until 2030. His main competitor has a scheme to build a double-decker bridge which will do little to improve the Auckland transport network.

The solution is simple. As soon as the CRL tunnelling machine is finished around 2023, use it to tunnel under the harbour from the bottom of Stanley St to Bayswater with a bridge or causeway to connect to SH1. A separated walkway and cycle way will connect Bayswater with the Shore path and Skypath, enabling walking and cycling from Bayswater to the CBD via the current Harbour Bridge.

This will provide an alternative to the Harbour Bridge, declutter Spaghetti Junction, enable residents in the eastern suburbs to get to North Shore and Bayswater and Takapuna residents to get to the CBD more easily.

Introduce the Supermaxx public transport proposal, providing a vastly improved network and a 30-day unlimited travel pass of $70 from Albany to Papakura or $90 from Wellsford to Waiuku and we will have a highly functioning network.

Failure to implement Supermaxx by Mayor Goff during the past three years has cost Auckland ratepayers and commuters more than $500 million in excess subsidies and fares.

Stephen Greenfield, Auckland Transport Consultancy.

Measles vaccine

One thing is for sure, measles vaccinations need to be much easier to get. You cannot get them at some 24-hour clinics and you cannot get them from any doctor if you are not registered with them. Even then, you can only get them Monday to Friday, 9am-5am and that is if you have a doctor.

This is not helpful for the many people who are not registered with a particular doctor or cannot get time off during the day. Jane Canter, Te Atatu South.

Mayoral candidates

I watched the mayoral debate with a sense of despair as I listened to the usual talk of climate change and inequality.

While these may be real concerns, they are concerns, surely, for central government and not local bodies.

I desperately wanted to hear a candidate say that they would scrap any further talk of light rail, which will only congest already congested roads.

That they would, in partnership with central government, complete the development of electric rail, by extending the existing heavy rail to Wellsford and Pukekohe, including Auckland airport and the North Shore, along dedicated rail corridors.

As well as getting cars off the roads, this would allow for the planning of satellite townships, with schools, roads, sewage, and everything else based around one integrated heavy rail network.

Of course, I was disappointed. I will have to resign myself to the reality that we have no one in central or local government, who has the vision to see what Auckland needs, and the will to make it happen. Euan Macduff, Titirangi.

Prostate treatment

Now that we are to have a dedicated cancer agency (NZ Herald, September 2), it is time to make brachytherapy for prostate cancer publicly funded.

This simple and effective treatment (implanted radiation seeds) has been available for many years for localised prostate cancer, but only to the wealthy or those who can afford the insurance that will cover it.

The current publicly funded option, beam radiation, is prolonged over several weeks at the linear accelerator centre and causes serious side effects. Brachytherapy has fewer side effects and the procedure can be completed in a few minutes in one visit. Bill Keir, Hokianga.

Competitive sport

What is sport? It’s a form of “play”, and when it starts to become competitive and serious, some young people can make the transition and some struggle to do so (NZ Herald, September 3). We need to accept that, and not force children to “like” their chosen sport. Teens are dropping out of organised sport because they identify other distractions that hold their interest more. A lot of the pressure exerted on children in sport comes from parents, seeking self -gratification through their child’s prowess. John Walsh, Green Bay.

Hydrogen challenges

It appears that Megan Woods MP is the victim of some snake oil salesman (NZ Herald, September 3).

Hydrogen is non polluting when it is used but it has many problems in its production and storage.

It needs to be made by some means, traditionally by spraying water on burning coal, does any one see an anomaly here? It can also be made by hydrolysis of water, which is not actually very efficient, and requires electricity, which could be used to power cars. Hydrogen is a light gas and needs to be cooled to about minus 250C, which is energy intensive and hard to maintain. The safety aspects of transporting are horrendous.

Hydrogen technology is incredibly undeveloped and, when I see a politician announcing an innovation as a New Zealand first, I become sceptical.

Hydrogen used to be, along with carbon monoxide, an ingredient in coal gas as reticulated in many New Zealand cities, and this 200-year-old technology is being promoted in Australia where mining and burning coal is acceptable. The concept of producing 56g of carbon dioxide to make 2g of hydrogen is wasteful. Stop being stupid with our money.

Neville Cameron, Coromandel.

Pike River

The promise by John Key regarding recovery of the bodies of the Pike River miners (NZ Herald, September 4) has been a subject of discussion going back to 2012.

Despite denials and stories, the previously unseen video played on TV3 cannot be refuted. In that interview, Key said, quote: “The first thing is I’m here to give you absolute reassurance we’re committed to getting the boys out, and nothing’s going to change that. So — when people try and tell you we’re not, they’re playing, I hate to say it, but they’re playing with your emotions.”

Unfortunately, despite his best intentions those words became embedded in the minds of the families of the miners and they will hang on to that hope. It is sincerely hoped that this reentry will have a satisfactory outcome for all. Reg Dempster, Albany.

Hong Kong

What an example of courage and informed social conscience shown in the photo you published of the peaceful protest of gasmasked St Francis’ Canossian college students in Hong Kong (NZ Herald, September 3).

When the stakes for freedom are high and the rest of the free world is turning blind eyes, those young ladies show a desire for social justice and maturity.

The refusal of an authoritarian regime to honour the provisions of the “onecountry, two-systems” accord, let alone human rights, is despicable. Hong Kong’s leader is right: she is forced to follow two masters, and not one of those is the will of a free people.

We need to show solidarity for the citizens of Hong Kong before it is too late. We also need to remind China’s politburo that when generations ditch the top-down thing and go flatting, no amount of duress will make them respect you. Or re-unify you in any meaningful way.

Steve Liddle, Napier.

Caring nurses

I am a registered nurse with 34 years’ clinical experience and responding to your correspondent Sally Shaw regarding caring nurses (NZ Herald, September 3).

To suggest that nurses trained in the hospital system, are more caring and educated than the present day tertiarytrained nurses is antiquated and lacking in any connection to reality.

Both systems have produced strong, committed nurses.

Nurses currently have never been better educated, and can and do enter all manner of postgraduate programmes.

Increasingly complex, and concentrated patient case-loads challenge present day nurses to adapt.

I work with young registered nurses. They are bright and bring a new outlook.

Real nurses and doctors take the load off each other every day, by supporting one another in a common purpose, in an environment of mutual respect.

Gordon Love, Onehunga.