The Wrong Side of my Car

The blog that wants to go obsolete

23 Nov 2015

So, to “Auckland 2040” and other NIMBYs…

I see it’s fearmongering time again…

Secret housing plans for Auckland

Tens of thousands of homes in Auckland’s leafy residential suburbs are being rezoned for multiple townhouses and apartments and Auckland Council says homeowners will not be notified about the changes.

Anyone following this saga over here can probably guess who is behind that article…

Auckland 2040 and Herne Bay Residents Association co-chair Christine Cavanagh said there were serious issues of natural justice for residents of the single-house zone.

Oh, boo-hoo.

And by the way, check out the cover image of one of those other articles about this issue:

OMG! Apartments! Those are 3-storeys, right?

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5 Nov 2015

The Tow-Away sign, the measure of success in Auckland

In Auckland, the way to show you have successfully established your business, is by displaying a Tow-Away sign:

The ultimate Auckland collector’s item

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3 Nov 2015

Figuring out again how a bicycle works

Here in Auckland, riding a bicycle is a distant memory at best. Something people did once upon a time, before the industrial revolution. Or back when the animals were still speaking. Or something else long time ago.

So it’s not really surprising to see warts like this in the newspaper:

A bicycle registration system will be introduced so that future cycle lanes will be built when the fund accumulated from cyclist registrations allows for it.

That’s one David Rankin running for council. So I think he’s serious (correct me if I’m wrong). What about this idea:

Restore the access to all the volcanic peaks as it existed in 2011

Yeah sure. Anyone who has ever driven his car up one of those peaks during a sunny summer weekend knows how stupid that idea is.

But I digress. You know there’s trouble when people start talking about bicycle registration, and seriously think it’s a good idea. I guess after being on a car-only diet for too long everything starts to look like cars, and these little things about driving a car—like you need a license, a rego, etc.—just seem normal things for everyone underway on our streets.

But no, they all have a reason, specific to the fact you’re driving a car, and not a Segway or a step or a bicycle. Applying what you know about cars to other transport leads to all kinds of weird ideas.

When you realize that a bicycle is in fact not a miniature car, it’s easy to debunk these ideas.

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