Cycleway disruption
Although we agree cycleways are important to the city it seems Auckland Transport does not appear to care about the Aucklanders who need to use cars.
At the moment it seems roads are covered in orange cones causing traffic congestion and chaos with cars trying to make their way during peak times.
Victoria St is the latest. It has been reduced to one lane for buses and cars each way and the intersection to Halsey St is a nightmare. Could this latest interaction not have been started until the other major roads already being worked on all over the city are completed?
Cycleways are important but getting infrastructure for the city is too and the city needs all aspects to function.
Jimmi Farry, Grey Lynn.
Tourism wake-up
The coronavirus should be a wake-up call to the Government and any authority involved with our tourist industry.
New Zealand's driving tourist policy appears to be one of getting ever increasing numbers of low-paying tourists to our shores regardless of their net value to our overall economy.
Anecdotal evidence from the Central Plateau is that the wild, clean, green, natural image we once owned and which we advertise to the world is rapidly being degraded and more discerning tourists are turning elsewhere.
Surely it is time to emphasise we need to cut back on mainly lower-paying visitors driving fleets of freedom vans with zero to minimal ablution facilities and promote lesser numbers of wealthier tourists who appreciate our scenery and are prepared to pay handsomely for it.
Are we not in danger of being hypocritical by urging visitors to fly here and then rent fleets of petrol-guzzling vehicles — whilst seeking to reduce climate altering emissions?
Our roads can't cope, our scenery can't cope, our flora and our fauna can't cope.
Robert Burrow, Taupo.
Wynyard Pt building
Great, a building in the shape of a boat at Wynyard Pt. But why must commercial buildings be added so near on such a beautiful harbour?Frederick Swallow.Laws of physics Trump decries climate "prophets of doom", but can a pig-ignorant, narcissistic, vindictive climate denier change the laws of physics in time to save civilisation?
Stephanie Hawking, Oxford.
Pike River recovery
It would have made far more sense to have paid each of the 29 families a million bucks each, and left the mine sealed up.
Dave Spiers, Henderson.
Defence vehicles
So our NZDF is now trying to ditch 30 armoured vehicles which have hung like a millstone around the necks of the Government and the Defence Force since they were purchased 20 years ago.
"Not fit for purpose". Come on! Where is that Kiwi No 8 wire ingenuity? Now Winston has "scuppered" the capital gains tax and has practically ensured the next Government will be a NZ First-backed National Party Government, or a NZ First-backed Labour-National "lookalike", we should turn the LAVs over to the police as an extension of their armed patrols of the "no man's land" that lack of social equity is already creating in "Godzone".
Labour could announce the hand-over now and increase their chances in the next election by having the Prime Minister photographed in a GI Jane kit, while sitting in the turret of a new police vehicle.
Dennis Pennefather, Te Awamutu.
MMP changes
I'd like to remind your correspondent John Collinge that what he proposes regarding improvements to our MMP system was put to the previous Government — and kiboshed by the National Party.
A.J. Forster, Mt Eden.
Dutch transformation
Anyone visiting Dutch cities will be impressed by how well cycling is catered for. In fact, 25 per cent of all trips are by bike, rising to 38 per cent in Amsterdam. But this did not just happen. By the 1960s cars were taking over, with whole neighbourhoods being destroyed for roads and motorways. The road death toll in 1971 was 3300, more than 400 of which were children. People made a decision to stop becoming a car-based country. It wasn't easy, there was opposition, but clearly, as any visitor can see, the cycle advocates won and the Netherlands today is a wonderful place to walk and cycle, the safest in the world in fact.
Auckland is investing a small amount of the transport budget into cycling. We need to take the plunge, copy the Dutch and do the job properly. The benefits are widespread — health, fun, safety, as well as reduced CO2 emissions. If the Dutch can do it, surely we can too.
Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
Royal leadership
The Queen is to be admired for the way that she managed the Harry and Meghan shock decision. It was short, sharp and no argument. She displayed the sort of wisdom that comes with age and experience.H Robertson, St Heliers.Filming subsidyAmazon, which is about to start shooting The Lord of the Rings TV series here, is negotiating a government subsidy amounting to perhaps $200 million.
You report Amazon has been invited to apply for a further 5 per cent uplift which can be awarded to productions that generate a "significant economic benefit".
You cited the example of the Power Rangers production that received this extra subsidy, partly on the basis that an episode featured the baking of a pavlova.
Should Amazon be successful in seeking this extra subsidy might we expect to see Gandalf riding Phar Lap?
Jonathan Jepson, Torbay.
Doomsday Clock
The assumptions used to set the Doomsday Clock are wildly unrealistic. The scientists who set it have been predicting imminent nuclear annihilation for 73 years. But in that time not a single nuclear weapon has been used in anger.
The clock is kept moving ever closer to midnight even though nuclear war was much more likely last century.
Humans degrading our environment is a disaster in the making but there is no evidence that it will end the human race, at least not this century.
Andrew Tichbon, Greenbay.
Harry's exit
As a self-proclaimed non-royalist, I am probably the last person to put in my ten cents' worth of why I believe Harry and Meghan are doing such a courageous job in leaving all the official palaver that goes with their princely and lucrative roles.
Of course, it was Meghan who would've tipped the scales in favour of exit, but the big winner is Harry, who after losing his mother rather young, can relax a tad. Whether the tabloid press will stop following them both has to be seen, but maybe now the photographers will have to wait for days, compared to hours.
You can hear the public's outcry, now his brother William has to cut so many more more ribbons while trying to keep age-old colonialism alive.
What we all conveniently forget is the poverty and disillusion in all those colonised nations, far away from the posh British castles. Please, spare a thought for them too!
Rene Blezer, Taupo.
Waterfront plan
Not so sure I agree with the various descriptions of the LegendNZCentre proposed for Wynyard Pt. Some sort of boat? Looks more like a cockroach to me.
The design doesn't excite imagination, more like revulsion and a desire to whack it with a jandal.
Steve Horne, Raglan.
Power failure
Mayor Phil Goff is miffed because Auckland was rated only 94 in a German assessment. This from a country justly renowned for its accuracy and precision.
I wonder what the rating would have been if it were done after much of the CBD was shut down on Friday by yet another power failure? I venture to suggest it would have been somewhat caustic given a focus of their survey was transport!
After the debacle of some years ago where the failure of a transmission line shut much of central Auckland for days if not weeks you would have thought essential services would have installed disaster backup systems.
Perhaps the mayor should call in Auckland Transport executives to explain their dereliction and what they are going to do to ensure it does not happen again? Rest assured, if no action is taken it certainly will.
Rod Lyons, Muriwai.
