For about 70 years, governments of any colour have had absolutely no understanding of two key statements regarding infrastructure - “it will never be cheaper than now” and “too little, too late”. Two examples come to mind: the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the past and currently the new two-lane Penlink, which should be four lanes, or the very least three lanes with a dynamic lane-change facility.
Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.
House price conundrum
Why is there such support for increasing house prices? More than half of people rent and/or want to buy. They need house prices to drop.
Nick Hamilton, Remuera.
Airport traffic
Auckland Airport might have fixed some of its passenger screening and processing problems, but the arrangements for dropping off passengers at the International Terminal are the worst I have seen at any airport in the world.
With room for only 20 or so cars at most and a bottleneck at both ends, the last couple of kilometres of your journey is guaranteed to be excruciatingly slow, particularly for those in stationary taxis watching the meter going round and round.
Signs saying “Forecourt congestion - consider public parking” only add salt to the wound.
As the completion of the new parking building appears to be months if not years away, the airport needs to urgently implement a new traffic flow system to enable better access to and exit from the drop-off area, which should also be enlarged to cater for the obvious demand.
The lack of proper public transport options for our busiest airport is of course another issue.
Duncan Simpson, Hobsonville Point.
Cycleways ease congestion
Dave Miller, of Tauranga, (NZ Herald, January 5) objects to cycleways, arguing they are only for so-called cyclists, too expensive, and that the money could be spent elsewhere, like on Auckland’s underperforming sewerage system.
But why can’t we have a world-class sewerage system and great cycleways? I drive a car, and I love cycleways. Every time I see someone riding a bike, I tell myself that’s one less car between me and the next traffic light.
Dave, next time you’re in a traffic jam in the worst city in New Zealand for congestion - that’s Tauranga, according to a recent NielsenIQ poll - think of all the time you’d be saving if Tauranga had better cycleways!
Raoul Verhaegen, Waterview.
Why the delay?
Matthew Hooton (NZ Herald, January 5), commented on Labour’s habit of failing to order Covid vaccines on time. We have just now been advised that Medsafe has finally approved the latest booster, but this will not be available until next winter. Australia approved their latest XBB 1.5 booster in November and began using it in mid-December. Why the delay for us? Do we have to use all our old stock first?
Nick Nicholas, Greenlane.
Gun register hopes
Derek Cheng’s article on proposed gun law reforms (NZ Herald, January 4) raises more questions than it answers about what the Government intends.
The Act Party has made it clear they would like to gut the existing legislation, particularly the rules on military-style semi-automatic rifles (MSSAs). Although they have made statements over the last year or so, National has said very little and there has been no public debate on this issue.
Mass importation of many thousand of MSSAs into New Zealand began about 35 years ago when cheap Chinese AK 47 lookalikes flooded the market. Unfortunately, this occurred after 1983 when the Muldoon Government had ditched firearms registration so we have no accurate information about how many entered the country. Police estimate 12,000-15,000 and others suggest 50,000 or more.
Following the mosque massacres in 2019, civilian ownership and use of MSSAs was effectively banned and an amnesty resulted in 61,000 firearms being handed in to the police, including more than 10,000 MSSAs. The new firearms register has only been in place for six months and will take years to assemble a complete record of licensed users and their weapons. Hopefully it will survive.
Graeme Easte, Mount Albert.
