For many of us in NZ, the rat race is is just to pay rent, put food on the table and maybe putting a little something away for a house deposit, knowing full well we won’t ever be able to afford a house.
How you can tell this isn’t my first cyclone (or hurricane)!
Not a bad view from the home office to wrap up a long week!
“It would be a pretty big mistake to dust off our hands and say problem solved. This is going to be an ongoing problem. Even if the issues with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz are resolved fairly quickly, oil imports will continue to be a liability for the country.”
www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...
Transportation is a network problem. More petrol cars = more congestion = more diesel consumption.
Reduce petrol demand, reduce diesel consumption, up to 35% just with better traffic flow.
Also, about 9% of the NZ personal vehicle fleet is diesel, so reducing demand would be useful.
Every effective tool for reducing fuel demand right now (free PT, cycling, EVs, lower speed limits) is a policy the NZ coalition government has spent two years dismantling.
My new piece in The Conversation on why they've gone quiet and how they get out of it.
theconversation.com/the-governme...
Not really a 1:1 comparison. Lower driving won’t all turn into PT: some trips disappear, some shift to WFH, car-pooling, walking etc. The dashboard also mixes different measures and regions. I’ve done a cleaner Auckland-only PT chart from AT’s daily data.
MBIE’s national retail fuel series was basically flat through Jan and most of Feb. Then, from 27 Feb to 27 Mar 2026, diesel rose about $1.42/L, regular petrol about 82c/L, and premium 95 about 85c/L.
This is not just a fuel-price story. It is a transport-policy story.
Couldn’t agree more! I’m a massive bike advocate and am willing to ride in traffic, but the lack of protected cycleways often makes me very hesitant to let my kids bike, especially alone.
For example, to get the belt drive I wanted (rather than a chain), I had to get the very high-end gear hub, which in turn had to be paired (per the manufacturer) with electronic shifting. I didn't really want or need either of those things.
Well, batteries are only one part of the bike, and there are more and more affordable e-bikes these days, but I get your point.
Part of the problem is that manufacturers & the bike industry keep pushing more tech on bikes, which keeps rising. Most people don't need a lot of that tech.
Hard to argue with that. We've seen what he eats...
It’s crossed my mind, but I’m not sure they would stay on. Also, I park on some pretty steep hills, I think the bike might slide with tennis balls.
I did once install tennis balls on my elderly neighbors walker and got the rubber feet in exchange.
Yeah, not cheap. But, way cheaper than an EV, especially over the 5 years I’ve had it as a car replacement.
Is sure is. It’s the only saddle I find comfortable when riding as form of transportation (ie not wearing padded bike shorts).
I've used these, and it actually comes out ot about $1.8 a pair! But I also like the crutch replacement feet. The rubber at the bottom is a bit thicker.
Either way, I spend less than $7 every two or three years...
If I want to go cheap, I get folding chair feet, but that's actually only $1.8 for a pair.
If I go fancy, I get crutch replacement feet for $7.
www.chemistwarehouse.co.nz/buy/100852/w...
People rushing to drop $50k on a new EV and commit to years of payments, insurance, registration, WOF, etc.
I'm trying to decide whether to replace the $7 kickstand feet on my "EV" or wait another month.
Cargo e-bikes would probably work for a lot more people than you'd think.
This also means if you had kids before 15 December 2025 they too will be recognized as Canadian from birth.
You can submit an application for citizenship certificate to find out for sure, it’s only $75, so worth a shot.
My understanding is that the 2009 and 2015 changes in the citizenship laws retroactively and automatically restored citizenship to people just like your grandmother, whether they were living or dead.
The the 2025 law change, you and your parent are recognized as citizens from birth.
Came here to say this! Just became a Canadian citizen (along with my dad and my kids) because my grandmother was born in Canada 110 years ago.
Bicycle Diaries is a permanent fixture on my coffee table.
On Monday, MBIE said we have 54 days of diesel cover. But only 22 days are actually on shore. The rest is on water, most outside the "EEZ", weeks away.
The headline number blends fuel that's here with fuel that isn't.
The dark bar is what matters most.
We're a week past this data now.
Coded completely in R creating about 4,500 images. Then FFMPEG to turn the images into an mp4.
Let's take a moment and appreciate how much work public transport in Auckland does every day.
Here's an animation of 5 hours of buses, trains, and ferries serving the city yesterday, with somewhere around 400,000 boards across over 5,000 bus stops, train stations, and ferry terminals.
57.7% of NZers, 2.9 million people, can reach public transport within a 10-minute walk. Auckland hits 87.8%. The govt's new fuel subsidy targets 143,000 families. Free fares could reach 20x as many. NZ has the access. What's the argument against?
This monstrosity is burning 3.5 litres of fuel per second.
Saw that. Didn't want to take credit, but if you're handing it out...
People in $90,000 utes with 80-litre fuel tanks, call me an elitist for riding a $2.5k ebike that costs $0.10 (yes, 10 CENTS) to charge...
(Photo from Reddit)
This warning in the NFP about encouraging conservation maybe a (not very good) reason: “This is only considered a practicable option when managing a long-term supply disruption where immediate stocks are not at threat (panic buying will be a likely result otherwise)”
