Thank you! The hunt continues then, I suppose.
I tried digging through the legislation to find the moment when it was decided which councils would be merged, but I only found the Orders in Council actually creating the new councils, not any discussion about which they'd be.
I haven't. There's a copy in the library I can get but if you're curious enough to have a look that would save me a trip.
Today I have become fascinated about the reasons why the Kawerau borough was not amalgamated into the WhakatΔne district in 1989. All attempts at finding reasoning from the time have failed and so I turn to bluesky for any recommendations.
Listening to Dark Side of the Moon with genuine moon mission audio behind it is absolutely peak
or maybe another version is if you're an unhappy National voter you either think the government is too shit (so you go to Labour) or you think it's not shit enough (so you got to ACT/NZF) but if you're an unhappy ACT/NZF you probably already think it's not shit enough so you stay where you are
my guess is that they're perceived to have delivered on promised to their voters (though what? stirring up shit?) and their voters are hardly going to switch to National so they haven't really got anywhere to go. National voters have got plenty of parties to go to so National's losing the most
I am, of course, typing this from my phone while at home, but that's because bluesky is confined to my phone to discourage me from using it when I'm meant to be working.
My desktop computer is a laptop (though usually plugged into a second monitor, keyboard and mouse) but I'm definitely a "anything proper happens on the big screen" person. It'd be fair to say I use my phone a lot but if it doesn't have to happen while I'm out, it happens on the proper computer.
bike brain is feeling like walking downhill is a chore because normally I'd just let gravity take me
One of my favourite bad habits is suddenly remembering all the important things I need to talk to someone about after a long conversation talking about relatively unimportant things when I'm saying goodbye because I start thinking about future reasons I'll see them.
imo a huge strength with the current train timetable is that (at least during the peak) we run trains as frequently as we can in both directions, as equally spaced apart as we can and they stop at every station. What if that was the goal for the CRL timetable?
Stopping at every station is an interesting one, because most of the time you'd rather your train skipped every station you don't need.
But every train that skips a station cuts freq (and adds to wait time) for passengers at that station for marginal gains for passengers from where it stops.
As frequently as possible I think is obvious - more trains = good. Equally spaced apart is the important second component to this. What matters to the passenger is not "how many trains per hour?" but "how long do I have to wait for my train?".
imo a huge strength with the current train timetable is that (at least during the peak) we run trains as frequently as we can in both directions, as equally spaced apart as we can and they stop at every station. What if that was the goal for the CRL timetable?
And on average it's an improvement in frequency* and the largest gap (12 mins) is no longer that it currently is, but it's hardly the transformative change we're after.
*depending on which station you're at, those extra trains are limited stops in different ways
...gaps between trains are either 3, 6, 9 or 12 minutes depending on where you are in the hour. It gets worse (the colours) but you can read the GA post for that.
The result is a timetable that seemingly makes no sense from a passenger's perspective.
A graph showing the departures from Papakura station between 7am and 8am in the current timetable and the CRL timetable as tested. The curren timetable has 6 trains in the hour spread out quite evenly. It's every 10 minutes but two trains an hour are shifted 2 minutes later to make room for freight trains. The CRL timetable has 8 trains in the hour but the gaps vary wildly, with gaps of 6 minutes, 9 minutes, 3 minutes, and 12 minutes.
The worst example identified is Papakura. The current timetable isn't quite perfect (10 min apart with two trains every hour shifted by 2 mins to make room for freight) but the CRL timetable is all over the place. Deep down there's a regular every 15 mins service, but the trains overlaid mean the...
Every running pattern and this timetable seems like it's been built by filling in gaps until they've used up all the capacity rather working backwards from thinking about how passengers will use the line and what the best timetable might look like.
"This is a classic sign that the timetable has been designed to achieve some modelled average frequency (e.g. we just need to run X number of trains to meet a set level of capacity), and that no thought has been put into meeting the needs of the actual passengers who will be using it."
Today's Greater Auckland post really gets at the core of the problem with every official post-CRL running pattern I've seen.
Full quote in the reply but I think the problem boils down to drawing with crayons on a map rather than understanding how people use trains.
Desiring a single year long timezone and mindful of disagreements about whether permant daylight time or permanent standard time is better, I offer the following compromise: the entire country adopts Chatham Islands standard time (UTC+12:45) year round.
I'll have to check this out, sounds like exactly the sort of thing I'd enjoy watching. And bikes, too!
I quite like my bike but it's coming up on time to replace it and I've been thinking about getting an ebike anyway so I'm looking at buying an ebike along the same lines to do the same things (commuting, shopping, longer rides for fun) with it.
- easy to maintain because it's all normal parts, had it for 10+ years and I've replaced several parts without difficulty
- good range of gears, has way more gears than I need (24) but I do make use of both extremes. Haven't got the faintest idea what's important with gears on an ebike
My bike parked on the side of a foopath with green grass, green trees, blue sea and huge blue sky in the background. It's a hybrid bike with 700c wheels. It has pannier bags on a rack over the rear wheel and a pink drink bottle in a holder on the frame.
Things I like about my current (acoustic) bike:
- looks cool
- being able to lift it easily, it's hardly light (about 15kg unladen) but I can carry it up stairs without much difficulty, ebike obviously heavier but manoeuvrability is a plus
- big, I'm not especially tall but I like a bigger bike
What suggestions do people have for ebikes for commuting? Ideal price circa $3k but I could be talked into spending more if strongly recommended. And not in a hurry to buy anything/don't mind waiting for something to come from overseas.
I think the difference between him and Key is so instructive. There are plenty of differences between the two but Key was given just enough time to pick up some political skills and the fact Luxon didn't get that time has shown every single day of the last 4 years.
I suppose I should really just accept it as autumn weather but I quite like the very late summer towards the end of February and for most of March where we get cold mornings and still hot dry afternoons before it really starts to deteriorate.
I love bonus summer (i.e. most of March)
I figured this one out from context rather than recognising it, but I was still right.