Multimodal exploring around Tāmaki Makaurau
A deeper look into urbanism and transport during my latest multimodal adventures around Tāmaki Makaurau
If the name of this blog didn’t give the biggest hint, I regularly explore our cities around Aotearoa via a mix of public transport and bike. During my multimodal adventures, I document what I check out related to urbanism and transport with my multimodal exploring threads on Twitter. Today, I’m starting a series where I take a deeper look into what I find during my multimodal exploring, starting with my latest adventures from the previous weekend.
My latest adventure around Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland starts from my apartment in the city centre, along the Northwestern Path till turning off to Morningside, where we meet Aalto, an apartment complex completed in August 2023. The building contains 39 apartments with a communal space on the top floor with a rooftop terrace for residents to enjoy the views of Tāmaki Makaurau and for community building.
The building has a bike and scooter storage room for trips by bike or scooter along separated cycleways into the city centre. The complex is within walking distance of Morningside Station (where Western Line commuters will benefit from faster journeys into the city centre when the City Rail Link opens in 2026), a frequent bus corridor on New North Rd, shops along New North Rd and recreational facilities at Fowlds Park. The building has no private car parks but has a bookable car for the residents to share, enabling car-free and car-life lifestyles.
Following that, I made a crosstown trip via Balmoral Rd to Epsom with a look around Alexandra Park. Adjacent to the raceway of the same name, the development is a mixed-use neighbourhood consisting of 246 apartments, cafes, retail and a supermarket. The development is located close to bus stops on Manakau Rd for 30 (every 8 mins: 7:15 - 9 am, 15 mins: 9 am - 9 pm), the 650 (every 15 mins: 7 - 9 am, 3 pm - 6 pm, 30 mins: 9 am - 2 pm, 6 pm - 8 pm) on Green Lane West to connect to Greenlane Station and a 10-minute bike ride to the station, although the cycling environment does need improving to enable more multimodal trips to the development and the nearby Cornwall Park as the painted bike lanes on Green Lane West are too narrow.
This development is an example of how mixed-use developments can support our neighbourhoods by creating more amenities within walking distance of people’s homes (If you want to learn more about how enabling mixed-use zoning can help support our neighbourhood and reduce vehicle-kilometres travelled (VKT), free feel to read the article I wrote last year in the link below).
I headed across Green Lane West to Cornwall Park and biked to the top of Maungakiekie One Tree Hill for some gorgeous views all around Tāmaki Makaurau. Where parts of the roads were closed to cars to create more space for pedestrians and cyclists who visit the park and the summit of Maungakiekie. The park was busy full of friends and whānau celebrating events and enjoying the sun.
Leaving Cornwall Park, road space along residential streets in Greenlane has been allocated for plants and street trees to increase tree canopy, and biodiversity and reduce stormwater runoff. It also doubles as traffic calming by narrowing the streets, creating more safer streets.
Crossing over the Southern Motorway and biking through Remuera to Meadowbank, where two residential developments are under construction. The first one is Risland Meadowbank at Meadowbank Rd by St Johns/Remeura Rd intersection. The development is under construction delivering 77 apartments and 13 townhouses with amenities at the Meadowbank Village and Shopping Centre at your door. Towards east at St John's Rd, Summerset is constructing a rest home to become home to approximately 400 residents. Both of these developments are within walking distance of bus stops for the 75 (every 7 mins, 7 am - 10 am, every 15 mins, 10 am to 11:15 pm), close to Meadowbank Station and cycling connections with Te Ara ki Uta ki Tai.
Before I hopped on the train back to the city centre at Glen Innes. I checked out the progress of the cycleways on Apriama Ave and Point England Rd as part of the Links of the Glen Innes cycleway project, a series of cycleways connecting Glen Innes and its neighbouring suburbs to the town centre, train station and Te Ara ki Uta ki Tai. The shared path station next to the train station at Apriama Ave and around the bus stops at Point England Rd have been completed with a raised crossing at the Point England/Line Rd intersection also being completed. I also had a look at the new street art added to the town centre in December as part of the Bradley Lane Project.
The adventure concludes at The Strand, where the Eastern Line terminated over the weekend due to Waitematā Station being closed. Recent upgrades have been made to create a more comfortable experience for Northern Explorer and Te Huia passengers, including an indoor lounge (I wasn’t able to check this out, as it was closed). Near The Strand, I had a look at the Augustus Park apartments, which are under construction, and expected to be completed in Q2 2024. The apartment building is within a 15-minute walk to Waitematā Station, a 10-minute walk to the University of Auckland and Auckland Domain and walking distance to Parnell shops and bus stops for the Inner Link (Every 10 to 15 minutes from 6:10 am - midnight) on Parnell Rise.
