My Account
As the region rapidly expands and new subdivisions seem to pop up almost weekly, one of the main concerns regularly voiced by local residents is over infrastructure.
Will there be adequate wastewater provision? Are there enough parks and play areas? And how will our already congested and often poorly maintained roads cope?
While it can’t answer everything, Auckland Transport (AT) is hoping it can at least help to address roading – as well as footpath, cycling and public transport – issues via Future Connect, a new interactive long-term planning tool.
The online mapping portal contains a mass of data from a diverse range of sources to investigate and analyse where problems are that need addressing, via a series of maps identifying traffic patterns, safety issues, and so on.
Although it was first set up in 2021, it’s only now, with its latest update, that AT is “going public” with Future Connect, including presentations to local board members and staff.
AT’s group manager for network, planning and policy, Andrew McGill, told a Rodney Local Board workshop last month that it could be useful when members were deciding where and how to spend their transport targeted rate, for example.
He said it mapped the most important network links for all transport modes, or Strategic Networks, and included a transport system analysis, which identified “issues and opportunities” expected over the next 10 years, as well as focus areas that already faced many issues.
“Future Connect collects a lot of data to identify where networks are not performing as they should, and where there are opportunities to improve them,” he said. “So for instance, we have data about where roads are carrying more cars than they were designed for, where the roads are where buses are getting stuck in traffic, and where the roads are with no footpaths for pedestrians, even though there should be lots of people walking down that street.
“So we’re able to spatially analyse those and put them in a hierarchy in terms of importance.”
McGill did admit that there was something of an urban bias in the information currently available and, like many such systems, it was only as good as the data it was based on. However, board chair Brent Bailey said it was still welcome.
“This is an awesome piece of work,” he said. “I’ve been sitting here for a while now and we haven’t seen any evidence that this kind of thing’s been going on.
“We observe the problems, like the lack of footpaths and crossings and congestion, and feel nobody’s listening. The fact that behind the scenes someone’s been toiling away on this is just marvellous.”
McGill said the various maps on the Future Connect portal aligned with existing plans, such as the regional public transport plan, and helped to inform the Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP).
“Within Future Connect, we don’t think about solutions to the problems, we use evidence to find problems and then other people in the organisation pick that up and start thinking about the right solutions to those problems,” he said.
“It will be updated every three years in advance of RLTP to help inform their investment prioritisation programme.”
He added that the Future Connect team was constantly trying to expand and incorporate the range of data it could use, such as a current attempt to capture ACC and hospital data on injuries on roads and footpaths.
He urged board members to familiarise themselves with the interactive mapping portal so they could let people know about the tool.
Future Connect can be explored at https://at.govt.nz/futureconnect
