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By admin, on December 9th, 2008 I had resisted getting a bus-card for my Urban Express trips from work to home, largely out of protest more than anything else. I already have a “GoRider” pass from NZ Bus, which I can use for trips from home to the city or from work to the city and back. In fact, probably 90% of the routes that I would ever end up catching a bus along are operated by NZ Bus (in one of its confusingly large number of colours). However, frustratingly the 008 route from my home directly to my work isn’t operated by NZ Bus, but rather by Urban Express. Urban Express is, in all honesty, a stupidly tiny bus company that doesn’t really achieve any purpose in life other than annoy me by not being NZ Bus. Actually perhaps that’s a little harsh, as the drivers always seem reasonably friendly.
In a half-decent city, the fact that the bus I catch between home and work is operated by a different company to the one that operates most other buses wouldn’t really matter. Any sensible, half-decent city would have a ticketing system that allowed by pass to be used on any of the bus companies, and also on the trains and ferries, should I choose to do so. However, of course this is not the case in Auckland. Along with the fact that our public transport is slow, unreliable and infrequent (geez it’s a wonder anyone bothers to use it when I put it that way), as I have mentioned before the lack of integrated ticketing is a serious problem and definitely contributes to Auckland’s enormous car-dependency.
So, in order to avoid the need to forever carry change around with me for the bus, Urban Express charged me $10 for the privilege of being issued a standard card-sized piece of plastic. Hilariously enough, the “Conditions of Use” on the back of the bus pass categorically stated both “This card may only be used by the original recipient and is not transferable” (so don’t even think about paying for two fares at once with it or lending it to your friend) and “This card remains the property of Urban Express”. So effectively I’ve just paid $10 but not actually bought myself a bus card. Helpfully, point 6 on the back of the card notes that “The payment made at the time of issue, (comma there?) is a Card Issue Fee, (another comma?) and is not refundable. So basically I have paid $10 not for the card itself, but only for issuing me the card? Which furthermore I’m not actually supposed to lend anyone, and it’s not refundable either. I guess fortunately the drivers don’t seem to have read the stupid conditions of use themselves (whoever does apart from me when I’m bored) as every single morning I catch a 008 bus there are two kids who both use the same card to pay for their fares. I think the lawyers at Urban Express need to take a chill-pill.
On the bright-side I get 20c off each trip, if I top up my card in 10 ride chunks. So it’ll (only????) take 50 trips for me to get my money back. I suppose that I’ll manage that eventually. Plus it will mean I don’t have to buy quite so many Cookie Times from the dairy to get cash out for my trip.
So, a lack of integrated ticketing in Auckland totally sucks. The question remains what is being done about it. Which means we get back to ARTA, who inevitably always seem to end up with the blame for everything that’s possibly wrong with Auckland’s public transport system. A search of their website for “Integrated Ticketing” turns up the aptly named Auckland Integrated Fares System (AIFS) Programme. This provides some information on where we’re at with implementing integrated ticketing in Auckland, but also clearly outlines the frustrating lack of progress that has happened over the past decade on this issue. The page clearly outlines what the problem is:
Currently, each public transport operator has their own multi-trip and concession tickets and smartcards, which can’t be used on another operator’s service.
There are some minor exceptions to this rule, with Discovery and Get About passes able to be used on all public transport operators. But generally these passes are so supremely expensive that only about 30 monthly Discovery Passes ever sell (or something along those lines). The next bit drives me insane though:
Developing an integrated ticketing solution for the Auckland region is far from simple and has been the centre of substantial national and regional discussions for more than 10 years.
More than 10 years???? MORE THAN TEN BLOODY YEARS!!!!!!! How the hell can you “discuss” integrated ticketing for more than ten years and get absolutely nowhere? This shows utter incompetence on behalf of everyone in my opinion, and simply putting this incompetence aside by stating that “developing an integrated ticketing solution for the Auckland region is far from simple….” is utter rubbish. OK, well to be fair I am being a tad harsh on ARTA. For a start ARTA has only been around for around four years now. Secondly, up until very recently (with the passing of the Public Transport Management Amendement Act, or something along those lines) councils could ‘discuss’ integrated ticketing as much as they liked with the various bus companies, but they had absolutely no power to ensure the companies actually went with it. Each company was stupidly selfish about their own ticketing systems (without realising that they should try to grow the pie rather than just trying to keep their piece of the tiny pie) and refused to co-operate. Fortunately, with the passing of the aforementioned legislation, over the next year or so every single public transport route operated will come under the direct control of ARTA, so they will be able to make sure integrated ticketing does actually happen. But still, more than 10 years? It really does make you bang your head against a wall in frustration.
Now it seems like ARTA wishes to accomplish everything with this Integrated Fares System Programme. It will implement a new (presumably integrated) fare system for Auckland (hopefully somewhat along the lines of what I’ve suggested in previous posts on this blog) and will also introduce a “smart-card” system that uses a simple “touch-on, touch-off” technology to speed up the boarding of buses in particular. Well as long as it is properly done, this is definitely good news all round. Smart-card systems are the way of the future, and I very much enjoyed using an Oyster Card when in London. Although the technology is considered “cutting edge” in some respects, Hong Kong has now been operating its “Octopus Card” for around a decade, so it has certainly been well tested. I just do wonder how “smart” these new card will be. Will I be able to top it up online? Will I be able to use the card to buy other stuff like people do everywhere in Hong Kong? How expensive will this all be, and will it be worth it?
In some ways I wish that ARTA would just focus on implementing an integrated system using the simplest technology available (paper?) first. The smart-card system should definitely still happen, but the shift to integrated ticketing has already taken so long that I wouldn’t want that aspect of it to be held up by the costs associated with a smart-card system (such as gate-barriers at large train stations). Fortunately, it seems like something along these lines is being planned by ARTA, as the project is to be implemented in stages:
- System procurement – the smartcard Contractor to be appointed in the 4th quarter of 2008 (still waiting for the announcement though?)
- ARTA fares policy implementation – using existing technologies and systems where possible – in the 3rd quarter of 2009. (An excellent first step to make.)
- Smartcard development and implementation – the core smartcard system in operation in the 3rd quarter of 2010 (Less than 2 years away, a lot of work to be done by then I would think).
- Smartcard system enhancement – enhancements to the system completed by the end of 2011 (well… hopefully before the World Cup).
Now as long as things are still progressing as planned I’m fairly happy with this timeline. I do worry, largely because it has taken so long for this project to get where it is (which is basically nowhere) that we will just see more and more delays.
Now, if ARTA were clever they’d send every household in Auckland a free smart-card when the system is implemented. Maybe I’ll ceremoniously burn all my existing bus cards when that day comes.
By admin, on December 8th, 2008 The Auckland Regional Transportation Authority (ARTA) have some interesting transportation policy documents on their website if you look hard enough. In particular, the Passenger Transport Network Plan details how our public transport system is likely to look in 2016 and beyond. The plan cleverly looks to develop a hierarchy of transport options, crucially linked by integrated ticketing, which will hopefully happen some time before the end of the world (although judging by how it has progressed so far I wouldn’t be too hopeful). But anyway, I’m not going to moan constantly about the lack of integrated ticketing, as I’ve already done that a million times before.
So looking at the positive side of our transportation future, ARTA has divided how public transport will operate into four categories. The fourth, Targeted Services, is not particularly relevant to most of us, as it focused on the (very necessary I might add) need to provide on-call services for those who are unable to utilise normal public transport. It also includes school buses, which hopefully will be used in greater numbers in the future, rather than parents driving their kiddies to school all the time. But anyway, leaving Targeted Services aside, we are left with three levels of public transport provision: The Rapid Transit Network, the Quality Transit Network and the Local Connector Network. Instead of having all our bus, train and ferry services competing against each other to provide one-size-fits-all long-haul services, the idea of a transport hierarchy is to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of our future public transport network. My focus for today’s post is not the Rapid Transit Network (RTN), which is the train system and the Northern Busway, or the Local Connector Network (LCN), which is probably feeder buses and so forth, but rather that important one that fits between the two – the Quality Transit Network (QTN). The QTN is defined by ARTA as follows:
Fast, high frequency, and high quality transit services operating between key centres and over major corridors, providing extensive transit priority. In conjunction with the RTN it will facilitate high speed reliable access around the region through the integration of radial and cross-town services
A helpful map is included showing proposed QTN routes. It’s not that obvious in the key, but the QTN routes are shown as the green lines in the map below:
Each QTN is supposed to provide what ARTA describes as a ‘superior bus service’, whatever that actually means. Frequencies are meant to be high enough that a timetable is not needed (which to me means at worst 10 minute off-peak frequencies during the week and on Saturdays, 15 min on Sundays), the vehicles are meant to be ‘branded’, while the routes are designed to have ‘on-street running with extensive priority including bus lanes and signal priority in congested areas’. Unfortunately, page 18 of the Passenger Transport Network Plan defines frequencies high enough to not need a timetable as 10 minutes during peak hour, 20 minutes inter-peak and 30 minutes for evenings and weekends. Furthermore, there’s even a bracketed possibility that we might have 60 minute frequencies for new services and ferry services. Heck, I’m struggling to think of many bus routes that have services that BAD at the moment.
So anyway, assuming that those proposed service frequencies from ARTA are just a bad joke – and I’m possibly right in that assumption as the only ‘superior bus service’ that has been implemented so far is the successful Northern Express (which is technically an RTN, but whatever) has 10-15 minute frequencies at worst – even on a Sunday – where are the QTN services going to run, what will they be like, how will they be ‘superior’ to normal bus services? All damn good questions that I would dearly love to pose to ARTA. Anyhow, in the meanwhile here are my thoughts on what could work. I’ll focus on Central Auckland for now, as that’s the area I know best.
The above map shows seven or eight possible QTN routes, although it’s not particularly clear what happens around the Mt Wellington area. These routes are (I think) as follows:
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Great North Road. Follows the route of most West Auckland buses at the moment, but interestingly includes Great North Road to New Lynn and also the Northwest Motorway.
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Dominion Road. Possibly the most obvious QTN to implement in Auckland. Seems to end at Mt Albert Road.
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Mt Eden Road. Once again terminates at Mt Albert Road to the south.
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Manukau Road. The traditional link between the city and Onehunga.
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Mt Albert Road. The main cross-town route on the western part of the isthmus.
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Remuera Road. The main link to the eastern part of the isthmus.
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Great South Road. Interesting route as it seems to split off onto Ellerslie Panmure Highway (for east Auckland routes) but also continues further south (for south Auckland routes I presume).
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Mt Wellington Highway/Neilson Street/SE Highway. Routes that seem to be shown but it’s unclear how they’d work.
Now at the moment all of these routes are served by pretty frequent buses, except for Mt Albert Road and perhaps the variety of roads I’ve classified as “Route 8″. In particular, Great North Road and Great South Road have a very significant number of buses travelling along their inner-parts – although this is only really because there’s an enormous bunching of routes the end up fanning out throughout Waitakere and Manukau cities respectively.
I’m assuming that creating a QTN along these routes would involve simplifying the way in which bus services run – to form more of a spoke-and-hub type system. Each QTN would have an obvious ‘terminus’ at the non-CBD end of its route. Local Connector Network buses would operate from these termini, providing a wide variety of routes to service areas further out, but instead of continuing their run all the way into the city (as currently happens), passengers would transfer onto the QTN bus as the termini, and their trip would continue on this ‘superior bus service’ all the way into the city. Unlike the Local Connector Network buses, QTNs would run at higher speeds due to bus lanes and other priority measures. I’m assuming that there would be a mix of express and all-stops QTN buses, and that they would have higher than normal capacities, possibly through using modern-equivalents of the good old bendy bus.
Of course there are QTNs that operate outside the isthmus, so this would reduce the number of people needing to transfer from an LCN to a QTN. However, I still think that in order for people to not be turned off using the system by the need to transfer, high frequencies are pretty essential. If people have to wait 10 minutes for their LCN bus, then put up with 15 minutes of a windy route through the suburbs to the QTN station, they’re just not going to stand for another 10 minute wait before their QTN bus shows up. Hence further proof that the frequencies suggested by ARTA are total nonsense.
So, amid all this confusion there is an obvious conclusion to be made. The hierarchical bus network idea is a good one no doubt. The current system really doesn’t work, as the routes are too long, too indirect, too unreliable and too slow. The QTN is a critical part of fixing these problems, however it certainly seems as though a lot more thought needs to be put into ensuring that the QTN does, in fact, produce a ‘superior bus service’ as it should. If I were ARTA I would model the QTN system on Vancouver’s B-Line services, which provide a high-capacity and extremely frequent service along a few of Vancouver’s busiest routes. As I mentioned above, if users of QTN services are truly supposed to not need a timetable, then it needs to be made sure that frequencies are kept very high 24/7, not just during peak hours. Furthermore, I really like the idea of ‘branding’ a QTN route. Perhaps reserve the 100, 200, 300 etc. bus route numbers for QTN routes solely, have specific rolling stock for each of the routes (like is done for the Northern Express) and link the rolling stock clearly to the way the route is branded (for example matching the colour the buses are painted with the colour the bus shelters are painted).
In the end it must be remembered that most QTN routes are already fairly well-served by public transport – at least on the Auckland isthmus. There must be an advantage to users of the change, especially if it comes through the (potentially slight) disadvantage of requiring more people to transfer buses. Good branding and high-quality rolling stock will help, but in the end I am sure the success of failure of the QTN idea will come down to two issues: how frequent the buses are and how fast they will be able to go. I think it goes without saying that high-frequencies and bus lanes along most (ideally all) the QTN routes are essential for the plan to be successful.
By admin, on December 5th, 2008 Well maybe it appears as though my idea for reintroducing trams to central Auckland is catching on. My previous post, which I wrote back on November 12th, was that Auckland should take a look at the success of heritage tram operations in cities such as San Francisco, and perhaps consider one for here. The most obvious route to me would be Queen Street and Tamaki Drive, but also potentially turning west at the bottom of Queen Street to service the new Wynyard Quarter (Tank Farm) development.
And what do you know, today’s Herald includes an article on that very same topic. I don’t think I’m quite naive enough to truly believe that the idea is completely mine, which other people have come across and then taken onwards, but it is remarkably similar to what I came up with a few weeks ago. Some parts of the article are particularly interesting:
Consulting engineer Colin Zeff, who manages Motat’s 2km of heritage tram lines at Western Springs, confirmed his organisation’s willingness to support the proposal from its background of running an operation carrying 130,000 passengers a year.
Well that satisfies my worry that MOTAT wouldn’t be too keen on the idea. Hopefully they would have a good number of trams to get the idea up and running, with the heritage trams being complemented by more modern ones. Also:
The city council’s proposed Te Wero bridge across Viaduct Harbour would be capable of carrying power supply for the trams, and the scheme could eventually be extended along Tamaki Drive or up Queen St.
Well this is really really interesting that council seems to be having a reasonably positive response to it as well.
Cameron Pitches, from the Campaign for Better Transport has done wonders in promoting better public transportation for Auckland – and has actually had some significant wins (such as reopening the Onehunga Branch railway line… which will happen eventually). With him leading the push for the trams idea to at least be considered, it does seem like there’s a fairly decent chance that this idea will go somewhere. Eventually, I definitely agree with the herald article that the scheme could (and should) be extended up Queen Street and along Tamaki Drive. As I explained in my earlier post, trams are a far more attractive option for tourists and also people taking recreational trips. Heck, apparently 130,000 people a year ride the MOTAT tram, which doesn’t serve a purpose beyond being a tourist attraction at all. If the trams were made quick enough there is also potential for the system to be extended down Dominion Road, offering a higher-capacity public transport alternative to buses along this important route. For routes primarily designed for commuting I think a greater reliance on modern trams would be necessary though, as the older ones simply can’t carry enough people for it to be justified.
It’s certainly an interesting development, and I’ll be curious to see what more comes of this.
By admin, on December 4th, 2008 It sounds like a circus doesn’t it? Roll up! Roll up! To the motorway building bonanza! I do generally find myself losing count when I try to put together all the motorway building projects that are going on around Auckland at the moment. Well, let’s give it a go anyway:
- ALPURT B2: This is the final stage of a motorway that’s been under construction in stages for about the past 13 years. In my opinion it’s probably the most justified motorway project in Auckland at the moment, as it should help relieve (or at least, shift) one of the nastiest holiday traffic bottlenecks in the country, from Orewa to Puhoi. It’s a pretty spectacular road with viaducts and tunnels, and I think should be finished and open in just a few months.
- Mt Roksill SH20 extension: This motorway extension will probably end up being fairly useful for me, as it will bring SH20 much much closer to me, which is good if I want to get to the airport or to the south. However, it is still a motorway to nowhere in that instead of dumping all its traffic onto Hillsborough Road, it’ll dump all its traffic onto Sandringham, Maioro and Dominion roads. Plus it’s along a route that is totally un-useful for public transport so will play its part in continuing the dominance of private vehicle transport in Auckland. To open in February or April next year I think.
- Manukau Harbour Crossing Project: This is essentially the widening of SH20 from Queenstown Road to Walmsley Road. The most critical aspect of the project is the duplication of the Mangere Bridge. For some reason this project became ‘essential’ to complete before the Rugby World Cup in 2011 so the contractors are going balls out to get it done in time. Another ‘widening of the belt to allow yourself to get fatter’ project that (I know for a fact) is designed to induce private vehicle travel. Due for opening some time in early 2011 I think.
- SH20-SH1 Manukau Link. This is a relatively short extension of motorway that will link up the southern end of SH20 with the Southern Motorway. I can see a pretty good logic in this project, in that it will get the through traffic off Wiri Station Road and hopefully allow Manukau City Centre to prosper more as a result of far fewer trucks chugging through it all the time. This is a pretty expensive project for its length, as there are an enormous number of bridges and other spans to be built. All this money for the motorway but nothing to ensure the Manukau Rail Spur is built properly…. typical. I think this project is due for completion in 2010 some time.
- SH18 Hobsonville Deviation. This project has just started in the last few months, and will be a continuation of the Upper Harbour Motorway that was recently built bypassing Greenhithe. It will allow through traffic to bypass Hobsonville Road – which is one heck of an annoying arterial route. However, once again this is a project that hasn’t seemed to consider public transport at all. Perhaps a future busway from Albany to Westage could benefit from it, but I doubt the foresight is there to actually provide for this. Another auto-focused project designed to encourage car-use.
Add to this list projects that are due to be started in the near(ish) future:
- Newmarket Viaduct Replacement. This is a pretty expensive project to replace the (not particularly old) Newmarket Viaduct, a pretty damn crucial link in Auckland’s roading network. Apparently when the viaduct was built, the technology was pretty new and as a result it’s fairly sub-optimal by international standards. The replacement will add one lane for southbound traffic, but (oddly) nothing for northbound traffic. Considering how sub-standard the rail network is, this project does seem to be just another example of how easy it is to get money for motorway projects in Auckland.
- Victoria Park Tunnel. Now if there is one motorway project I do whole-heartedly support in Auckland it is this one. When the Central Motorway Junction Improvements were completed a couple of years they didn’t really fix any bottlenecks, but only shifted them – most particularly onto the 4 lane Victoria Park viaduct. The tunnel will provide three completely new lanes for northbound traffic, while all four lanes of the existing viaduct will be used for southbound vehicles. While there isn’t an immediately obvious benefit to public transport from this project, the mess the current situation creates for traffic on the Harbour Bridge does probably hold up buses to some extent. Furthermore, in the long run the Victoria Park Viaduct will eventually be completely replaced by a tunnel, and the park will finally be returned to its former glory by not having a bloody motorway cut across the middle of it.
- Waterview Connection. Ha! Now here’s the biggie. All the other projects probably have a total cost of around $2 billion. This pretty much equals the cost of the Waterview Connection by itself. While it’s great that the only option left on the table for this link is a tunnel, the cost is simply astronomical for a roading project. I will leave my analysis of what that kind of money could do for Auckland’s train network to another post, but needless to say the scale and cost of the Waterview Connection – the last link in the western ring route hooking up the end of the Mt Roskill extension with SH16 – is unprecedented for this country.
So yes, as we can see there is a motorway building bonanza going on in Auckland at the moment. In fact, there has been one going on for the past few years now. However, the only time when congestion actually decreased was when petrol prices increased. It makes one think that instead of spending billions on more motorways, perhaps the government should just tax petrol more to solve congestion.
Now there’s an interesting thought to ponder.
By admin, on December 1st, 2008 I did quite well with my posting towards the end of last week. I felt really sick on Friday but still managed to have an excellent whinge about public transport in Auckland. I guess it just goes to show that it’s pretty damn easy to moan about public transport, at least it is for me. I won’t go on too much about transport in this post as it feels like there’s plenty of other stuff for me to write, but I was once again annoyed today by Auckland’s ineptitude. Not that there were any problems with the two buses I caught today, both arrived just when needed and got me just where I wanted to go, faster than I thought they would. Sounds unbelievable, but actually true this time around. No, my annoyance comes from an ongoing battle I’m having with ARTA over the timetable at the end of our street. Having a bus timetable at the end of your street (especially when you’re only two houses back from the end of the street) is very useful, as you can pop down to the bus stop to see when the next bus is – if it’s more than a few minutes away you can head back to the house for a drink before the 30 second walk down there again. But anyway, a few weeks ago the roadworks that were happening along our street eventually led to the pole upon which the timetable was attached to being replaced. Instead of cleverly restrapping the timetable to the new pole, the contractors just dumped it in the bus stop shelter to roll around. Inevitably someone thought it’d be a funny souvenir to have (though I must admit that I’d thought about how funny it would be to have our bus timetable sitting in the kitchen, but realised how annoying this would be for everyone else) and it disappeared.
No drama I figured. I’ll email ARTA so they replace it. So I email them – and don’t get a reply for a week. So I email them again, and – ah excellent – get a response. In fact, the response says it’ll be done in the next few days. Then today I get another email saying that the work is done, in fact it was installed late last week. Sweet. The problem is that when I got today to check, there’s no timetable in sight. I suppose there’s the possibility that they did install the new timetable late last week, and someone already decided to grab it, but I reckon that’s pretty unlikely.
My email back to ARTA was nicely to the point I think:
Hi ****, whoever says that the timetable has been replaced is lying. It is not there, I checked 10 minutes ago. Could you please make sure it ACTUALLY gets replaced. Thanks.
Anyway, minor issue really. It bugged me though. It is these little things that can make a big difference to the effectiveness of a transport system. I doubt NZTA would wait weeks before replacing a motorway sign, or that council just wouldn’t get around to fixing a traffic light. But I guess anything to do with public transport gets put at the bottom of the pile. Or it ‘supposedly’ gets fixed.
So, what of the weekend? Well first things first damn it felt like summer. This is kind of ironic as on Friday I’d been moaning (through my facebook status, a useful moan outlet) that it was damn freezing and where the heck was this summer meant to be? I think now that was probably just the last remnants of my fever showing through, as I would fluctuate from being crazily hot to crazily cold every few minutes. Saturday was a generally quiet day, as I was still trying to recover from late last week, when I hadn’t been well. I still managed a few things: took Amalia to swimming, hung out at my parents’ for a while, went to playground for a while with Amalia, had dinner with Leila at Mission Bay… before eventually crashing to sleep. I also managed to read a big chunk of “Paper Towns” by John Green, although I’ll get back to that more later.
Then yesterday Leila and I went for a rather long drive. The odd thing was that it was quite unplanned, as after breakfast at a very nice Grey Lynn cafe (Occam) we just started driving. About halfway down the Southern Motorway I decided to go check out Awhitu as I remember my parents saying it was a really nice spot. I didn’t quite realise how long it would take to get there, as driving to Drury along the motorway is actually only about a third of the story. After that it’s another 30 odd kilometers to Waiuku, and then at least that amount again on to Awhitu. But it was a nice spot, so Leila and I read for a few hours – enjoying the sunshine and how much it felt like summer. I do very much enjoy just heading to some random spot around Auckland that is nicely scenic, and then just reading for a few hours. It feels peaceful, and like that’s definitely the way a good book should be enjoyed. And I was reading a good book, but once again more on books later.
We returned to civilisation via the very tip (or at least as close as we could get to it) of the Manukau Heads. It was quite spectacular scenery, and I deeply regretted not having my camera with us. The road ran along a very high ridge for most of the last leg of this drive, and the drops off each side of it were a mixture of amazing and terrifying. Amazing when it was safe for me to have a look around at the huge drops off each side of the road, terrifying when I realised how close the road went to the edge of these precipices (why can’t precipice have a better plural?) Leila did a pretty stellar job as navigator, as we wound our way from the tip of the Manukau Heads back to Waiuku, via a very interesting peek at the ocean beach (Awhitu is on the harbour side of the peninsula). There were a pile of hoons doing doughnuts on the beach, which was more funny than annoying, but it was blowing a gale (I wonder if it ever doesn’t blow a gale around there) so we eventually drove home. Snow Patrol’s new album “A Hundred Million Suns” played on the car stereo for most of the day, and was a very very good soundtrack for the day. I wonder if, over time, I will continue to associate songs from that album with our trip to Awhitu – like other albums have sometimes ended up being associated with a particular time or place.
So yes, it was good to make the most of the nice weather. Somehow I just feel more ‘alive’ when the weather is good. Not just ‘OK’, but definitely sunny enough to not bother with much more than a T shirt, sunny enough that when you head back inside you can feel the sun’s warmth on you and in you still (although hopefully not because you’ve been sunburnt). The downside was last night, when it was so damn hot and sticky that I couldn’t get to sleep forever. Though I think I was just caught up in a struggle to distinguish the reality of me trying to get to sleep from the non-reality of the book that I was reading. But yes, more about books later. Soon. Humid, sticky nights are probably my biggest annoyance about summer, but clear sunny days definitely make up for the nights.
But anyway, the books, the reading. Interestingly enough, I’m not the kind of person who reads many fiction books. I usually have one or two books on the go at any time (at least), but they’re usually a mix of cricket, trains and urban planning. Particularly this year, thanks to the awesomeness that is amazon.com, my collection of urban planning books has grown like topsy, and until recently it had kept me going with some before-bed reading pretty much ever since Leila and I got back from Europe. However, as the New Zealand dollar has gone down significantly against the US dollar in the last few weeks, Amazon isn’t really worthwhile any more, at least not as worthwhile as it used to be. Including freight, a book I bought a few weeks ago for $US 12 ended up costing something in the region of $NZ 40. And that was a pretty cheap book.
Fortunately, to help me with my “what to read” predicament, thankfully I have a girlfriend with a extraordinarily large book collection and a growing understanding of what I like and don’t like. To be fair on her, I have a growing understanding of what I like and don’t like – I’m getting there with truly understanding it myself. Weirdly, although I very rarely find myself reading fiction (only usually after I’ve exhausted all other options) I have to admit that I actually really like it. I really get into books in a way that just can’t happen with a movie or whatever other source a story is coming at you from. I can totally understand why a good number of the people I know are total book freaks, even though 95% of the time I really am not. The strange thing is that I really enjoy getting into books, feeling like I’m somewhat living them, that the distinction between my life and the lives of the characters in the books I’m reading have blurred a bit. The surreality of it all seems really nice to me, as though even while it’s making things seemingly ‘less real’, that’s somehow making my life more distinctive and more interesting.
So yeah, I think from now on I will make much more of an effort to read more fiction. Not for anyone else’s sake but my own, because I really do know that I greatly enjoy it.
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