The current pattern of development is a continuation of how Auckland was growing 50 years ago.
All transport lines (bus routes, roads, rail and motorway) converged on the CBD, which is the centre of commerce. As late at the 1950’s and 1960’s, Auckland was still spreading within the isthmus - over farmland in Mt Roskill and Glen Innes.
In the later part of the 20th century, the city began to spread outside the isthmus: from the late 1960’s onwards, the North Shore, West Auckland and Manukau started to grow quickly - creating growth areas for industry, commerce and community services outside the isthmus.
Now there are thousands of cars moving on and off the isthmus every day – over just eight roads – and the system continues to “funnel” traffic towards the CBD area and the spaghetti junction.
The system is extremely vulnerable to increasing petrol and oil prices. Ands even if it weren’t, how could we continue to grow unless we started stacking motorways on top of each other and adding more bridges?
