Ending the week on good news, or “good news Friday” as it is known in some workplaces, is a welcome way to finish up a productive week.

And the good news is that the New Zealand economy is no longer in technical recession, and in fact has had more than twice as much growth as expected over the last quarter.

Stats New Zealand announced yesterday that in the December quarter our productivity grew by 0.7% – more than double the 0.3% growth expected, and turning around from a 1.1% loss in the September quarter.

While a modest amount of growth, it is at a respectable annual rate (2.8%), and leaving two previous quarters of reducing GDP in the rear-view mirror is important.

11 of the 16 industries increased this quarter – with primary production among the strongest.

The increased transport demand from this growth is already being felt, and with the sector starting to grow confidence in a recovery. As everyone in transport knows, it is the first part of the economy to feel a change in economic winds, so it is reassuring to feel the wind has switched from headwind to now being at our backs.

Early days yet, but an important sign the economy is on the right track.

Auckland Transport embraces the power of digital planning with Future Connect

Regular readers of Transport Minute will know that I’m vocal about the importance of multi-modal transport planning. Modern transport systems involve overlapping networks of motorways, arterial roads, cycle ways, freight routes and walking that interact in complex ways. Many have competing needs, and have to be carefully managed to maintain safety and efficiency, and externalities such as noise and emissions. No easy task.

So it was pleasing this week while visiting Auckland Transport to be taken through their “Future Connect” transport network plan. A publicly available online interactive mapping tool, Future Connect brings together Auckland’s strategic transport network across five different modes.

The map can be viewed as one total integrated network, or broken out into the various modes – General Traffic, Public Transport, Freight, Cycle and Mobility and Walking.

It can be viewed at the entire city level or the user can drill down into at the street level to see how the modes interact in a particular area.

A fancy digital bit of kit, but so what you might ask?

Firstly, a picture paints a thousand words as they say. Anyone that thinks transport planning across our largest city – hemmed in by two harbours – is easy, will be quickly disavowed of that misapprehension.

Future Connect allows planners to manage conflicting plans across networks at the street and suburb level, managing conflicts and identifying future opportunities, such as focus areas where network performance is not up to speed, and intermodal opportunities to get the strategic network humming.

For example, if a cycle way is being built in Favona Road, planners can quickly identify that it is also part of the strategic freight network and start managing any conflicts.

But what is really interesting is the ten-year view. Future Connect shows how networks will look in ten years’ time. Ultimately the tool is planned to show a 30-year view across the networks (as evidenced by the greyed out buttons) – music to the ears of National Road Carriers where we have been consistently calling for 50 year investment plans.

For the strategic freight network, it clearly shows more investment is needed over the next ten years to meet forecast Auckland growth.

Using tools and technology is critical to help manage large complex networks in smarter ways. And Auckland’s transport network is more challenging than most – I was told there are over 2000 projects across the transport networks underway on a typical day in Auckland. So it’s great to see the team at AT embracing digital tech to help them wrap their arms around that level of complexity to keep Auckland moving today and tomorrow.

– By Justin Tighe-Umbers, chief executive, National Road Carriers