Waka Paddle to Gas Pedal - The First Century of Auckland Transport

Waka Paddle to Gas Pedal - describes the evolution of Auckland's transport systems in terms of the aspirations and activities of various businessmen, planners, engineers, and politicians between 1840 and 1940. "This book and its predecessor, Waka Paddle to Gas Pedal, is an historical narrative describing real persons and factual events that have resulted in the Auckland of today. Readers will be potentially interested in the subjects of: Transport - the books contain the history of Auckland's trams, suburban rail, buses, ferries, and of course motor vehicles, and the legislation that have governed their operation. Politics - the books contain a good deal of information about the political and funding conflicts that have existed between central government and local government; between local government entities and each other; between public and private interests. These books illustrate how these conflicts often unduly influenced the decisions that were made and resulted in today's road congestion. City Planning - the books contain information about the successes and failures of central government and city planners and include descriptions of the many disconnects between transport and land use. Suburban Rail - the City Rail Link is to be completed soon - the books provide a complete narrative of why it took so long to fund and start a project first proposed as an essential undertaking more than a century ago."--Publisher description "Describes the evolution of Auckland's transport systems in terms of the aspirations and activities of various businessmen, planners, engineers, and politicians and the ensuing success and failure of their enterprises between 1840 and 1940. The story tells of how national and local parochialism and the propensity for many Aucklanders to reap a harvest of capital gains by speculating in land have been responsible for the delay and failure of many transport initiatives. During the development of their various transport systems, there has been no lack of ambition expressed by Aucklanders struggling with the challenges of travelling and trading across their isthmus and beyond. Unfortunately for the present-day commuter and trader, and for reasons as diverse as the thousands of vehicles that now choke the City's roads, precious few ambitions were realised. This is the story of those that succeeded, but mostly of those that failed, and how. The story provides some explanation to those thousands of motorists who now crawl, seemingly to wonder, 'How did I get here?'"--Publisher description