Annals of Motordom – 58

An occasional update on items from Motordom – the world of auto dominance

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SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS IN NEW ZEALAND

Not this:

The Government will increase petrol tax by three cents a litre each July 1 for the next three years.  Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said road user charges would also be increased by an equivalent amount.

This:

He said the increases were required to deliver the “Roads of National Significance” programme and other roading projects to the timeline set out in the Government’s land transport funding policy.

And this:

(Auckland Mayor) Len Brown issued a statement claiming a study commissioned by Auckland Transport, released today, said a rail link was necessary to stop the transport system from crumbling under the strain of the city’s population growth.

Minutes later, (Transport Minister) Gerry Brownlee responded in a statement, saying a tunnel is not viable.

From the NZ Herald here and here.

David Pereira came across the Automotive Retailers Association (ARA) while working on the origins of automobile industry organization (established in the 1940s):

Imperial Oil built a new warehouse in early 1908. The site included the first gasoline filling station in B.C., and, in fact, in all of Canada.   It was a very primitive operation: A large storage tank filled with gasoline was fitted with a small, half inch pipe, a valve and an ordinary garden hose through which the gasoline would flow into the tank of the automobile at a cost of 20 cents per gallon.

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In the year 1955, a bronze memorial tablet was placed at the site of Imperial Oil’s warehouse, at 234 Smythe Street, where the first street curb service outlet had been established. This was the forerunner of the present day service station.  In 1920, there were only four filling stations in Vancouver, all owned by Imperial Oil. Their locations were Broadway and Granville (image, right), Cordova and Columbia, 7th and Main Street, and Smithe and Cambie.

The precise location of Canada’s first gasoline service station is a bit ambiguous judging by the article – going on the hunch that the name Smythe was at one point changed to Smithe, the site was somewhere between Homer and Cambie on Smithe.

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GUESS WHO’S TALKING ABOUT POST-MOTORDOM?

Ford.

From Better! Cities & Towns:

Ford Motor Company is — while not exactly leading the way into something different — at least recognizing that many trends are pointing in the opposite direction. Ford wrote an internal report (thank you, Adweek, for providing the link) called Looking Further With Ford: 13 Trends for 2013.

Among them, and the most powerful we think, is what Ford calls The Rise of the Intima-City. Essentially it means that people are moving back downtown for excitement, culture, community, and convenience. Suburbs, also, are recognizing this trend and building mixed-use, compact centers.

Corporations are relocating downtown because that’s where the quality workers want to live. Americans are looking toward transportation alternatives like car-share (available only in cities), transit, walking, and bicycling. Ford cites Carmel, Indiana, an Indianapolis suburb that has built a popular downtown, Zappos’s  bold project to remake downtown Las Vegas, and popular bike-sharing programs as examples.

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SPIKES IN TRAFFIC

From Per Square Mile:

Eric Fischer found this relief map depicting the predicted traffic volumes in 1944 of the “National System of Interregional Highways”, later known as the Interstate system.

Another way of looking at this might have been, where should we build new train lines in addition to the Interstates? Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

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