On average I wait an hour to see a GP, but my prescriptions are free of charge (thank you Welsh Government).

My prescriptions cost an insignificant amount (thank you PPC).

My prescription cost zero. Thank you diabeties

One of the weirdest things I've found about having a child and there are a lot of them (weird things), is going to a retail environment, handing over a chit and then walking off with the goods. It's like being at school again, but without your parents moaning about your extras bill.

Well it's been a hectic few weeks but things are starting to settle down.

The job I last posted about vapourised just prior to signing contracts. That's a long, amusing and somewhat embarassing story that I may reveal in the future.

Anyhow I found another job almost immediately and have been busy over the last few weeks. Currently working 6 days a week and enjoying the cash that follows.

We've just found an apartment and will move in fully in the next two days. Still need to find beds, sofa and table to complete the home. It's been a nightmare finding something suitable within budget, that isn't rife with mould, next to a busy road or has the landlord living in the same building. If I stood on the roof I would be able to see some of the pitch of Eden Park, and I look forward to the next rugby season and seeing the All Blacks at home.

Something else not helping with the search for an apartment was that Lone and I work on opposite sides of the harbour, so one us will have to have an extended commute, and all things considered that will be me. However I have a few early starts and late finishes that don't mix well with the public transport, and so my next task is to find a car. Although I've driven plenty in the last 8 years, I've only owned a car for 3months of that. I'm looking forward to the joys of owning a high mileage second-hand car. Well not really, but the freedom will be nice.

Public transport in Auckland is ok in normal hours, but after considering cycling to work I found an embarassing prospect for the city. A brief summary follows.

In the 1950s an 8 car lane and 2 pedestrian path bridge across Auckland harbour was planned. The government/council decided that 6 car lanes would suffice. The bridge originally had a toll to cover the costs and this was removed in the early 80s. Within a short period the bridge was at capacity and a further 2 bolt-on car lanes were planned either side of the existing bridge. These were built to a substandard quality and needed upgrades, and yet no extra toll was introduced for this or even normal maintenance. To this day it is not possible to walk or cycle across the bridge during normal use. There is currently a plan to add a further bolt-on lane for pedestrian/cycle use, and this will be achieved by charging pedestrians and cyclists, whilst motor traffic still gets away with no further charge!

So at the moment, if you're cycling can you get a bus over the bridge? I can't think of any other bridge you can't cycle over, although I haven't travelled as far and wide as you

That's unusual, to put it mildly! The only mitigating thought I have is that many pedestrians might be tourists, and it seams reasonable to charge them more than locals going about their business.

Good luck with the new job and home

To be fair, by your description the motorists were paying a toll for 30 years.i don't know how much the tolls were and the bridge cost, but that must work out to a pretty big lump of money. And why should the motorists pay for the building of a cycle lane they won't use?

To encourage people to walk/cycle and be environmentally responsible?

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Um. Are you counting the environmental cost of building the extra two lanes onto the bridge in that calculation? The environmentally sensible thing to do would actually be to 'pinch' a couple of lanes off the existing provision (i.e. one each way). The environmental impact of repurposing two lanes would be relatively minimal and would have the added bonus of further restricting motor traffic. However in the real world, I can't imagine any local politician being willing to propose that. Nor most of the travelling population vote for it.

That or provide public transport across the harbour so they don't have to touch the bridge at all. A ferry service you could carry cycles onto maybe. I suspect a ferry service could run for many years before causing the same impact as upgrading the bridge.

To be honest, it seems to me adding cycle lanes onto the bridge is actually the least environmentally sensible solution.

At the end of the day though you have X number of people who want to get from one side of the harbour to the other. The best environmental solution would be to figure out how to make as many of them as possible not need to. But that's probably way too long term a fix for most governments to look at.

Aside from all of that, your point still doesn't explain actually why one sector of the population should be expected to pay for a project that another is going to use. Any public work should be paid for by those that are going to use it or from general taxation if it is of benefit to all. Anything else will inevitably become divisive and as a result is less likely to actually happen. I suspect, for example that few of the driving population would vote for a politician who proposed they pay for the cycle lanes, so as a result it's much less likely to actually happen. In the long term consensus works much better than dictat.

Just experienced a 3.9 earthquake. Thought the car was misfiring to start with, but it just wobbled gently for a few seconds.

Yes but the extra lanes could be used for cars if necessary or a wide load. The marginal costs for the extra lanes is minimal and many cyclists and pedestrians are also motorists.