menu_open Columnists
Timothy Welch

Timothy Welch

The Conversation

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

NZ will soon have no real interisland rail-ferry link – why are we so bad at infrastructure planning?

The Cook Strait ferry fiasco is just another symptom of a wider malaise: an inability to deliver, on time and at cost, the infrastructure that keeps...

03.07.2025 9

The Conversation

Timothy Welch

NZ cities are getting hotter: FIve things councils can do now to keep us cooler when summer comes

30.06.2025 10

Pearls and Irritations

Timothy Welch

NZ cities are getting hotter: 5 things councils can do now to keep us cooler when summer comes

Converting open-air car parks and creating green cooling corridors on transport routes is an easy and affordable way to beat the city heat as the...

30.06.2025 20

The Conversation

Timothy Welch

Making it easier to build a granny flat makes sense – but it’s no solution to a housing crisis

Rule changes to allow larger granny flats follow a well-established pattern in New Zealand: modest reforms to address big and complicated problems.

06.06.2025 30

The Conversation

Timothy Welch

False economies: the evidence shows higher speed limits don’t make financial sense

Documents show the government is going against expert advice and strong economic evidence by insisting higher speed limits will improve productivity.

03.03.2025 20

The Conversation

Timothy Welch

Winston Peters’ $100 billion infrastructure fund is the right idea. Politics-as -usual is the problem

New Zealand’s infrastructure woes are a constant political pain point. From ageing water systems to congested roads and assets increasingly...

15.10.2024 4

The Conversation

Timothy Welch

Faster is not always better: why the case for higher speed limits is fatally flawed

As the government’s plan to increase speed limits begins to roll out, a group of local and international road safety and health experts has warned...

18.09.2024 3

The Conversation

Timothy Welch

Spinning its wheels: the new national transport plan steers NZ back to a car-dependent past

The government’s new National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) could easily have been renamed the “highway funding project”, given its intense...

03.09.2024 7

The Conversation

Timothy Welch