iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 28/09/2026

We're on a mission to map and catalog every tree in New Zealand, creating a complete digital record of its entire life. ALTO, the Aotearoa Long-term Tree Observatory, is over 6.2 millions trees strong and growing! Check out the Auckland release: alto.tfwelch.com

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 23/09/2026

I guess I misinterpreted “bike to school day.” Oh well. I had a lovely time cycling with my kid’s bike…

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 15/07/2026

Finally got to ride the new Devonport hybrid-electric ferry! I kept thinking something was wrong because it was so quiet, we never got the bone rattling revving diesel engines. But the unexpected bonus was the massive windows! I couldn’t even capture the whole window in one photo. Love it!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 01/07/2026

Nobody send me another email. I want to keep this round number! And also, there will be a long queue to get to your email...

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 18/06/2026

Sometimes you see something cool, and you want it for yourself. Inspired by Anthony Castrio's nyc-cartogram, I made an Auckland version: drop a pin and the city is redrawn by public-transport travel time instead of distance, with a couple more modes and a few extra features. warp.tfwelch.com

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 04/06/2026

I frequently read OIA requests and responses (related to transport and infrastructure) and see all kinds of things, but this (unrelated) one made me laugh. And the genuine response is just as good. "Why did someone look at my LinkedIn?" Gotta love public records!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 28/05/2026

$15b in weather losses over the past decade. Moa Point dumped 70m litres of raw sewage into Wellington Harbour. Groundwater contamination is rising. Half our rivers are unsafe to swim. Budget 2026 drops water spend from $127m (2026) → $35m (2027) → $5m/yr (2028–30). Make it make sense.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 27/05/2026

When the government releases its budget later today and undoubtedly puts more money towards roads while putting less money into public transport and no money into cycling or walking, remember that driving is the only mode of transportation that is both currently and historically falling in Auckland.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 14/05/2026

I’ve been doing it for 5 years now, but getting to work on a bike and ferry is still such an unbelievably amazing privilege. So much better than driving!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 14/05/2026

You’d think a 20% rise in cycling trips from April 2025 would be headline news. 309,197 cycle trips in April, 1.30 million YTD, and 3.48 million over the past 12 months. Amid surging fuel prices, Aucklanders are finding cheaper, healthier ways to get around. More data at: cycleway.tfwelch.com

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 14/05/2026

Dsta on cycling in Auckland: cycleway.tfwelch.com On crossing demand, NZTA argued cycling & walking across the bridge would be popular enoughthat the density of people on the bridge would be structurally unsafe. The Auckland Marathon has 800 people per 5 minutes, so more than that I guess.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 14/05/2026

A decision on Auckland’s next Waitematā Harbour crossing is expected (maybe) next month. Worth remembering: bridge traffic still hasn’t returned to its 2018 peak, and 50% of commuters now cross the harbour by bus. So why is the current process focused on more road capacity? Move people, not cars.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 10/05/2026

Most transport maps show where infrastructure is. I wanted to show what that infrastructure actually lets people reach. I’ve been building the Auckland Transport Access Atlas: an interactive map of car dependency, accessibility, equity, and planner priorities across Auckland. ataa.tfwelch.com

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 21/04/2026

It will be interesting to see where fuel prices go in the coming weeks and how closely/quickly they track crude prices. In MBIE's latest fuel stock update, on-shore diesel stock slipped below 20 days. Worth noting: retail price data is 11 days old, and fuel stock data is 6 days old.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 19/04/2026

My kids were not thrilled at school drop off this morning when the cargo bike odometer hit this number right as we parked. They suggested I should walk home so they could see the rollover to 3k after school.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 10/04/2026

How you can tell this isn’t my first cyclone (or hurricane)!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 10/04/2026

Not a bad view from the home office to wrap up a long week!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 04/04/2026

Not really a 1:1 comparison. Lower driving won’t all turn into PT: some trips disappear, some shift to WFH, car-pooling, walking etc. The dashboard also mixes different measures and regions. I’ve done a cleaner Auckland-only PT chart from AT’s daily data.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 03/04/2026

MBIE’s national retail fuel series was basically flat through Jan and most of Feb. Then, from 27 Feb to 27 Mar 2026, diesel rose about $1.42/L, regular petrol about 82c/L, and premium 95 about 85c/L. This is not just a fuel-price story. It is a transport-policy story.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 02/04/2026

Hard to argue with that. We've seen what he eats...

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 01/04/2026

People rushing to drop $50k on a new EV and commit to years of payments, insurance, registration, WOF, etc. I'm trying to decide whether to replace the $7 kickstand feet on my "EV" or wait another month. Cargo e-bikes would probably work for a lot more people than you'd think.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 01/04/2026

Bicycle Diaries is a permanent fixture on my coffee table.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 31/03/2026

On Monday, MBIE said we have 54 days of diesel cover. But only 22 days are actually on shore. The rest is on water, most outside the "EEZ", weeks away. The headline number blends fuel that's here with fuel that isn't. The dark bar is what matters most. We're a week past this data now.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 30/03/2026

Let's take a moment and appreciate how much work public transport in Auckland does every day. Here's an animation of 5 hours of buses, trains, and ferries serving the city yesterday, with somewhere around 400,000 boards across over 5,000 bus stops, train stations, and ferry terminals.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 29/03/2026

57.7% of NZers, 2.9 million people, can reach public transport within a 10-minute walk. Auckland hits 87.8%. The govt's new fuel subsidy targets 143,000 families. Free fares could reach 20x as many. NZ has the access. What's the argument against?

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 29/03/2026

This monstrosity is burning 3.5 litres of fuel per second.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 29/03/2026

People in $90,000 utes with 80-litre fuel tanks, call me an elitist for riding a $2.5k ebike that costs $0.10 (yes, 10 CENTS) to charge... (Photo from Reddit)

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 26/03/2026

BREAKING: information now coming in that the Dutch have been hoarding the solution to the oil crisis.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 26/03/2026

Yep, back up now. But earlier today, they updated the page with 13 ships. Now were back to 2...

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 26/03/2026

Uh oh... MBIE's fuel stock update page has suddenly vanished!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 26/03/2026

While we're paying more at the pump, fuel importers are making almost nothing. MBIE's own data shows the diesel importer margin has collapsed to near zero. NZ is 100% import-dependent. When there's no margin, either prices rise (a lot) further, or supply doesn't come. There is no third option.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 25/03/2026

New MBIE data (Mar 22): in-country diesel down to 18 days, territory where the National Fuel Plan contemplates mandatory constraints. Yet we are doing nothing. Only 2 ships arriving in the next 2 weeks, 1 carries diesel. Total supply: 46.6 days, down from 52 in two weeks. Updated graphic below.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 23/03/2026

Why isn't the government even talking about the fairly easy voluntary fuel demand constraints that are laid out in the National Fuel Plan? Makes sense to start some of this now. None of this would cost anything.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 23/03/2026

Realistically, we likely have less than 3 weeks of diesel and under a month of petrol supplies in New Zealand right now. There's an additional 22 and 25 days of both fuels, respectively, on its way to us. Beyond that, who knows... We really need to be seriously talking reducing fuel demand.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 11/12/2025

How did I ever communicate before LinkedIn's "reply suggestions"...

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 30/10/2025

Happy Halloween! The scariest thing about tonight isn't the costumes, it's the road safety stats. Halloween sees a 30% spike in crashes involving people walking or cycling w/ 1/3 of these crashes between 4-8pm, peak trick-or-treating hours. Drivers: slow down tonight so everyone gets home safe.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 27/10/2025

No one send me an email! I don't want to mess up this perfect inbox number. Also, really don't send me an email. I clearly get too many!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 01/10/2025

Spotted Auckland‘s new all-electric ferry the Te Komiti, in the wild!

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 01/10/2025

Haha - well, AI is getting wierd...

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 30/09/2025

Processing connected vehicle and crash data like it's the 1970s...

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 30/09/2025

The NZ Road Safety platform has been redesigned with an improved interface. I've unified the real-time road death tracker, dashboard with current and historical data, and the calendar showing daily road fatalities since 2020. Explore the data and analysis here: nzroads.tfwelch.com

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 07/06/2025

Two orange distractions leading the news today…

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 21/05/2025

Transforming a car-dominated train station with one small project: ✓ Thousands of e-scooter/e-bike trips ✓ Hundreds of bikes parked (up from just one!) ✓ Public transport use increased ✓ 36.9 tonnes CO₂-eq emissions prevented Partnerships + community = people-first spaces

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 13/05/2025

How NOT to code in R 😬

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 12/05/2025

A graphic from AT's 2016 Auckland Cycling Account. And yet, our national government says that no one wants their rates to pay for cycling infrastructure...

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 08/05/2025

I saw a few lanes closed for resurfacing. Traffic didn’t collapse. The city kept moving. If this much road space can go unused without chaos, what else could we do with it? People and place over cars and concrete.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 30/04/2025

📊 New Zealand Road Deaths Calendar: Visualising the human cost of road crashes day by day. Each colored square = a day someone didn't make it home. Explore the interactive version: nzroads.tfwelch.com/calendar/ #RoadSafety #NZ #DataViz

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 24/04/2025

Auckland trains have been shut down 48 days in just 4 months—40% of the time. While the network upgrades continue, buses keep the city moving. Here's what 1 hour of service looks like, animated in real time.

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Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 23/04/2025

Post-holiday traffic is back, and so are the road fatalities. Be safe out there, please. nzroads.tfwelch.com

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