One Lane Bridge
Welcome to my new blog, ‘One Lane Bridge.’ I’ve been wanting to spend some time doing a wider range of writing, and as there has been some interest in the past on content I’ve posted on premier social networking site LinkedIn as well as Twitter, I figured I’d give this format a try.
Essentially, I’m keen to do something longer form, but of the kind of fun content that Twitter is good for, and I prefer to keep LinkedIn more professional and limited to stuff where I broadly know what I’m talking about (never a requirement for Twitter). In terms of content, for those that follow me on Twitter (and I’m deeply sorry if that is the case) you’ll have a reasonable idea of the sort of stuff I’ll write about here: housing, infrastructure, economics, finance, public policy, outdoors stuff, parenting. I’m even hoping to do a bit of humor writing at some stage. So essentially: too long for Twitter, too interesting for LinkedIn.
The Title
Why ‘One Lane Bridge?’ Well, the humble one-lane bridge speaks to me on two levels, which I think map reasonably well to the kind of writing I hope to do here. As a sort of infrastructure guy, I am a sucker for a no-build or low-build solution. I love a bit of pragmatism in thinking about how and what we build. I can’t help but feel that the one lane bridge represents a type of intuitive practicality and economy in building infrastructure in New Zealand that has been lost. This isn’t to view the past in an excessively rose-tinted manner. Many of these bridges were built around the same time we were off building hydro projects that were hardly minimum viable products. But in a world where ‘do it once, do it right’ has become a truism, we can forget that sometimes good enough is good enough. I don’t think there is any more clear illustration of this than a one lane bridge, where there is an extremely presenting service level trade-off and yet some sensible persons said, ‘yeah, that’s probably fine.’
Secondly, like many others, one lane bridges for me evoke adventures in the open spaces of New Zealand. Originally that was with a group of five of us from university that came to New Zealand for a year when I was 23. Now it’s more frequently with my wife and kids. It speaks to the more personal and sometimes family-oriented side of what I may write about. I get satisfaction out of lots aspects of being a father, and enjoy the walks to school, youth football and reading stories. But an outsized portion of the richest and most treasured memories I have with my family are being out in the quiet places of New Zealand, often pausing to wait for another car to pass through a one lane bridge on the way there.
I hope you enjoy the blog.