In a traffic-choked city such as Auckland there are massive benefits to living car-free – but you need to be mindful where you rent or buy your house. Justin Hu weighs up the varying car-free (and car-lite) possibilities of the city’s suburbs.
Ditching the car in Auckland’s sprawling suburbs might seem challenging, but urban designer and young mother Emma McInnes wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’ve got an e-bike with a baby seat in front for my toddler, my partner has a cargo bike, and honestly, that’s been amazing,” she says.
The 32-year-old has lived in over a dozen places across the city, but now lives in Waterview, near Point Chevalier. She and her partner have a car, but they don’t use it often. Bike and bus are king in this household. But in a city not known for the most cycle-friendly roads or reliable public transport – how do they manage it?
The family are lucky to live near one of the city’s few lengthy cycleways, so McInnes’ seven-kilometre journey to work on Upper Queen St takes only 15-20 minutes, she explains. Otherwise, buses to the city run around every 10 minutes from a stop, near her apartment.
“In the morning, I drop my kid off at daycare and then I cycle all the way to work. Then in the afternoon, I leave work and come pick her back up again… She loves it. My daughter just sits on her bike seat and is often just like, ‘Oh, let’s go see the ducks!'”
With a daycare nearby and a short trip to the Point Chevalier shops, it’s easy to get groceries or run errands without going far afield, she says. In fact ditching car trips is mainly a practical choice for this family. The benefits of not worrying about parking, traffic or the costs of fueling up make the choice to cycle a “no-brainer”.
“It’s a pretty reliable form of transport. I know that I’m not going to get held up in congestion and it’s very rare that something goes wrong with my bike.”
She adds: “I have the car for longer trips, where I know that’s the easiest thing to use. But many times in the city, taking the car isn’t the easy option.”
McInnes is far from the only one thinking outside the car. There are obvious benefits to anyone’s bank balance, not to mention the planet. And, over the past 20 years, with the city’s motorways remaining clogged, e-bikes and e-scooters entering the market, and cycling facilities and public transport being gradually upgraded, driving to work has seen a decline.
Not all public transport routes are created equally
Some neighbourhoods are handier to public transport than others, concedes Auckland Transport network planner Pete Moth. He says key factors are accessibility to the train and the “frequent” bus network, which runs buses at least every 15 minutes, all day including weekends, enabling travellers to just jump on a bus without having to plan their lives around a timetable.
“Every 15 minutes really is the freedom to live your life. Whether you’re going to the shops, going to the hairdresser, going to see your auntie on the weekend, going to work, going to education, going to the hospital.”
The network planner says the suburbs best positioned for public transport are concentrated around the frequent bus network, which tends to be neighbourhoods in the lower North Shore and the central isthmus for the best access to the CBD. “There’s a lot of places in the central isthmus area that you could certainly live car-free,” he says. Train lines and the Northern Busway also provide good city centre access, he says.
What to consider
For this guide, car-lite or car-free living refers to the ability to easily access local amenities, such as groceries and coffee, through a quick walk or bike ride, while also having options to easily travel further afield on public transport. A combination of proximity to a local suburban centre, access to frequent bus lines, safe cycling paths, and rapid transit lines typically offer the most choices for getting around without needing to rely on a car. This guide focuses on suburbs which are best for daily commutes to the CBD.
Don’t be fooled
A lot of real estate ads or rental listings might boast of close access to a rail station, but few listings actually qualify how frequently those lines run or whether you’ll have a way to get home when the trains go down — a seemingly regular occurrence in Auckland. Buses can offer a more predictable journey, especially on higher-frequency routes with good bus lanes. For those looking at bikes and scooters, physically separated cycle lanes offer the most comfort for newer riders and those looking to have it as an option for the future.
1News has spoken with representatives from Auckland Transport and Bike Auckland to help review the places that are the most accessible by bus, train, ferry, bike or scooter.
Bad parking, easy walking: the heart of the city
Auckland’s city centre offers perhaps the ultimate walkable neighbourhood in the region. Having shed its CBD nomenclature, the city centre could be ideal for students, single professionals or couples.
A 25-minute walk can get you pretty much anywhere around town. And supermarkets, eateries and retail businesses abound.
For trips further afield, train lines converge at the downtown Britomart station, while two new underground train stations near The Civic and on Karangahape Rd are under construction, as part of the City Rail Link (CRL). Most of Auckland’s best-serviced bus lines also finish somewhere in the city centre. For cyclists, the main benefit comes from trips on the road being shorter overall. Cycleways exist for some local trips, but there are still big gaps – for example, if you’re trying to get to Newmarket or over the Harbour Bridge.
The city centre won’t be ideal for everyone. Housing options here tend to cater to smaller households, apartment living can be noisier – especially along Nelson and Hobson St – and parents with children might find themselves further from a playground or park than they’d like. Parking will also likely come at a hefty premium if you still want to keep a car around and don’t have a park in your building.
Central with trees: the city fringe
Just outside the city centre, but almost as handy, “city fringe” suburbs can often strike the sweet spot of affordability, location and CBD proximity.
Homes in these neighbourhoods will feel quieter and more suburban, with a greater mix of detached houses. There’s also still a mix of townhouses and apartment options.
Newmarket and Ponsonby are the larger centres, followed by Parnell and Eden Terrace, and all have a good selection of pubs, dairies, and other amenities. All of them, except Parnell, have a supermarket in the neighbourhood.
Walking to the city from here will take longer, but can still be a viable option depending on where exactly you’re commuting to. Cycling paths are surprisingly poor around these suburbs, though the distance on the road will still be short if you’re headed to the city.
As for public transport, this can surprisingly vary a bit across these suburbs. By the nature of where they are, Newmarket and Eden Terrace are intercepted by an army of frequent buses. Meanwhile, Ponsonby and Parnell can feel dependent on the often unreliable Link buses (fixes to the yellow Outer Link bus are being rolled out in November). Arch Hill, the southern part of Grey Lynn, also offers very good access to frequent buses heading into the city and has a cycleway connecting it with Karangahape Rd under construction.
For train travel, Newmarket and Parnell enjoy the advantage of being situated on the Southern train line, but with the former receiving more train services. In Eden Terrace, the new Maungawhau station is currently under construction and expected to open along with other new CRL stations in 2026.
Edging towards the east
What counts as a suburb in Auckland has always been a hazy question. Within the central isthmus, the area around Mt Eden and Balmoral — concentrated around the northern end of Dominion Rd is another great suburb, if you could call it that, for car-lite living.
It’ll come as no surprise to Aucklanders that the north-south street is a foodie’s paradise, but less known might be its impressive buses. The 25 bus line runs every five minutes all day on weekdays and more frequently at peak. Further north, you’re within walking distance of Kingsland and Eden Park, though probably too far to walk to the CBD. Crosstown buses at the intersections of Balmoral and Mt Albert Rd allows for transfers to frequent-running east-west buses. There are no fully separated paths to cycle into the city, but quiet back streets and some stretches of separated lanes could be suitable for many riders, with only a 20-minute trip into the city from around Balmoral.
Out in the eastern suburbs, Glen Innes is a neighbourhood that offers great public transport connectivity, especially for residents living near its train station.
The town centre is close to two supermarkets, food options, and creature comforts for families such as parks and playgrounds. Housing here is mostly detached houses, with a growing, but small number of townhomes and apartments.
The Eastern train line provides for a 15-minute trip to the city or short hops to Panmure or Sylvia Park. Glen Innes town centre is also a major bus interchange with an array of frequent lines fanning out around the eastern suburbs and the central isthmus.
A newly-finished off-road cycleway through Meadowbank can help get you into the city centre within around 40 minutes — with a small section on Ngāpipi Rd and then on a wide two-way cycleway along the waterfront on Tāmaki Dr. Additionally, ongoing works are bringing separated cycleways to several local streets, making it easier to ride to the town centre, train station, and attractions such as the picturesque Pt England Reserve.
Bus tip: Most north-south arterial streets in the central isthmus offer a bus headed to the city every few minutes at rush hour, with many connecting at intersections with crosstown buses. It can help to look out for these frequent bus lines when looking at suburbs.
For many, west is best
The inner-west and western town centres of Auckland have a lot going for them when it comes to car-free living. Criss-crossing frequent bus lines and the Western train line provide a solid foundation for public transport, while the Northwestern shared path runs along State Highway 16, between the CBD and Westgate.
Kingsland and Morningside, the first stops on the Western line, and with frequent back-street entrances onto the Northwestern Path stand out as superb candidates. They’re about three kilometres from the city, which could be an ideal distance for a short bicycle or e-scooter ride. Frequent buses traverse both suburbs with good service towards the city and surrounding suburbs. Known for craft beer spots and dining options, both suburbs have plenty to offer, though neither have a full-size supermarket. Morningside is closer to St Lukes Mall, which has a Countdown.
Going further along the Northwestern Path you’ll find Point Chevalier. This sleepy peninsula neighbourhood is served by multiple citybound buses, along Great North Rd, and two crosstown buses, which go eastwards. It has a second big supermarket under construction, food options, and is close to Western Springs and Point Chevalier Beach.
A runner-up, Mt Albert, offers many of the same upsides (think better food options!). It’s at a further distance from separated cycling facilities, but it has a station on the Western line and a plethora of good bus services. The neighbourhood of Waterview is also a short cycling trip from Point Chevalier, via safe shared paths, going further west.
At the end of that path, riders can reach Avondale and then onto New Lynn, which are some of the main bus and train hubs for West Auckland. Higher-density zoning means townhouse and apartment developments are also springing up around these two neighbourhoods. Avondale has closer access to the Southwestern shared path, which leads to Owairaka, Sandringham, and Mt Roskill. Both centres have access to amenities like supermarkets, parks, and food options. New Lynn is the larger of the two with the large Lynn Mall shopping centre on the doorstep of its train station.
Over the bridge and (not so) far away
On the North Shore, there are no trains and there’s a pesky bridge in the way of cycling to the city. But there are buses. Oh, are there buses. One of the best corridors is along Onewa Rd, where buses run just every few minutes during rush hour.
At the end of that line, buses from Birkenhead town centre also run frequently throughout the day to Glenfield, Northcote and Takapuna. There’s no cycling connection to the city (unless you go all the way to the Devonport ferry), but for local trips, shared paths and on-road lanes along Onewa and Lake Rd, can help to join the dots to Smales Farm.
It’d be also remiss to not mention the hands-down best bus line on the North Shore, the NX1, courtesy of the extraordinarily speedy Northern Busway. Living near a busway station can make for a very breezy commute to the CBD. For example, a trip from Smales Farm only takes about 25 minutes at peak. But most stations aren’t near bigger town centres, meaning you’ll still probably turn to the car to make local trips.
The future is lite
It often feels hard to understand what constitutes a location with good public transport, or good access by bike – as if we’ve not quite developed the tools or vernacular to explain it.
Useful resources out there include Auckland Transport’s regularly updated cycleway maps and its network maps of public transport services, where thicker lines (two-digit routes) denote a service that runs at least every 15 minutes while thinner route lines run less often.
Perhaps the most valuable resource, however, is Google Maps. Its trip planner can provide a wealth of information about travel times, required transfers, and how often services run when you plot out various journeys.
Another useful online tool allows users to generate an “isochrone”, or a visual travel time map of how far you could go on public transport from a particular location.
Looking ahead, the City Rail Link will make a big difference for many train commutes to the city. The additional three kilometres of underground track will allow for higher train frequencies and shorter trip times, especially from stations on the Western line.
Bus service upgrades are also being planned for several lines and there are big cycling upgrades in planning for New Lynn and Kelston, Mt Albert and Grey Lynn. But this guide has tried to focus as much as possible on the advantages of suburbs as they currently exist now, rather than assuming that proposed changes will actually go ahead.
There’s no ‘best’ – only trade-offs
This guide has aimed to be as definitive as possible, but that goal is frankly impossible. When it comes to looking at suburbs, there’s no “best” option, only a matter of trade-offs — whether it’s access to work, affordability, space, parking, or being close to family.
So far, a big assumption has been a need to commute to the city centre. If you don’t have to commute to the CBD, then there are other suburbs in Auckland where there’s burgeoning cycling infrastructure and where many high-frequency bus lines converge, such as Māngere, Manukau, and Onehunga.
Back in Waterview, Emma McInnes is over the moon to have found her family’s slice of Auckland – and it’s certainly not just because of the buses or bikes.
McInnes says: “As our lifestyle has changed, we wanted to be able to buy a home and we couldn’t really afford anything suitable for us in the central area.
“Waterview ended up being one of the closest suburbs with the affordable kinds of housing that fit our needs.
“When we looked at it, it was next to transport, but then it also had the other things that we really need – like the schools, the daycare, the park, and the playground. It’s also close to nature — Oakley Creek is really gorgeous to go just being able to walk down there, and we knew it wasn’t too far away from Pt Chev, where it’s only one bus stop away or a walk away, so we’d have access to the supermarket.”
