Commission chair Anne Tolley after her morning commute. Photo / Talia Parker
A rainy Tuesday morning finds the leader of Tauranga's council in the same place as the rest of us - sitting in traffic.
The Bay of Plenty Times joined commission chair Anne Tolley on her drive into work on Tuesday to discuss Tauranga's dire traffic problems.
Tolley has the same commute as many people driving from Pāpāmoa into the city.
She was a profoundly uneventful driver - with both hands at 10 and 2, she was straight-backed, and stuck to the speed limit. When a weaving truck cut her off by moving suddenly between lanes, her reaction was a mild "make up your mind".
She leaves at 7.15am to evade the worst congestion.
"It's much better at this time, you miss the school traffic," she said as she drove. "I do feel for parents who are working, and have to drop kids off at school because you just don't have those choices."
As we approach the Bayfair roundabout, Tolley says she has tried a couple of routes to work.
"I tried going under the bridge [to join Hewlitts Rd]...but those roundabouts are quite scary, I find.
"Sometimes the queue's long - it seems to differ day to day, you can never count on it.
"Often I come down Hewlitts Rd, and I've got a big truck here, and a big truck here, and I've got a little car - and they're good drivers, but you don't feel necessarily safe."
She sees her morning commute as an advantage in her work.
"I actually think it's quite good that I'm able to say... to people, 'look, I'm part of this.' I drive that route every day to and from work, so I do understand how these things impact on people."
One project she knows the impact of is Links Ave.
The road has been turned into a cul-de-sac since March as part of a trial to increase safety on the residential street.
Tolley says the safety concerns of residents on the street and the congestion concerns of commuters make it a difficult issue to resolve.
Tolley recalls an email during the first trial in 2021 from a mother who had struggled to pick her kids up from daycare on time due to the closure.
The story resonated with her own experience as a mother, "so that is really worrying when people are under that sort of pressure".
"We're fixing things that need to be fixed, and people are dealing with the consequences. And it's really hard.
"It's very complex, and it's not easily resolved... which is why two or three councils have struggled."
After nearly 18 months as commission chair, Tolley has sympathy for previous councils.
"These are not easy issues. And if you haven't got a good working structure, and a good council that's prepared to stick together and take collective responsibility - that's... such an important part of our democratic process.
"You should have every opportunity to put in all the diverse views and argue it out, but once the decision is made, then everyone has to take responsibility for it."
Tolley says the council needs help from central government to manage the impact of the port on congestion.
She says the council gets "really good support" from Waka Kotahi, but their processes are slow.
As she changes lanes on Tākitimu Dr, Tolley says she would love to take the bus to work.
"But it's not easy for me. I'd have to drive into Farm St, find a place to park, and then get a bus in, and maybe stand in the rain - I've got to meet people today."
She says to get and keep government funding, the commission is required to "show that we are making provision for public transport and walking and cycling".
As we negotiate the Cameron Rd cones, Tolley says the commission is "doing a lot of catching up".
"What we've inherited is a local network that really hasn't had major investment since the population was 70,000. And it's more than double that [now].
"It's progress, but it is a hassle."
When we arrive at the council building, Tolley pulls into her designated commissioner park.
Without it, she says, she'd end up street parking.
As we are taking photos on Cameron Rd for the last two minutes of our interview, a member of the public stops Tolley to thank her.
"Finally, stuff is getting done," he said.
That's the legacy Tolley says she wants to leave when her time here is done.
"We'd like to catch up...then I'd feel like we've done a reasonably good job."
The community weighs in
Of course, Tolley is not the only one concerned about congestion.
Sustainable BOP's executive director Glen Crowther said he felt the council's roading projects had "annoyed thousands of residents and hasn't actually reduced CO2 emissions".
"The biggest problem is that TCC's messaging has talked a lot about multi-modal transport and reducing emissions, so the public seems to think that the council has been trying to achieve those goals. But the business cases or analysis for a number of projects (e.g. Cameron Rd, Tōtara St cycleway, Links Ave, Ōtūmoetai Rd and Greerton) showed increased emissions and worse congestion.
"In all of those cases, TCC's goal has been safety… those projects don't deliver on the other government priorities of improved accessibility and reducing emissions."
Crowther said he wanted to see more "open, transparent" community consultation and engagement, as well as "a genuine attempt to slash CO2 emissions from transport by 2030".
Pāpāmoa Residents and Ratepayers Association president Philip Brown said the community is "flabbergasted", "gobsmacked" and "annoyed" at the closing of Links Ave.
"People do not like the congestion it's creating on Oceanbeach Rd… they can't get in and out of their properties.
"Why aren't we managing our roads more smartly to carry more traffic? There's gross traffic mismanagement all over Tauranga… why aren't they improving the choke points that are there now?"
He said places like Turret Rd are points where traffic regularly jams.
"NZTA runs some of them, not all of them."
He felt the commissioners had not done enough to tackle roads and congestion.
Tauranga's congestion problems can be attributed to uncontrolled growth, he said.
"We have not been smart about it [growth].
"There's a lot of things that we're just not thinking outside the box and realising that there may be a better way to do things… we've got uncontrolled growth, and we're not planning for it.
"We've been guilty of doing nothing. Whatever the excuses, at the end of the day we're still guilty."
The Bay of Plenty Times approached Tolley after the initial interview to respond to the comments.
Tolley said the commission had "taken steps to address a longstanding underinvestment in the city's transport network".
"That includes a total 2021-31 Long Term Plan investment of close to $2 billion in transport network improvements, with a significant part of that expenditure focusing on encouraging people to decrease their dependence on using their own cars by using public transport, walking and cycling.
"The increase in carbon emissions referred to simply reflects the impact of a rapidly growing population and insufficient alternative transport mode options. That won't change overnight, but over time, investment in mode change will start to have an impact on congestion and on the amount of carbon the city as a whole emits.
"In the meantime, we're also investing in a range of improvement projects through the Western Bay Transport System Plan. These aim to improve the way traffic flows through the city so that people spend less time sitting in queues, emitting carbon without actually going anywhere."
Kevin Kerr, chair of Cycle Action Tauranga, said traffic congestion was one of the biggest issues for the Tauranga area along with housing.
"Cycling for us is a part of an integrated, sustainable transport system. It has to be there.
"If more people cycled… it's really a no-brainer, it'd just be less congestion, fewer people in cars.
"With the advent of e-bikes, particularly, they have made commuter cycling… a viable transport option."
He felt traffic problems had been worsened by "people's egos and politics" as well as geographical issues.
"We've had 12 or 15 years of divisive councils, so nothing's been done… we've lacked leadership."
He said a better uptake of cycling wouldn't solve congestion but would be "one part of that" solution.
Kerr said the commissioners "saw the need to do something different, and I've felt that quite refreshing".
He said previous councillors had sometimes been negative towards the group, but the commission's positivity had been "a revelation".
"The politics didn't get in the way."
He said the council's Long Term Plan included funding for the development of cycleways and walkways.
"That gave, from a cycling perspective, us a lot of hope, that there was going to be something done there.
"It's still not safe biking in Tauranga…but you've got to start somewhere."
Waka Kotahi's regional manager of system design Jess Andrew said there were "no quick fixes" to Tauranga's congestion.
"Everyone knows the transport system in Tauranga is under pressure from increased demand for travel. This has arisen from a steadily increasing population, under-investment and lack of feasible transport choices.
"Tauranga's transport network is also influenced by the geography, with a number of peninsulas creating natural bottleneck points.
"The short-term investment will hold congestion at the current levels. Business cases and designs for the next phase of substantial investments and larger projects are under way."
Andrews said the Government was working with mana whenua, Priority One, Port of Tauranga and KiwiRail, as well as the regional, district, and city councils on the Transport System Plan
"The partner agencies have a coordinated approach to delivering the projects across the city and sub-region, although the cost of delivering this plan is huge. There are difficult decisions to be made about prioritisation of delivery and funding, compounded by community frustration as road congestion gets worse, not better, in the medium term.
"We have confidence that every dollar invested brings us closer to a transport system that functions for the benefit of the whole community."
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