Kia Rite - Time to act: Four lanes good, six lanes better

The expressway Pippa McKelvie Sebileau wants isn’t about more space to move cars and trucks with greater speed. It’s an expressway to the future.

OPINION

There’s been a lot of talk recently about making a four-lane expressway for Hawke’s Bay, with cross-party support for the idea. But let’s be future focussed. Let’s go for a six-lane expressway.

The expressway I want isn’t about more space to move cars and trucks with greater speed. It’s an expressway to the future. It would have three types of lanes: two regular lanes for cars and trucks, two lanes for shared or public transport and emergency services, and two small additional lanes to the side for people on their bikes or e-scooters.

The public and shared lanes are reserved for buses so people can get to their destinations efficiently and safely. Also in that lane are the shared transport options – carpooling, shared cars, electric minivans for commuters from the region and there’s space for our emergency services to get to the people who need them quickly and safely.

The lanes for active transport are off to the side, separate from the vehicles travelling five times as fast and they follow the most rapid route between the centres, unlike the current trails that take you through Clive. You could consider these lanes an investment in health and happiness where commuters get to reap the benefits of open-air active transport in our incredible Hawke’s Bay climate and flat terrain.

The shared lanes are like the transit lanes you see with “T3″ – meaning any vehicle can use it as long as there are three or more occupants in it. National vehicle occupancy data shows average occupancy of 1.5 people per trip.

Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau is climate action ambassador for Hawke's Bay Regional Council. Photo / Supplied

On a weekday, around three-quarters of all trips on our roads have only one passenger in the car. That’s a load of metal we’re moving around our roads just to move a small number of people and it leaves a lot of fossil fuel pollution as a consequence.

This is what an expressway of the future might look like. Transport technologies have changed a fair bit since 1998 when the idea of a four-lane expressway for the region was first put forward.

So too, have our aspirations for transport systems and an increasing number of people want solutions that focus on moving people and moving goods efficiently and safely, rather than moving single-occupancy cars.

Of course, some of the cars in those new lanes will be electric, but calling electric vehicles “zero emissions” is a misnomer. There’s an environmental impact in the construction, operation and disposal of these cars and their parts and we need to find solutions to those issues. More importantly, purchasing an electric vehicle is not financially possible for many.

Our expressway has been a pain point since the cyclone. But on Tuesday, August 1, the lid came off and pressure was released with an audible fizz of excitement from bystanders at the Redclyffe Bridge at Waiohiki.

Since that day, most commuters will tell you that Napier to Hastings travel time and congestion has reduced massively. Since Monday this past week, the public buses now run back through Taradale and through Clive offering fantastic cheap and stress-free transport options.

We don’t need extra lanes for individual cars. We need infrastructure that is safe, regularly maintained and offers true transport choices accessible and cheaper for all.

“Build it and they will come” – that’s what any transport planner will tell you. Build more lanes and over time, you’ll get more cars using them and congestion will creep back in. It’s called induced demand.

Another relevant quote comes from Lewis Mumford back in 1954 when he said: “Building more roads to prevent congestion is like a fat man loosening his belt to prevent obesity.”

Get in touch: climateaction@hbrc.govt.nz

Pippa McKelvie Sebileau is climate action ambassador for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.