Martin Williams: Hawke’s Bay’s transport system is largely broken - here’s how we fix it

Brookfields Bridge, between Pakowhai and Meeanee, was one of many in Hawke's Bay damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle and contributing to Napier's isolation. Photo / Paul Taylor

OPINION

To say that the transport system in Hawke’s Bay has its challenges would be misleading. In large measure, the system is broken.

As Cyclone Gabrielle revealed, our transport network was at or beyond the limit of its durability.

Napier was cut off from the rest of Hawke’s Bay and the country for four days, pretty much entirely. Connections to many rural communities were severed for weeks on end.

There is close to a $1 billion bill facing the region to repair the more than 60 bridges destroyed or damaged, thousands of blocked, damaged or destroyed culverts, and hundreds of kilometres of roads needing repairs, reinstatement or total rebuilds.

The Palmerston North to Gisborne railway line was pulverised by subsidence, erosion and flooding impacts, with more than 400 damage sites still needing repair between Wairoa and Napier alone.

The picture for public transport is no brighter. A smorgasbord of ‘business as usual” headaches faced public transport in the region, even before Cyclone Gabrielle.

We have a shockingly low rate of public transport utilisation in Hawke’s Bay, with only 0.5 per cent of the working population travelling by bus, according to the 2018 Census.

Patronage rates have consistently declined ever since. Sitting behind this is a culture of reliance on private vehicles, a relatively low regional population, infrequent bus services prone to cancellation by bus driver shortages, and that our main urban centres of Hastings and Napier are separated by 20km and three rivers.

Bigger picture again, our regional population has some of the worst health statistics and demographics related to transport in New Zealand, including low levels of physical activity (such as walking and cycling), the second lowest rate of children walking or biking to school in the country, the fourth highest rate of premature deaths associated with transport-related air pollution, and higher rates of obesity than the New Zealand population generally for men and women, including Māori and Pasifika.

If all that wasn’t enough, all five councils in the region are in financial stress, needing to confront and finally face up to decades of under-investment in roading and three waters infrastructure and also meet the extreme challenges of responding to Cyclone Gabrielle, and preparing for potentially worse to come.

The collective ratepayer base in Hawke’s Bay is at breaking point in terms of capacity to absorb rate increases needed to meet these challenges, despite the historic levels of central government support for flood protection works, Category 3 land buyouts and road network repairs to date.

The real issue is what to do about all of this.

The Hawke’s Bay councils have collaborated with the New Zealand Transport Agency to prepare a regional land transport plan which boldly seeks to fix what is broken about our transport system.

Under this plan, called Moving Us Into the Future, we are requesting funding support for more than $5b of investment across a range of major projects including to four-lane the Hawke’s Bay Expressway, help repair and reinstate our local roading and bridge network, and significantly upgrade State Highways 2 and 5 north to provide greater resilience and ability for speed limits to be safely increased.

With an economy fuelled by the productive sector, ensuring connectivity from farm and orchard gate to the port, and by road and rail to the rest of the North Island, is critical to the wellbeing of our region.

A focus on an efficient and resilient road network that is well maintained, is an essential priority of the transport plan accordingly.

However, I also think we need to take a wider transport system approach to “building back better” from Cyclone Gabrielle which does not just focus on roads and see them as conduits for freight and commuter traffic, but puts people and communities first.

An approach that finally enables safe walking and cycling to work and play with dedicated cycle and active transport corridors, so we can help turn around our appalling health statistics.

An approach that delivers a “step change” in the level of public transport service to one we can be proud of and deserve as a region; where people know if they miss one bus, there’s another one coming, and soon.

This approach would require a level of funding ambition for public and active transport seemingly beyond the Government’s appetite, but that does not mean we do not put the case for it in our transport plan, and we are doing just that, alongside the roading priority.

As I see it, we cannot let the expressway become just another, but two-lanes wider, congested car park, any more than we can ignore the effects of our transport emissions, which are nearly 20 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions in Hawke’s Bay and mostly from private vehicle trips by car.

To do so would be to throw our lot in as a region with those in the world who would consign our fate to “run away” climate change, the very problem that unleashed Cyclone Gabrielle in the first place. And where would be the sense in that?

But more important than my views, is what you in our communities think about our investment priorities, at this critical juncture for transport in Hawke’s Bay. The Moving Us Into the Future plan is out for consultation with submissions closing on April 14. It’s easy to make a submission and can be done online, so please get involved. For more information, visit www.hbrc.govt.nz.

Martin Williams is chair of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Transport Committee and a Hawke’s Bay regional councillor.