Herald editorial: Auckland congestion charges, road tolls and petrol tax - equity is the obvious issue

Congestion charges, road pricing, tolls - Aucklanders have been hearing variations on this theme for so long. Photo / Alex Robertson

OPINION

Congestion charges, road pricing, tolls - Aucklanders have been hearing variations on this theme for so long, it is hard to take the latest proposal seriously. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown proposes time-of-use tolls on sections of motorway where the traffic is heaviest at certain times of the day.

Perhaps more surprisingly, 18 of 20 Auckland Council members agree with him, at least in principle. Sitting as the council’s transport and infrastructure committee last week, they voted to begin planning and designing some such charging method with Auckland Transport, taking into account issues of equity.

The first thing to be said about this is that the motorways through Auckland are national highways, not regional roads. They were funded from national petrol taxes and they are managed and maintained by the national transport agency, not Auckland Transport.

As a former National Transport Minister, Steven Joyce wrote in the Weekend Herald that it is not obvious why revenue from the motorways should be given to Auckland Council.

As a former National Transport Minister, Steven Joyce wrote in the Weekend Herald that it is not obvious why revenue from the motorways should be given to Auckland Council. Photo / Mike Scott

But the National Party and its likely partners in the next Government are probably the mayor’s intended audience for this proposal.

National remains implacably opposed to the regional petrol tax levied for Auckland by the outgoing Government. Rescinding the 11.5c/litre surcharge was the first item on National’s “100-day action plan” published before the election. If Act and NZ First agree, the Auckland Council is going to have a budgetary problem.

Brown and his council will have noted National and Act are open to the idea of road pricing, at least in principle. The civic politicians may be calculating that if their national counterparts are presented with an actual road charging proposal, the regional petrol tax will not seem so bad.

Equity is the obvious issue. Tolls favour travellers easily able to afford the charge and penalise those least able to afford it, who probably are the least able to avoid it - low-paid workers on fixed hours or shift workers.

Congested outgoing traffic during the afternoon rush hour on a section of motorway in Auckland.

But some manual workers would also be among those who would benefit most from a better traffic flow. As Brown said, “Tradies I know will be welcoming this – they’d be getting around town 20 minutes faster for a small fraction of their hourly rate.”

He proposes toll gates on motorway ramps, perhaps with variable charges that respond to traffic density like the phasing of on-ramp lights. But a congestion charge has to be known in advance if it is going to work as intended, influencing when and how people decide to travel.

Then there is the problem that charging for the use of motorways could simply transfer congestion to free alternative routes such as Great South Road. Even people who can easily afford a road charge will avoid it if they possibly can.

They could often take a bus. The supposed inadequacy of Auckland’s bus service is much overstated, especially as an argument against road charges. The best public transport imaginable could not match the routes and destinations available by car.

Despite the difficulties, road charges seem inevitable. An alternative to petrol tax will be needed as all vehicles become electrified. The next Government must not kick that can down the road.