Councillors voted 18 to two at today’s transport and infrastructure committee to set up a joint programme between the council and Auckland Transport to plan and design “time of use” charging, including work on the wider issues of equity. Councillors Wayne Walker and Ken Turner voted against it.
Earlier this week, Mayor Wayne Brown flagged placing the congestion charges on State Highway 1 between the Penrose and Greenlane on-ramps, and SH16 between the Lincoln Rd and Te Atatu on-ramps in the morning peak between 7am and 9am, and 4.30pm and 6.30pm in the afternoon peak.
Today, Brown said “time of use” charging was about fixing Auckland and the terrible congestion that is costing $1 billion a year.
Auckland councillors today voted to push ahead with congestion charges in Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The mayor favours time-of-use charges on congested sections of the motorway “and potentially major arterial roads” rather than “congestion charges” in a ring around the central city.
“We have known jams, at known times, in known places every working day.
“I’m determined to address this issue. It will require a range of interventions, including investment in congestion hotspots, reducing the plague of road cones and building better public transport, like busways,” said Brown.
He said time-of-use charging is already in place at the Port of Auckland where it costs more to clear goods during the daytime to free up congestion on the motorways.
“This is a good thing. Don’t get lost in it. The only thing here is to charge a small number of people to change their travel time to their destination or switch to public transport,” the mayor said.
Auckland councillor Wayne Walker said the National Council of Women had expressed concerns with congestion pricing.
Councillor Wayne Walker said he had spoken with the National Council of Women which raised a number of issues, including the effect on disabled people, and women who are proportionally in lower-paid jobs without the flexibility to change hours.
“Public transport does not deliver. How are we doing to deal with this? It is a penalty and a blunt penalty,” Walker said.
Councillor Josephine Bartley also expressed equity concerns, saying communities from South and West Auckland coming into the city do not have the choice of working from home and cannot negotiate times of work with their employers.
“It is going to be those on lower incomes who will be hit hardest by this,” Bartley said.
Senior officers from the council and Auckland Transport said there is no doubt congestion pricing will impact a wide range of people across the city, and equity will be a critical part of the detailed design phase of the scheme.
Josephine Bartley was among the councillors to raise equity issues with congestion pricing.
The mayor yesterday said low-income earners, Gold Card holders, emergency vehicles, buses, motorcycles and mobility vehicles would be considered for exemptions or discounts.
“I’m frustrated with excuses around tradies and school children. Tradies I know would be welcoming this - they’d be getting into town 20 minutes faster for a small fraction of their hourly rate.
“I believe school children should have choices: walking, cycling, buses, not only using the motorway. Though it is obvious some scenarios of exemptions need to be considered,” Brown said.
The outgoing Labour Government drafted legislation for congestion charging, which National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown indicated before the election will be progressed but with changes to ensure benefits for travel times.
He said the party intends to allow councils to propose a charging scheme but the party has still to decide whether it will share the revenue with councils and what it will be used to fund, but the intent is to spend the money where it is collected.
Meanwhile, Dog & Lemon car guide author and road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson has criticised the introduction of congestion charges while Auckland’s public transport is “inconvenient, unreliable, expensive, unsafe and fails to cover many transport routes much of the time.
“Congestion charges don’t solve these chronic public transport problems. Instead, congestion charges allow wealthy people to avoid public transport entirely, while forcing poorer people to put up with a third-rate public transport system that rarely matches the needs of its customers,” Matthew-Wilson said.
