KEY POINTS:
If I had been offered $1.5 million in loose change to spend on Auckland's transport woes, I'd have thrown it at something practical. Like replacing the long-missing timetable at my local bus stop. Or buying some new batteries for the so-called "real time" illuminated sign boards, which continue to delight in misinforming commuters about the whereabouts of the city bus fleet.
But that would be too useful.
Much better to waste it on a bunch of international consultants, tasked with finding a way of sweet-talking Aucklanders into accepting congestion charging as the Draino solution for Auckland's clogged traffic arteries.
Congestion-charging is the elitist solution to overcrowding on our highways. An auction process, which taxes motorists more and more until those who can't afford it, have to stay at home and leave the public roads to those that can.
Last year the Government spent $2.3 million quizzing Aucklanders on whether we thought road-pricing was the magic bullet to our traffic woes.
Our response was clear.
The consultants in that exercise, PricewaterhouseCoopers, sadly noted "a strong level of opposition [approximately 75 per cent] to the concept of road pricing as a means of addressing Auckland's traffic problems" and "very limited unconditional support".
The study revealed "fundamental opposition" to the idea of charging for what is viewed as a "free public good" and an objection to paying twice to use existing publicly funded roads".
Despite this overwhelming public opposition, the Wellington transport bureaucrats persuaded new Transport Minister Annette King to let them try another approach.
Instead of winning over the public, the Wellington boffins would try and seduce their local body counterparts instead. They were on to a winner here, as local bodies had been among the minority of respondents in the $2.3 million exercise to support road pricing.
In support of this tactic, the Secretary of Transport, Alan Thompson, memoed the minister that Scottish officials believe a reason behind the failure to gain a positive referendum result in favour of congestion charging for Edinburgh "was a failure to build relationships and buy-in with surrounding local authorities".
Next week, as part of this softening-up process, the Wellington bureaucrats are to approach business organisations and the Automobile Association. Whatever these groups say, the fact remains. Aucklanders already pay over the top for our transport system.
Unlike the rest of the country, we're being forced to to pay additional regional petrol taxes to help central government play catch-up after decades of under-investment in Auckland transport systems compared with the rest of the country.
Most of us have made it clear: we see congestion-charging as a way of the Government trying to double or triple dip into travellers' pockets. What amazes me is that a Labour Government fails to see how classist it is, whacking the poor and the well-off alike, regardless of ability to pay.
It's all very well for the top bureaucrats and politicians and consultants and business lobbyists to extol its virtues. But they all drive about in company cars, their pockets cushioned by company credit cards. Not surprisingly they support it, because they're the ones who will benefit if congestion-charging performs according to design and forces the poor out of their cars on to public transport.
Deloittes, who are the new consultants, were deeply involved in implementing road charges in London and Stockholm where traffic volumes declined by up to 20 per cent. But at least in those two cities there was a commitment to and investment in public transport that is still sadly lacking here.
It has taken a Labour government two terms in power before it finally conceded the need, for instance, to electrify and modernise Auckland's commuter rail network. We're still waiting for an integrated ticketing system for Auckland's public transport system.
The boffins should be fast-tracking solutions to these problem, not dreaming up new ways of penalising the victims of 50 years of botched transport planning.
When a decent public transport network is in place, who knows, the market might even come up with its own solution. When people get sick of being stuck in clogged road traffic, they might take the rational decision to travel on a dedicated busway or rail corridor instead.
But at present that's not a possibility. Sure, the North Shore busway is approaching completion and the upgrade of the rail network is slowly creeping ahead. But until these revolutionary changes are completed, all congestion charging will do is favour the rich, and consign the rest of us to increased misery on the public transport system. And this under a Labour Government ...
