Dialogue: Labour taking its time on public transport

By JOEL CAYFORD

Christmas has come to Greater Auckland motorists. Transit New Zealand says congestion is sharply down because 2000 fewer cars are on the region's roads since fuel prices went up.

But bus operators report difficulties meeting increased demand. This news should be driving policy shifts to speed the implementation of passenger transport alternatives and to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

But despite support for passenger transport being a significant commitment by the incoming Labour-Alliance Government, progress has been slow and foreshadowed legislation changes seem hesitant and minimal.

Today, the effectiveness of North Shore City's Onewa Rd bus and high-occupancy vehicle lane initiative is threatened because of inadequate police enforcement.

Arduous cost-benefit funding criteria are forcing Transit and the North Shore City Council through a contorted process to get the North Shore busway project under way.

The lack of clear Transfund support for dedicated passenger transport infrastructure risks the busway being built as a simple widening of State Highway 1, remote and disconnected from the communities it is supposed to serve.

But transport problems for North Shore City are wider. Explosive urban development of East Coast Bays land followed the completion of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. So did cross-harbour traffic. Bridge clip-ons and extra motorway lanes since have seen this trend continue. Those who applaud the new motorway from Albany to Orewa and want it to go further north need to consider the consequences.

Because motorways are harbingers of urban development, their planning needs to be integrated with land use planning. Unfortunately, Resource Management Act designation and consent processes are concerned with important but narrow effects like noise and local ecosystems.

Broader regional planning issues are recognised in the region's growth and land transport strategies. It is to be hoped that the period of urban sprawl and tarseal to all points of the compass around Greater Auckland ended with the decision to draw the metropolitan urban limit line.

But Transit's expansion of the state highway network north will bring new pressures for sprawl. It is time for an integrated transport policy for the nation, as well as for regions such as Greater Auckland.

European and Asian cities are forestalling the need to build new roads by squeezing the most value out of existing infrastructure. Wise planning, "stick and carrot" incentives and Government intervention have been essential. Benefits include more livable communities with cleaner air, shorter commutes and improved economic performance.

In Greater Auckland, motorway and urban sprawl has forced the disappearance of the corner shop and the dispersal of workplaces - forcing even greater car use, longer commutes and associated economic effects.

New Zealand's transport policy demands integration at a number of levels. To cut pollution from cars, neither Transit nor councils should promote big roads or commuter carparks which encourage lots of extra car use.

Just as new urban developments need to be planned near railway stations or with proper public transport and cycle access, new passenger transport infrastructure needs to be integrated into existing communities so people are not forced to drive to stations.

All passenger systems need to be integrated - buses connecting with trains, buses linking with ferries, and cycle parking at stations.

It is essential that "carrots" to public transport use - bus priorities, lower public transport fares and higher service quality - are balanced by the "stick" of increased costs for car use so motorists contribute fully to the economic, social and environmental costs they impose.

Government policy needs to recognise that many road-users have been undercontributing to their costs while at the same time public transport use is seen as unattractive compared with the costs and convenience of car use.

Early steps to transform this situation by increasing car-use costs and parking charges deserve the highest priority, with resulting income being locally available for transport programmes providing alternatives.

The adoption of targets may provide guidance to policy-makers at national and local level. Targets could include a specific Greater Auckland reduction in mileage travelled by car each year, or a reduction in average commute distance, or an increase in passenger trips.

In the same way that councils are required to prepare waste management plans, they could be made to prepare transport plans. Town plans could minimise private car trips for basic essentials, increase efficient use of existing roads through bus lanes, and impose levies against greenfield development with proceeds available to promote urban regeneration.

While legislative change is necessary for some of this, the stumbling blocks to building an integrated busway system in North Shore City are the funding and policy constraints on Transfund and Transit. These allow construction of "alternatives to roads" but there is no explicit policy that directly refers to building busways or bus lanes or bus stops, or anything else to do with buses or the communities they serve.

For more than a year now, North Shore City Council staff, Transit staff and teams of traffic consultants have struggled to shoehorn the North Shore busway idea into a project that fits Transfund financing rules. The tail is wagging the dog.

Funding constraints instead of community needs are driving the design and staging of the busway. The most appropriate implementation and integration into existing local passenger services and communities is being compromised.

I am advised the minister has powers to move the goalposts and enable this passenger transport project to proceed more appropriately. Action is needed to give priority to community needs, and to give force to an election promise.

*Joel Cayford is a North Shore City councillor.