Keith Dimond: Gridlock crisis demands ban on used-car imports

COMMENT

Ten years ago Auckland had congested motorways but not today's gridlock. So what has changed in the past decade?

Sure, there has been population growth, but not high enough to cause gridlock.

The new factor has been the addition of about 700,000 second-hand Japanese vehicles, most of them saturating Auckland's motorways and highways.

The politicians responsible, the 1990s National Government, claimed that importing second-hand vehicles would reduce vehicle prices.

Neither they, nor local politicians, had the sense to realise that gridlock and pollution in Auckland would be inevitable. Japanese vehicles are designed for higher-octane fuels.

Also, many of the second-hand vehicles are poorly maintained. The average age of the earlier imported cars was over 11 years. The result: many breakdowns, more pollution.

Although the Labour Government has placed an age limit on these second-hand imports, their rate of increase, 126,000 in the past 12 months, has reached alarming numbers. If urgent steps are not taken to limit the number of imported vehicles, the gridlock problems will intensify.

Also contributing to gridlock is the increasing number of freight vehicles travelling to and from the port of Auckland. Any truck breakdown on the motorways during peak hours causes chaos.

A third factor is the large increase in tertiary students in Auckland's education establishments. Many of them travel by car, thus increasing peak-hour traffic flows.

There have to be immediate solutions to these problems. We cannot wait five to 10 years for Transfund to build new motorways. Besides, the Eastern Corridor motorway, proposed by mayors John Banks and Sir Barry Curtis, will not solve the gridlock problem on the Southern Motorway. At best it will merely move it from Spaghetti Junction to the southern suburbs.

Its construction will cause enormous upheaval in the Pakuranga-Howick area and will be expensive - at least $1.5 billion.

What are the solutions?

First, the Ports of Auckland and haulage companies must reorganise so that as much freight as possible moves outside the 7am-9am and 4pm-6pm peak hours.

All the Auckland motorways have huge capacity between midnight and 6am. Why cannot more freight be moved in that time?

Secondly, there should be an immediate ban, for 12-months minimum, on the importing of second-hand vehicles.

There have been claims that gridlock is costing $1 billion a year. Ironically; there must be nearly $1 billion worth of unsold vehicles in congested dealers' yards.

Thirdly, more car owners must be encouraged to use buses, ferries and trains, especially if travelling to the city centre.

Once Britomart is opened, the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Council must take the lead in promoting public transport services. More bus lanes need to be introduced. They are a successful innovation.

Fourthly, a retired Bucklands Beach resident, Steve Cooper, has suggested a far cheaper alternative proposal to the Easter Corridor motorway.

His proposal follows the same route from the port to Panmure. It then stays west of the Tamaki River (not crossing it to Pakuranga) and reconnects with the Southern Motorway at the Otahuhu rail marshalling yards.

This route would eliminate the controversial and expensive widening of the Pakuranga Highway, Ti Rakau Drive, and the new Te Irirangi highway. All are in residential areas and will mean house demolition and compensation problems.

Mr Cooper's alternative route would probably cost about a third of the Banks-Curtis proposal and would be operational far sooner.

The Panmure bridge across the Tamaki River would need to be widened. Even local councillors admit it should have been widened 30 years ago.

Fifthly, a major planning mistake, certainly over the past five years, has been to allow the rapid expansion of tertiary education establishments in the central city.

Auckland University and AUT should be persuaded, via central government subsidies and grants, to move their campuses to South Auckland, North Shore and Waitakere.

The draft annual plans of the Auckland region's seven councils show huge cost increases for the next seven to 10 years. Many of the cost increases are related to public transport improvements.

The Auckland Regional Council is slamming its residential ratepayers for a staggering 84 per cent of their transport cost increases.

The draft plans also reveal a lack of co-ordination and compatibility between the councils. This is in sharp contrast to Brisbane, which is similar in area and population.

Yet Brisbane has only one local body - the Brisbane City Council.

Is it too late to have a similar set-up in Auckland?

* Keith Dimond, of Howick, is a retired production engineer.