North Shore looks for fairer solution to congestion

North Shore City Council says it won't accept charging motorists to use congested roads unless public transport is greatly improved, including integrated ticketing.

City infrastructure and environment chairman Tony Barker said road pricing could be effective in cutting congestion by reducing private car travel.

But the council was concerned about the effectiveness, cost and fairness of the five options and wanted more research and refinement.

Charging North Shore residents $6 to cross the harbour bridge on weekday mornings would be unacceptable because they said the bridge was already paid for.

Options of single and double cordon tolling smacked of unfairness, said the council.

In their present form, these options meant those coming from the north would face a substantially higher toll for crossing the bridge than motorists crossing the cordons in the west and south.

Only Auckland City residents would pay more in total charges but they, after all, were the main beneficiaries of reduced congestion.

The council believed the network tolling option would result in traffic diverting from the motorway to the already congested local streets.

The parking levies option was unworkable.