Transport planning under fire

An alleged mismatch between transport and land-use planning for Auckland has been condemned by a regional councillor as an energy-draining drag on the nation's economy.

"It's like driving the economy with the choke out all the time - like leaving the lights on during the daytime," councillor Joel Cayfor, told the regional council's transport committee yesterday.

"I don't know what more we need to do to persuade the powers-that-be of the need to link land-use planning with transport planning."

Dr Cayford, who is also a board member of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, was criticising proposed changes to a Government policy statement including a diversion of $420 million to state highway construction from other categories of the national land transport fund, such as public transport, walking and cycling.

He said New Zealand used up 45 per cent of its primary energy resources for transporting people and goods, a proportion "way more than any other Western economy".

"It's not productive - we don't export transport."

Auckland had a particularly bad record of allowing growth of industries and jobs away from main routes.

Dr Cayford cited research by an Australian academic which estimated that 14 per cent of Auckland's gross domestic product was spent on transport, against 5 per cent for most modern European and Asian cities.

He believed that should be emphasised to the Government, given its stated priority of investing in transport infrastructure for economic growth, which has been given by Transport Minister Steven Joyce as one of his reasons for changing the policy statement inherited from Labour.

The other given reason is to reflect the transport choices which are "realistically available" to New Zealanders, of whom 84 per cent use cars to travel to work each day.

Regional council deputy chairman Michael Barnett suggested that higher productivity achieved by other countries may be a reason transport swallowed up smaller portions of their gross domestic product.