KEY POINTS:
Auckland City leaders are questioning the environmental values of Waiheke Island residents who have snubbed a car-pooling trial which was to have begun this morning.
"Where are their green hearts?" council transport committee chairman Richard Simpson lamented yesterday, as a lack of takers for the trial looked likely to force an indefinite delay.
Mr Simpson understood just one person had volunteered for the trial, but even that proved over-optimistic. Council staff admitted last night they had not received a single application from the more than 1200 commuters who catch ferries between Waiheke and Auckland each day.
Residents prepared to share cars with at least two other people were invited to register for a six-week trial to qualify for "priority" parking in reserved spaces near the island's main ferry wharf at Matiatia.
But the council's introduction in 2005 of a $6 daily parking charge remains controversial for many, including Ferry User Group chairwoman Jan Scott, who said the trial offer meant little without a discount.
She said the boycott organised by her group remained successful, to the point that the previously over-crowded parking area now had plenty of free spaces with no need for priority allocations.
Many commuters were already involved in informal car-pooling arrangements, so did not see any advantage in joining a council scheme.
Residents also foresaw problems trying to ensure those sharing a car in the morning caught the same ferry home in the evening.
The council's Hauraki Gulf Islands transport manager, Andrew Allen, said an important objective had been to gather information about residents' travel habits so enough priority spaces for car-pooling could be included in plans to redevelop Matiatia as a key transport hub.
He had hoped people involved in informal car-pooling would join the trial. It would have offered them certainly in finding parking spaces metres from the ferry terminal, where the council has spent $12.5 million buying land for a gateway development.
Mr Allan said the council would have to resort to a survey to gain the necessary information, although he hoped there would be a trial later, even if it needed a parking discount.
Mr Simpson said he was "gutted" at the lack of response.
He had hoped Waiheke could have led the rest of Auckland towards car-pooling with the same success as its "walking school buses."
Waiheke Island Community Board chairman Raymond Ericson said it was unfair to question residents' "green" credentials, given that the issue was complicated by their resentment at being deprived of free parking along a waterfront they had always regarded as their own.
