MEDIA RELEASE
“Today’s
release of a study showing the benefits of road pricing in Auckland is a step
in the right direction, but if we don’t take action and move to implementation,
we will be having the same conversation again in another five years,” says
Hamish Glenn, Policy Director at Infrastructure New Zealand.
“The Congestion Question's Phase Two report shows that
tolling strategic corridors on the Auckland road network would lead to an 8-12%
network improvement, similar to traffic flows during school holidays.
“This
result is unsurprising to anyone familiar with this topic – Stockholm saw
sustained 20% reductions in flow after its scheme was introduced – and is
consistent with earlier reports on road pricing in Auckland over the last 15
years.
“Unfortunately,
the only thing that has changed in that period is that congestion has become
worse.
“Congestion
is not only a problem in Auckland, as Wellington is facing very similar
problems going forward, with an even more restricted physical landscape.
“The
Government should investigate how an Auckland solution could be implemented in
other regions or indeed nationwide.
“The
time to act is now. Not only is congestion continuing to worsen, our
increasingly efficient vehicle fleet is paying less and less into the National
Land Transport Fund, meaning there will be less money to maintain our existing
network.
“The
Government needs to consider how road pricing schemes could integrate with
broader road user charges for non-fossil fuel vehicles in the future.
“Our
Government has an unprecedented mandate to solve the long-standing issues we
are facing. We hope they find the courage to seize the solutions that we have
known about for a long time,” says Glenn.
In
2015 Infrastructure New Zealand featured insights into the successful road
pricing scheme in Stockholm, much of which informed today’s report. To learn
more about why and how the Stockholm approach to road pricing worked, click here to watch a presentation from Jonas
Eliasson, former Head of Stockholm City Transportation Department, that he gave
for one of our past Building Nations Symposiums.
ENDS
For further information and
comment contact Hamish Glenn on 021 034 7229
