I really try to avoid the Auckland rush hour but this morning I had to get to an appointment and so I got stuck in some gridlocked commuter traffic .
Instead of spending vast amounts of money to make our roads bigger and wider just to clog them up again with more and more cars -why don’t we make public transport free and charge people a premium to taking their car into the city?
We could have lots of small and extremely regular feeder buses going through the suburbs to ferry passengers to connector hubs where bigger buses or trains take them on a fastrak into the city .
Then the same process would happen in reverse for coming home
I’d really like to see a reputable group of economists to model this idea, because my guess is we ‘d save ourselves a lot of money , live less stressful lives and we’d really be doing our bit to reduce global warming.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Great idea,
We can see how it well it works for those with a gold card. That concept should be extended to other groups.
Read this story or watch Robert Caro explanation how the NY public roads project actually destroyed ‘suburban New York communities when the Governor Robert Mosses bulldozed communities for his expressway for cars and trucks.
He even stopped rail from building a new spur line to give access to poorer people to get rail passenger service in the 1950’.
https://truthout.org/video/robert-caro-on-writing-about-political-power-and-its-impact-on-the-powerless/
Why not make housing healthy and affordable? Too hard? Don’t care beyond lip service because you’re a member of the propertied class?
Now your’e talking.
Will probably inspire a USAMO ‘Guano’ puppet calling it dangerous socialism.
But, way to go.
Even with a Gold card, for the disabled – including myself, it’s very challenging to even think about using a walker, wheelchair, etc., & travel by public transport. On arrival, more challenges – getting to another suburb & & & – it is just too exhausting for me, so on the (now rare) occasions that I must go to Auckland, I will drive myself there & round about the city suburbs.
This is a very good idea especially if we want to reduce car use and dependency we need to start thinking along these lines
The problems with Auckland traffic go much deeper than what free travel on buses would potentially assist with.
This is a city that (like most other NZ cities) has grown and spread without any of the necessary infrastructure to go with it.
Let’s start with relatively new housing subdivisions such as Botany, Dannemora, Hobsonville Pt, Long Bay etc.
Where is the heavy rail to these places?
Non-existent, and unlikely to ever happen now because the routes have been built out, and any alternative way to get it there would be cost prohibitive.
“We’ll just build roads and then people can use cars and buses”. Great. You’ve just added another traffic jam.
Auckland used to have a very good tram network. Some clever dick in the council back in the 1950s decided it was past its time and had it ripped out because the motorcar and these new ‘omnibuses’ were the answer. Yes! More vehicles to clog the roads – except the population of Auckland was much lower back then and fewer people had cars.
Integrated transport solutions are needed (and work) to assist people to move relatively freely around a city.
Trams / light rail is the answer in the CBD area and to the outlying suburbs – much as it was with the historic network that Auckland had.
The trams would also take people from the CBD to the central railway station in Beach Rd, and from there you could travel to the outer suburbs. Buses then took people from the railway stations in these areas to the ‘last mile’.
The reason people take their cars is because the public transport system is broken. A city full of buses is not the answer.
Buses, like trains, are making a difference, but they’re not part of an integrated system and they doe’t go where they need to.
A large percentage of people live in parts of the city which aren’t served by either – or the nearest bus stop or railway station is several kilometres or more away.
Despite best efforts by well intentioned people, I don’t see the traffic and transport problem in Auckland being solved any time soon. The city will just grind on as it has done for so long now.
The CRL will help, but it’s not going be the saviour that solves the traffic woes.
Why not make bus travel free?
BECAUSE IT WOULD HURT THE NEO LIBERAL SNOWFLAKES , THAT’S WHY.
Nothing is free
Fuel tax
or rates or my tax would increase
User pays fact of life
You’re quite the denialist, short sighted, historically inept , post 1984 dickhead aren’t you ?
Here. let me provide some insight.
New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html
Have a good read.
Then stop showing your stupidity in public for all to see.
Your tax may increase but it would be far less than what you’re presently paying for your car.
And, of course, a hell of a lot of my taxes goes into keeping you in car heaven despite the fact that I don’t own a car. Those roads aren’t free you know but you’re not paying for them fully.
All you’ve really done here is prove that you don’t understand economics. If we did have free public transport it would cost us less than providing you with the ability to drive.
Brian, “We could have lots of small and extremely regular feeder buses going through the suburbs to ferry passengers to connector hubs where bigger buses or trains take them on a fastrak into the city.” In the UK they have a system that approximates to that. Its called Park and Ride.
However, in a short while the advent of self-drive electric cars will change all that. An electric car has only 20 moving parts, I hear. The battery is virtually all the cost, so all electric cars will be virtually identical. That kills the ego trip of of owning one.
It will be better to not own one and order one to your door as needed.
The typical car is on the road only about an hour per day. If self drivecars are on the road for an 8 hour day traffic density would be miniscule compared to now. All we need is an imaginative Government. Fat chance!
No it won’t. Self-drive electric cars will still cause the congestion because everyone will still be trying to do one person per car.
Common sense was thrown out the window a long time ago when it comes to Auckland transport.
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