Road congestion charges are privatization of roads yet we focus on Friday Pieday????
As I toured around the country hosting live electorate debates during the election, the question of roads would come up a lot and while I would point out the hypocrisy of National and ACT complaining about the current state of roading when it was in fact Key’s term in office that had cut the budgets that generated the current problems, I was always surprised the effective impact of National and ACT roading policy was a de facto privatisation of roads and that never got much coverage.
Congestion charges and Tolls are a means to privatise the roads so that only the wealthy can afford to drive on them.
Without massive investment in free public transport, putting in privatisation models that create a gated community user pays culture over roads the taxpayer has paid many times over for is a political crime against the poor!
Look at classist trash vomited up from Friday Pieday…
Mt Messenger bypass opponents claim it will cost $500k in free pies for workers
Opponents of the Mt Messenger bypass project in Taranaki have a new beef with Waka Kotahi – the cost of ‘Pieday Friday’ although the agency is disputing the cost.
They say the staff event – also known as “Whānau Friday” – could cost up to $500,000 over the life of the project.
But Waka Kotahi said it would cost about $50,000 and was good for morale.
The $280 million Te Ara o Te Ata: Mt Messenger Bypass is a new 6km route on State Highway 3 about 50km north of New Plymouth. Waka Kotahi says it will improve safety, be more resilient and save time.
But opponents are angry about the 30 hectares of bush being sacrificed for the project, saying the existing road should have been upgraded instead.
…backlash towards Friday Pieday is classist trash that speaks to the privilege of the critic.
The contempt those in $500 000 steel 4×4 tanks have towards those wearing orange in the blazing hot sun holding them up while urgent road works are hastily completed is what criticism of Pieday Friday vomits up.
Rich sneering fuckwits begrudging a worker a pie.
There is a class war happening in NZ right now to exclude the under class, the beneficiaries, the working poor, state house tenants, prisoners, exploited migrant workers, the disabled, drug addicts, workers, the 600 000 reliant on food banks each month, the 300 000 living in housing and energy poverty and renters, but thanks to middle class Wellington activists who have stolen all the political oxygen for their woke identity politics virtue signals, we don’t have the vocabulary to articulate class war.
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Buses and EVs and push bikes still have to ride over Pot Holes. Lets fix those first.
But we have elected a government now that was responsible for allowing heavier trucks causing the damage in the first place. We get what we vote for I guess.
However yes, National ,campaigned on this so I guess that will be in the first 100 day manifesto.
The roads in NZ were 3rd world, poor alignment, dangerous, unsuited to increasing traffic use – and when improvements were made little foresight to the future. Arguably it’s all improved – but a good way to go yet. Just get on with it. Tolling? Well, a return journey cost on the new Puhoi extension is much the same as a cold beer in pub or a large takeaway coffee ffs. And cheaper than a Nefliks or Sky Sports subscription. Congestion charges. Well, that’s a different story. In Auckland in particular it’s either that or put up with the status quo. It ain’t going to get any better left to itself.
Mayor Brown’s proposed congestion charge is doomed before it even starts. It’s so obvious he must realise thid. Tolling small sections will only shift the problem and actually make it worse. The only quick fix to city congestion is free/cheap fast public transport; Sir Dove Myer could see that – and Auckland has been in denial ever since. Regional petrol taxes are actually the fairest way to charge for road use, but then Nat/Act have no interesf in ‘fair’.
Bad policy charging NZers to drive on OUR OWN roads no matter what and based on the time it is taking to reach an agreement (new government formation) it’s not looking good for us as a country as how long will it take them to make major decisions especially curly ones.
Privatization aka, neoliberalism, aka sledgehammer tool created by the elitist upper class. The entire world is permanently mired in a class war. Speaks to the power of the upper class and the mechanisms they control , namely politics, media and the war-intel machine, that we are largely none-the-wiser to the corrosive actions they lay down upon us, starting and lingering longest among the lower class before spreading to inflict damage on everyone below the upper class thereafter.
Their media and politicians have us in a bind – for now!
I agree congestion . time-of-use charges are not a silver bullet – the logistics of it alone all sounds all too hard – but in my understanding peak time congestion charges are only smallish part of the solution.
But isn’t there two problems needing two solutions? No doubt related. Congestion is one. Accessible, reliable and affordable public transport at peak times is always going to be a large part of the fix in Auckland. The Northern Expressway route is a prime example, although here lack of public parking at feeder stations is a huge drawback. Not sure if other parts of Auckland have the luxury of an express route other than the designated bus lanes – suburbs that share designated bus lanes always seem very congested to me. Perhaps rail is the answer. A third crossing? We’ll see.
The other problem is finding the revenue to improve, maintain, build roading infrastracture. Without the Ak RFT not sure where that funding is going to come from. Ratepayers no doubt. Central govt? Congestion charges? Perhaps the sale of the remainder of Ak Airport shares?