Month: March 2017

Same Old, Same Old: The Draft Government Policy Statement On Land Transport

Posted on by stb_nyltr0

The Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport is the context in which all Government land transport policy is developed – and ever since the current National-led Government came to power, successive Government Policy Statements have been heavily focused on roading, despite the clear evidence that building more roads does not solve congestion.

Unfortunately, the latest draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport shows no sign of changing this.

Its strategic priorities are unchanged from the 2015 GPS (p. 8):

The three strategic priorities, continued from GPS 2015 are:

  •  economic growth and productivity
  •  road safety
  •  value for money.

Strikingly missing from these strategic priorities is the environmental performance of our land transport system. Perhaps that’s because it’s already bad and rapidly getting worse: whether in regard to the serious local health effects of particulate emissions from transport, the effect of motorway-building on urban environments, or the urgent need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport.

The New Zealand Government has ratified the Paris Agreement, taking on a commitment for a substantial reduction in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. Land transport is responsible for around 20% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the volume of transport emissions has been rising steadily. Land transport is second only to agriculture as a greenhouse gas emitting sector.

The Government is relying mainly on a move to electric vehicles to reduce transport emissions. However, the composition and replacement rate of the New Zealand vehicle fleet both mean that, even if such a change were to occur, it would not occur either fully or quickly enough to produce the level of emissions reduction required.

Therefore, one of the aims of the Government Policy Statement should be to drive a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from transport. This can be achieved by prioritising the use of public transport and of active modes and the provision of the necessary infrastructure, and by deemphasising the provision of infrastructure for private motor vehicles, which will in turn encourage more journeys by what is currently a highly polluting motor vehicle fleet.

Based on this draft Government Policy Statement, the ratification of the Paris Agreement is not being reflected in actual Government policy.

How to submit

Submissions on the draft Government Policy Statement close at 5pm on Friday 31 March 2017. Details of how to download the draft Strategy, and make submissions, can be found on the Government draft GPS page at

http://www.transport.govt.nz/ourwork/keystrategiesandplans/gpsonlandtransportfunding/

The Covers Are About To Come Off New Wellington Transport Plans

Posted on by stb_nyltr0

Ever since late 2015, the Let’s Get Welly Moving project set up by NZTA, Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington (Wellington Regional Council) has been working away behind the scenes to take a fresh look at Wellington’s transport, access and mobility needs in the wake of the defeat of NZTA’s proposed Basin Reserve flyover.

As part of their announced commitment to openness, LGWM ran extensive public engagement in early 2016. Since then, however, and despite the recent release of their progress report (PDF, 2MB), it’s all gone a bit quiet.

But at long last the covers are about to come off LGWM’s thinking. Have they been planning for a sustainable, multi-modal transport system, with an emphasis on walking, cycling, and modern, environmentally friendly public transport – or will it be all about “more lanes to the planes” – or will they try to please everyone?

And what do they have in mind around and near the Basin? Will the future of the Basin Reserve be safeguarded, or will it once again be put at risk?

We’ll start to find out at two LGWM workshops later in March – but attendance at these workshops has been strictly controlled, and that raises its own set of questions.

Save the Basin looked at these issues in a Dominion Post OpEd that appeared on Wednesday 8 March:

On the same day, Michael Barnett of FIT Wellington drew attention to NZTA’s motorway-oriented mission mindset, and the regressive impact this was having on attempts to develop a sustainable transport system for Wellington:

Meanwhile, in the courts…

We hear a lot about “four lanes to the planes”, but what if the planes don’t come? Wellington Airport has been pushing its runway extension plans hard, but their economic analysis amounts to “build it and they will come”. That may have worked for Kevin Costner in the movies, but it rarely works in the real world.

And in any case, the runway extension project continues to run into delays and legal troubles. Here’s the latest from opposition group Guardians of the Bays:

At this point, the future of the project, and whether the planned resource consent hearing in the Environment Court will even go ahead, is unknown. Maybe there are better things to spend the transport dollar on than building motorways to an airport that can’t get its act together?

If the project did go ahead, it would lead to years of additional heavy truck movements – up to 60 truck movements per hour, thirty out and thirty back – around the Basin Reserve. Save the Basin thinks that’s a very bad idea, and we’ll be drawing attention to the implications of that during the Environment Court hearing on the project, if the hearing does ever go ahead.