As Wellington waits for an announcement in its transport future, the Government is continuing to make moves to reshape transport in New Zealand away from over-reliance on the private car and towards a balanced system that gives as many people as possible options for getting off the roads:
- The new Government Policy Statement on Land Transport represents a significant change away from the previous Government’s motorway-dominated transport priorities, as Isabella Cawthorn explains on Talk Wellington. On Newshub, Thomas Coughlan says that public transport is the big winner in the new strategy.
- The previous National-led Government was completely impervious to the well-accepted research finding that adding new capacity encourages more people into cars. The news that the Government is considering tolling Transmission Gully to help prevent this is an encouraging sign that the feared flood of additional cars into Wellington from the North may not materialise.
While we wait to see whether the Government’s new, balanced approach will succeed in cutting Wellington’s motorway-building cabal off at the pass, why not find out how another seaside city, Vancouver, has succeeded in making its transport system work for people, not the other way around?