Category: Roads of National Significance

An Inspiring Saturday With Save Kapiti

Posted on by tjonescan

A number of us from the Save the Basin Campaign spent last Saturday at Whakarongotai Marae in Waikanae, at a hui organised by Save Kapiti spokesperson Bianca Begovich, and wonderfully hosted by the tangata whenua.

Save Kapiti are campaigning against the proposed Kapiti Expressway, which, like the proposed Basin Reserve flyover, is one of the current National Government’s “Roads of National Significance” proposals. The Kapiti Expressway would be a massive and (yet again) unnecessary motorway, designed to meet the interests of the trucking industry, that would destroy many homes and split Kapiti Coast communities apart.

The Government sent the Kapiti Expressway proposal to an EPA Board of Inquiry hearing which, true to the EPA’s role as a rubber-stamping mechanism, ignored the evidence presented to it by anyone other than NZTA, and decided in favour of the Expressway. Save Kapiti have appealed this decision, and their appeal will be heard in the High Court on 10 July – but, whatever the result of the appeal, they are also exploring other means of opposition that will become public in due course.

Save Kapiti, and other groups such as Alliance for Sustainable Kapiti (ASK) have spent three years and a great deal of money fighting this appalling proposal. It’s been hard, demanding work. But guess what? They are still going strong.

100 people attended the hui – even setting aside the contingents from Save the Basin and Generation Zero who attended, that is 90 Kapiti Coast residents who said, loud and clear, that they are not going to give in to NZTA and Government bullying, that they are going to keep fighting, and that the Kapiti Expressway is going to be stopped.

I was inspired by their commitment, determination, and unity. I was impressed by the strong support for Save Kapiti expressed at the hui by Greens transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter and Labour transport spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway (Labour and the Greens being two of the five parties who also oppose a Basin flyover). And it was great to get a sense of where Save Kapiti is going next. Much as NZTA and the Government would wish otherwise, one place they aren’t going is away.

But the hui was also a valuable source of tactical insight for the Save the Basin Campaign. One of the most interesting contributions came from a former NZTA manager who had resigned in protest over NZTA’s Expressway plans. I asked her what NZTA hated most, and the answer was: bad publicity. Every critical media release, every Letter to the Editor slamming their plans and calling attention to their bad faith, is something NZTA’s managers have to explain away to their bosses and to the Minister.

So the takeaway message here is: keep the bad news coming for NZTA. Keep writing letters to the paper. Keep commenting on flyover-related articles on Wellington Scoop and elsewhere. Tell your MP and your councillors that you don’t want and will oppose a Basin flyover. And watch out for some major opportunities to help Save the Basin with publicity over the next few months.

Also, remember that one of the best ways you can help right now is by donating to Save the Basin. Find out how here: http://savethebasin.org.nz/donate/

Government’s plan to construct Roads of National Significance is a decade too late, says Canadian transport expert

Posted on by tjonescan

Todd Litman, a transport expert visiting Wellington from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, told a recent Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Centre seminar that the Government’s Roads of National Significance plans (which include the proposed Basin Reserve flyover) are a decade too late, because car use has peaked.

As reported by Wellington Scoop, Todd Litman said:

It’s time to employ a new urban planning model – one that favours accessibility over mobility – in order to meet increased consumer demand for walking, cycling and public transport.

Todd Litman went on to make some points that all New Zealand transport planners – and political parties – should be listening to. To again quote the Wellington Scoop report:

Decline in the auto industry is due to an ageing population, increases in fuel cost, urbanization, traffic and parking congestion, roading costs, changing consumer preferences, environmental and health concerns. He cited an Economist article from 22 September 2012 that went further, showing how the next generation is less inclined to get behind the wheel, and not even learning how to drive until later in life, if at all.

“Change in consumer demands is a terrific opportunity to save money and satisfy people’s demand for walking, biking, and public transport,” he added. “Unfortunately, the planning community is not taking advantage of this. We need to expand the scope of planning objectives. Formerly, it was focused on the speed of travel. I think there are a number of other objectives.”

The full presentation and audio from Todd Litman’s presentation have now been placed online by Motu. You can access them here:

http://www.motu.org.nz/building-capacity/past_public_policy_seminars#2013

We’d like to congratulate Motu for having the foresight to organise this seminar – and thank Todd Litman for bringing a reality check to a New Zealand transport planning scene that is dominated by outdated assumptions and business-as-usual thinking.

Whisper Who Dares: Is The NZTA The Government’s Enemy Within?

Posted on by tjonescan

Many transport experts have weighed in on the short-sightedness, excessive cost and general all-around stupidity of the Government’s $10-billion-and-counting Roads of National Significance motorway-building programme. Now it’s time to meet the latest body to weigh in on the evils of the RONS – a disgruntled bunch called the New Zealand Transport Agency!

At a hearing in Queenstown over a plan to replace the current one-lane bridge over the Kawerau River with a two-lane bridge, the NZTA said that the Government’s Roads of National Significance programme is preventing it from upgrading important infrastructure in the regions as soon as it would like.

Senion project manager Phil Dowsett is quoted by Radio New Zealand as saying that the Roads of National Significance programme has pushed projects like this one to the bottom of the funding list.

There has been plenty of criticism from the regions of the way the RONS has sucked money out of local road maintenance – and if Phil Dowsett was a lone voice within NZTA, it would be easy to write him off as a maverick, or maybe just unusually forthright.

But from what we’re hearing, he is far from a lone voice. In reaction to our recent criticism of NZTA – criticism we think is richly justified by the agency’s public actions and statements – we’ve heard that, behind the scenes, a number of NZTA staff members are all too aware of the deficiencies of the Basin Reserve flyover project, but feel constrained by their position from saying so.

Sometimes, in these situations, word has a way of getting out. If you hear something of interest, please email us at stoptheflyover@gmail.com, or come up and talk to us at forthcoming public events.