A transport system that makes Auckland work

Te Komititanga, outside Waitematā Britomart Station

We’ve known for decades the successful elements which make a city work. Key to this is safe, reliable, and attractive transport choices. Unfortunately, for the last 75 years we have primarily built our city to force everyone to only travel in one way—driving.

Even after a lot of progress in the last few decades, and the upcoming opening of the City Rail Link, a great many Aucklanders will still have no choice but to drive everywhere. But we see each and every day that this isn’t working. It’s clogging up our city, forcing us to spend more and more time stuck in traffic. 

The only way to move people around a city like Auckland, or in fact any city, is by making public transport and active modes as attractive as possible. The more people who can travel by space-efficient modes like buses, trains and bikes, the more space is freed up for those who need to drive.

Comparing the road space taken up by 60 cars (carrying 69 people at typical occupancy rates) and the same number of people travelling by bus or bike. (Photo: Cycling Promotion Fund, Canberra)

To make public transport work for people, it needs to be fast, frequent, and reliable.

Take Dominion Road. The third busiest bus corridor in the city. Although the majority of people travel by bus at peak times, buses get stuck in traffic, increasing delays and making them unreliable. If people don’t think buses are a good option, they will drive, adding to the already congested corridor.

The 25L at the Mt Roskill shops on Dominion Road. About 7500 people travel along Dominion Rd by bus on an average day.

The best way to reduce congestion and move more people is to prioritise buses with dedicated lanes so that trips are reliable, and make the timetable frequent so it is easy to catch one. This will allow more people to travel to work, study, play, or home, and bring more people to the many great businesses along the bus routes. Bus users understand this; unfortunately, C&R don’t, and have opposed extending bus lane hours and the bus lanes themselves, calling a daily time saving of several minutes for thousands of bus users a ‘minimal benefit’. 

Or we can look at active modes—cycling and walking. A third of car trips taken in Auckland are less than 2km, while half are less than 6km, which is perfect for a ride on an e-bike. Safe biking and walking also solves the ‘last mile’ problem of public transport: if it’s easy to walk or bike (or scoot) the distance from home to the nearest train station or frequent bus route, that brings public transport within reach of many more people. However, even though most people, especially kids, are interested in cycling to get around, they do not feel safe riding on roads.

This is why we need safe cycling infrastructure, which provides the comfort Aucklanders need to travel to where they need to go by bike. And this frees up the road for those who want or need to drive, such as tradies. Finishing cycling networks in places like the Inner West, where projects have progressed this term despite the opposition of C&R, will supercharge the already growing number of people able to cycle safely to where they need to go.

If we want to actually solve Auckland's transport problems, we need to provide actual transport options  that move people around in a space efficient way. Luckily for us, doing this also improves a lot of other things about our city. It reduces air pollution and makes our streets quieter. It reduces our carbon emissions to help fight climate change. It makes our roads safer so fewer of our loved ones are killed and seriously injured. It improves our health (and saves our health system money) through more exercise.

It lets us build connections with each other as we walk and cycle through our neighbourhoods, and run into friends new and old on our buses and trains.

This local election there is a clear choice between voting for policies that will make congestion worse or policies that make for a functioning transport system. City Vision is committed to safe, efficient transport for all Aucklanders.