A couple of weeks back I commented on how poorly informed NZ Herald columnist John Roughan was in an article he wrote on how he “fears” the power and influence the future mayor of the Auckland Super City might have in pushing for public transport improvements. On the excellent blog “Public Address“, Patrick Reynolds (a commenter on this blog occasionally) has written a guest post which picks up on what I was blogging about when it comes to this particular topic.
The whole post is well worth a read, but here are some great excerpts from it:
What ‘monster’ is keeping him [Roughan] awake at night? Is he fretting about global warming, about how we should be looking for opportunities in the coming lower carbon economy, or at least how much it is likely cost to fill his car?
No it’s none of these, quite the reverse really: it’s the fear that the Supercity may help Auckland secure some investment in public transport. Really? This is the thought that has turned our doughty writer into such a fretful sleeper?
‘..the fearful prospect remains’ and ‘..it scared me’ he writes of the idea that Auckland might finally complete the rail line from Britomart to Mt Eden [in an underground loop with new stations at midtown, K’rd, and Newton]. Why such emotive language?
Is it possible that he resorted to this approach to disguise that he offers not one fact to support his alarm? He merely states, again in somewhat unhinged terms, that the CBD Rail loop project is ‘uneconomic pork’.
As I noted at the time, if Roughan’s really worried about “uneconomic pork” then perhaps he should turn his attention northwards a bit.
Patrick’s post continues:
So next time Roughan is stuck in traffic I hope he thanks all those selfless users of Auckland’s incomplete, infrequent, and underfunded rail service for without them imagine how much more stuck he would be. And perhaps he could also imagine how much better his driving experience would be if the Auckland rail system was as complete and interconnected, as modern and efficient as it could be, and therefore used by so many more current car drivers. Heaven knows he may then even be able to calm down enough to ride a train himself?
Roughan asserts that this project must pay for itself directly to be viable. All major transport infrastructure is paid for by taxpayers, no road pays for itself, not even tolled ones. A petrol tax is a tax, like excise on alcohol or income tax, we do not get to slice up our taxes and decide where the money goes but by lobbying the government. And all transport infrastructure is evaluated on an economic basis, not a financial one.
As it’s in Auckland Roughan wants this project paid for by Aucklanders alone [funny how apparently selfless the road lobbyists are]. Well state highways are also all stuck in one place. Perhaps the people of Wellsford should be required to fund the $2 billion plus for the proposed highway up there? By Roughan’s reasoning I should be able to insist that my tax doesn’t get spent on the proposed Transmission Gully project out of Wellington because I don’t live there. Or perhaps I want a refund for all of Chris Carter’s travel? Well I do actually, but it doesn’t work like that, does it?
Of course Roughan may be right, the Supercity just might mean that Auckland gets a chance to have a more balanced and rational infrastructure spend than has been the case over the last 60 years. I certainly hope so. As much as central government loves the idea that we can’t get our act together that is not the case at all. We have been prevented from making our own decisions by Wellington for decades, for example when the Muldoon government killed off Mayor Robbie’s attempt to build this network in the 1970s.
I always find it amusing when central government politicians say “well Auckland should pay for that project itself.” Hmmm… where does a huge chunk of the government’s tax come from? Where does a huge chunk of the National Land Transport Fund come from? Auckland, that’s where.
The comments thread makes for interesting reading too.
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Using the “region can pay for its own projects” mantra will mean Rodney and Northland residents are going to have huge bill to pay when they fund the Holiday Highway.
Love the comment from the person suggesting that Singapore’s MRT has a catchment radii of 2km and therefore Mt Eden and Grafton are sufficiently close to service the city. Having been there I can definitely say that the catchment was closer to 2km diameter at least in the inner city. I live 2km from my work at Wellesley Street and I can definitely say I would not be happy having to walk the 40 minutes or so that it takes everyday, let alone having to do so after already being on an hour long train ride from Waitakere.
Mt Eden station to, for argument’s sake, the ARC building is almost exactly 2 km and would take 25 minutes to walk each way according to Google Maps. I don’t think that’s a particularly attractive proposition.
I’d say more like 30-35 minutes, when one considers the terrain. Google Maps doesn’t do a very good job of allowing for hills on walking routes. Also, the average human walking speed is 4km/h.
To be fair to Angus, on page 4 of the comments he does say he’s been convinced that the CBD tunnel is necessary. However he still thinks it’s economically risky at present. I’m working on him 🙂
I didn’t get that far to be honest. It is still nice to know that sound reasoning can convince some people to change their minds, unlike certain others.
I have to say, I am rather fond of the “regions pay for their own projects in their entirety” concept. Let Auckland keep all its transport-related taxes. We’ll be fine. Sucks to be living south of the Bombays, though.
Yeah, sometimes I feel like Auckland needs to be its own state and only pay Wellington for things like Police and defence while we pay for regional things like transport. Of course I can just hear the great wailing and gnashing of teeth when Wellington figures out just how much money they would miss out on.
Sometimes I think Roughan is still afraid of communists under the bed….
In some cases you could probably push a walk catchment out to 1000m, however the other consideration is with the right design and planning you can have a cycle, bus and park-n-ride catchment of 3-5km.
1km is 15 minutes’ walk at the average speed of 4km/h. That’s quite a long time if you’re going to then catch a train before doubtless walking further still to your final destination.
The Singapore study alluded to further up had a 2km catchment but relied on buses and bicycle to feed passengers beyond about 800m from the MTR station. The accepted distance that most people are prepared to walk looks to be 400-800 metres.
Interesting that Roughan mentions the late Sir John Allum. I remember seeing Allum a couple of times on TV shortly before his death in 1971. He had long since retired from public life but some civic matter had got him into the studio. He appeared to me to be a hectoring bullying type who resented anyone with a different point of view. This may not have been the real Allum but that is certainly how I remember him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10666443
“Some say it is a city without soul. It has certainly become a collection of suburbs without a centre, connected by motorways that have sacrificed whole communities to the private car.” Hmmm…
That comment would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic
“Oh like when a clown dies. ” Homer Simpson
@James – seems he is willing to decry Auckland traffic when it fits one of his columns, but happy to toe the ROADS party line otherwise.
Yeah as do most people when they have a weak argument.