Our guide to having your say on the draft RLTP 2024

Auckland’s draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) 2024 is open for feedback – and you only have until Monday 17 June to submit. Do it! Join the thousands of Aucklanders who are speaking up for wise strategic investment that will dig us out of traffic and give us easy and healthy options for getting around our city.

Why is this so important?

Auckland’s RLTP outlines the region’s transport investment over the next 10 years. The programme is partly funded by Auckland Transport – primarily through Auckland Council – and partly by Waka Kotahi (NZTA) through the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF).

So the RLTP aims to set out Auckland’s transport challenges, and then the investment priorities, to arrive at what projects should be delivered – and when – in the coming decade.

The final RLTP will inform the National Land Transport Plan (NLTP), which is developed by Waka Kotahi and allocates funding from the NLTF to transport projects. The NLTP is also informed by the policy direction of the current government via the Government Policy Statement (GPS).

Given how radically the central government’s transport priorities diverge from Auckland’s, it is vitally important that you have your say to ensure Aucklanders get the transport investment we need and want.

We’ve put together a quick guide to detail our thoughts on the RLTP, below. Feel free to take inspiration from us when you make your own submission.

Here are the key links:

• The RLTP Overview Page
• The feedback form – where you get to have your say
• The full Draft RLTP 2024 (100+ pages)
• A 2-page summary of the Draft RLTP 2024
• A map showing where the RLTP projects fall across the region
• FAQs

Physical copies of the draft RLTP document are available at Auckland Council libraries. Also, if you would like to present your views in person or via an audio-visual link, you can email ATengagement@at.govt.nz to book a time slot. Public hearings will be held 26 & 27 June 2024 at 20 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Auckland.

And here are a few other handy guides to giving feedback:

• Bike Auckland’s RLTP feedback guide
• Climate Club’s RLTP feedback guide
• The RLTP Replanetizer 
• An overview at The Spinoff

Our general thoughts

We’ve previously noted that the gap between the government’s road obsession and Auckland’s own multimodal ambitions could mean the RLTP shaping up to be a debacle – and that Auckland will need to exert some local authority to get better outcomes in the coming decade. The graphs below demonstrate the gulf between central and local government thinking:

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Update: overall, while the draft RLTP contains some good projects, there are also some very large and expensive projects being imposed by central government that Auckland really doesn’t want or need right now – aka More RoNs.

There are also a lot of gaps that are not being addressed – chiefly in active and public transport – and some huge missed opportunities, like leveraging the spending on renewals and maintenance to get better outcomes and give more people more transport choices.

Moreover, the RLTP needs to be fully aligned with (what should by now be) the overriding policies and directions from Auckland Council, such as the Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway (TERP) and Vision Zero for safer streets. An Auckland plan, that follows what Aucklanders have repeatedly asked for, and that delivers what Aucklanders want and need, in this most critical of climate decades.

Now let’s address the feedback survey questions, in order…

Q. Have we correctly identified the most important challenges facing Auckland?

Funnily enough, yes. The RLTP clearly and persuasively outlines the challenges – as below. It’s how these challenges are addressed that’s the big issue.

• Access and connectivity Easy and equitable access to work, education, and fun leisure locations is made more difficult by weak spots in our transport system and increasing demand as our population grows.
• Asset condition Cost increases and past under-investment in renewing our roads and other assets is leading to the deterioration of our existing transport assets, which impacts levels of service and leads to greater costs over time.
• Climate change and the environment Greenhouse gas and pollution, particularly from private vehicle use, are contributing to climate change, and creating air and water quality issues.
• Safety Transport-related deaths and serious injuries remain unacceptably high, and there are limited opportunities for Aucklanders to support better health outcomes through walking and cycling.
• Travel choices A lack of options and high levels of car dependency as the city grows makes it difficult for Auckland to grow as a city and a region.

Q. Are we missing anything from the draft RLTP priorities?

The priorities are also mostly good, too. The “five criteria to prioritise the additional projects and investments that can help keep Auckland moving forward over the next decade” are:

• Fast and connected
• Resilient
• Productive
• Safe
• Sustainable

But Bike Auckland makes a good point about something that should be in there as its own priority:

Bike Auckland says: Yes – Transport Choice

Despite identifying Transport Choice as a problem to be solved, they have not included it as a priority. They hint at it within the priorities listed, but it is not listed as a priority in-and-of itself. Since having a diversity of viable transport options is a key part of solving all the other challenges they have listed, it should be its own priority. Remember: if the only viable choice for a given journey is to drive, then everyone will drive, and our roads will be full of so many cars that they can barely move.

Q. Which priority is most important to you?

Here, you have the choice of the five priorities (plus an extra one of your choosing), and you can also choose to say they’re all equally important. Your call. Prioritising projects that are “Sustainable” will naturally lead to other important priorities, like resilience, and fast and connected public transport – but the choice is up to you.

Q. Which priority is least important to you?

Again, over to your personal preference. Choosing “equally important” is fine.

Q. How would you rank the kinds of projects?

When ranking the types of projects for investment, in our view it is very important that state highways are ranked the least important (5), with local roads ranked just above (4).  The top 3 are more interchangeable, and up to personal preference.

Here’s how we think they could be ranked.

• • 1. Public Transport Improvements
    2. Walking & Cycling Improvements
    3. Safety Improvements
    4. Local Road improvements
    5. State highway improvements

Q. Are there any projects that are not in the draft plan that you feel should be included?

We think yes!

Firstly, there’s a variety of walking and cycling programs that are being “considered” for inclusion but are not currently in the draft RLTP.

We say the draft RLTP should include the Walking & Cycling Connections Programmes, Wayfinding investment, and the Urban Cycleways Waitematā Safe Routes (to complete the Inner West) – check out  Bike Auckland’s guide for a strong list with lots of good suggestions.

There’s also a variety of work that integrates active transport modes with rapid transit and public transport, such as the Rosedale Station, which should be prioritised or receive funding.

Secondly, there needs to be more investment and priority given to traffic calming and safety measures such as raised pedestrian crossings, and projects like the Residential Speed Management and City Centre Access for Everyone programmes, which would create incredibly beneficial and widely popular low traffic neighbourhoods as are seen overseas.

Thirdly, the RLTP has some glaring gaps when it comes to major rapid transit projects. It’s good NW rapid transit is prioritised, but there is nothing that replaces the scrapped ALR project in the City Centre to Māngere corridor, where it has been long agreed between Auckland Council and the Government that rapid transit is needed. It’s a great line to start light rail in Auckland, and there should be some work towards eventually getting surface light rail running down Queen Street and Dominion Road.

This is not an exclusive list of suggestions for additions. Check out the map of the currently proposed projects here – so you can see what’s missing along your daily travels and in your neighbourhoods.

Q. Which planned project could be removed to pay for it?

Take your pick of these state highways/ RoNS & RoRS. Your call. (Note that the SH1 Warkworth to Wellsford is highest on the list, so we’d go for that).

• • • East-West Link
    • Mill Road
    • SH1 Warkworth to Wellsford

Q. Do you have any additional comments on the draft RLTP?

Yes:

While the GPS is attempting to constrain the RLTP, it is vitally important that Auckland’s needs and priorities should take precedence.

Auckland doesn’t need the proposed Roads of National or Regional Significance, as these will do nothing but induce more congestion and raise our transport emissions, and take away funding from far more useful projects.

Major investment is better directed towards public transport improvements that provide real transport choice on major corridors, like Rapid Transit for the NW, and options like surface light rail.

The general priorities outlined in the feedback survey are good in theory, but the funding prioritisation does not necessarily reflect meaningful action. For example: if large scale funding for renewals and maintenance is essential, this shouldn’t result in a return to the current status quo. As we’ve said before, Auckland’s huge recurring investment in maintenance and renewals must be leveraged to encourage mode shift – by including cycling, walking, and public transport improvements. That way, every time a street is fixed or repaved, we also “build back better” to make it safer and diversify people’s transport choices.

Using the Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway, adopted in late 2022 by Auckland Council, will naturally produce these outcomes. So the whole RLTP needs to be underpinned by the TERP – it must guide all transport investment for the coming decade, to reflect and mitigate our climate crisis.

The RLTP also needs to reflect what Aucklanders want, as seen in the Long Term Plan. There is a legal case that shows the RLTP doesn’t have to blindly follow the GPS – and this should certainly be the case here. Investments in public transport, walking, and cycling are vital for Auckland’s future and have to be prioritised in this RLTP. Otherwise, the stated aims simply will not be achieved.

Let this be the decade where actions match words – and where Aucklanders get the real transport choice we all want and deserve.

You have until Monday 17th of June to have your say. Over to you!

We also warmly encourage younger people to add their voices – they have to live the longest with the outcomes (and costs) of these decisions. Children and young people are also woefully underrepresented in these consultations – something AT has been publicly pointing out as well.

So if you can, reach out and help younger Aucklanders to speak up and use their influence. We’ll all be better off for it.

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