HOT Lanes
No. Not anything about the temperature, spicyness or physical attractiveness. High Occupancy Toll Lanes are a fairly recent phenomenon becoming increasingly widespread throughout the USA. A recent Atlantic Cities article covers the introduction of a pretty large scheme, implemented by way of a public private partnership (PPP) in Washington DC:
The expanded roadway – two lanes in each direction, from the I-95 interchange to Tysons Corner – will be made of High-Occupancy Tolls, or HOT lanes.…
18 Comments The future of fuel taxes
Earlier this week the “fuel excise duty” (FED) increased by 2 cents per litre. As the Herald noted, taxes of one form or another now make up nearly $1 pre litre from what you pay at the pump:
* Fuel excise – 50.524c
* GST – 27.77c
* ACC levy – 9.9c
* Local authorities fuel tax – 0.66c
* Petroleum monitoring levy – 0.045c
* Total tax – 88.899c.…
Strong support for motorway tolls?
An article in today’s Herald notes the results of a survey undertaken by the NZ Council for Infrastructure Development, which looks at different levels of support for different ‘alternative’ funding mechanisms for paying for Auckland’s transport system.
Pollsters have found almost two-thirds support from Aucklanders for motorway tolls to ease congestion and raise extra transport money.…
How to cover Auckland’s (supposed) transport funding gap?
The Council issued a press release today highlighting that it’s shifting to the next phase of analysing ways in which to bridge the $10-15 billion funding gap between the projects that are (supposedly) required over the next 30 years and the amount of money available under traditional funding schemes.…
Motorway tolling is a stupid idea
The Auckland Council’s business advisory group has decided, based on what wisdom I don’t know, that the best way to raise the supposedly necessary additional funding to build Auckland super-expensive motorways like an Additional Harbour Crossing and the East-West Link, is through tolling people who travel on the motorway network.…
Fixing Congestion: Carrot or Stick?
Congestion pricing seems likely to become a bit of a hot topic in Auckland over the next few months, as various ways to ‘plug the gap’ between the amount of money required for the transport projects wanted and the amount of funding actually available are explored.…
A good Herald editorial
I must say I was rather shocked this morning to find an editorial in the NZ Herald on transport matters that I agreed with to such a great extent. Typical editorialist John Roughan, with his “Auckland wants to sprawl” and “Auckland should pay for the City Rail Link if we really want it” (not that I disagree there, our petrol taxes should help pay for it, but I don’t think that’s what he means) must have been away because I can’t ever recall seeing such a strongly pro public transport editorial.…
Thinking about urban limits
Hearings on the Auckland Spatial Plan have now begun, and over the next month thousands of Aucklanders will get the opportunity to elaborate on the submission they made. One of the most contentious issues up for debate will be the shape of Auckland’s future urban growth: should we grow out, should we intensify, should we have a mix of the two, what level of mix should we have?…
The problem with network pricing
I’m not opposed in principle to congestion charging, road pricing or road tolling. It’s clear that congestion occurs because there’s too much demand for road space at certain times of day. It’s also clear that building more road space doesn’t solve the problem – because it simply ‘induces’ demand.…
Guest Post: User Pays or Carbon Tax?
This is a Guest Post by regular commenter Patrick Reynolds.
In 2007 the Transport Minister Labour’s Annette King formalised NZ’s excise tax on petrol as a hypothecated tax for the National Land Transport Fund. This means that the tax is only to be used for funding transport.…
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