Government and Auckland Council forge ahead with planning for congestion charges

Friday, 9 February 2018

Since 2014 33 per cent more of Auckland's arterial roads have become congested.

Authorities will forge ahead with a 'compelling case' to charge Aucklanders a road user tax to help ease congestion.

Auckland Council and the Government have been investigating 'congestion pricing' as a method to ease congestion by charging road users at different times of the day and locations throughout the city.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff has previously supported congestion charges.

It is designed to encourage road users to change the time, route or way they travel.

A report into congestion pricing to be presented to the Auckland Council planning committee on Tuesday said Auckland congestion was getting worse across the city and trips across the city could take 40 to 55 per cent longer in the future.

'This means that Aucklanders' access to jobs, education and other opportunities will become more difficult, negatively impacting both the productivity and liveability of the city.'

The report, titled 'The Congestion Question', builds on the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) - the council's 30-year vision for Auckland's transport system, released in 2016.

Congestion would become more widespread, even after significant investment in roading and public transport, unless congestion pricing was introduced, the report said.

A scheme that applied across the entire city may be the best long-term solution however, a staged rollout starting with smaller scale options was likely to be the best approach, it said.

There were many international examples of congestion pricing successfully easing congestion - in some cases reducing congestion by up to 30 per cent, which was similar to the reduction Auckland experiences during school holidays.

However, implementing congestion pricing in Auckland would be 'uncharted territory' due to the city's widespread congestion, heavy car dependency and dispersed commuting patterns.

Automatic number plate recognition technology was likely to be the best technology to charge motorists, but GPS technology could be an option in the future.

The National government began looking into congestion charges for Auckland in June last year, while in the lead up to the general election Labour campaigned hard on introducing a fuel tax to help pay for Auckland transport infrastructure.

A fuel tax does not fall into the definition of congestion pricing.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff said in the past every week there were 800 new cars on Auckland's roads.

The Congestion Question report said 33 per cent more of Auckland's main roads were congested in morning peak hour traffic than in 2014.

By 2046 Auckland's population would have grown by 800,000 to 2.4 million, it said.

A lack of public acceptance was the single biggest factor hindering congestion pricing schemes internationally, the report said.

Goff, the Minister of Finance and Minister of Transport had approved for the project to proceed to phase two, which would evaluate different pricing options before reaching a recommendation on whether or not it should be introduced and what it might look like.

'Our analysis in phase one of this project has built a compelling case for continuing the work we have done so far.'

Phase two would be completed by August.

A third and final phase would set out a preferred option, timeframes and scale.