Traffic congestion costs Auckland's economy $1.3b a year: Report

Wednesday, 2 August 2017

Auckland's economy would get a boost of $3.5 million every day if its traffic congestion eased, a new report says.

The Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA), Auckland International Airport, Infrastructure NZ, Ports of Auckland and the National Road Carriers Association commissioned the NZIER to carry out the report, looking at the social and economic costs of traffic congestion.

The report found if Auckland traffic could move on average between 50.5 kmh to 56.8 kmh during week days it would benefit the Auckland economy by nearly $3.5 million per day. At the moment the average speed in the morning peak is 41 kmh. 

The city's real GDP would increase by between $488m and $842m a year, it said.

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It found that congestion had got worse over recent years and was expected to deteriorate further.

Twenty-four per cent of the arterial network was congested during the morning peak in the December 2016 quarter, from 18 per cent for the same period two years ago. 

Auckland Transport expects the average morning trip time to increase from 14.6 minutes to 15.3 minutes over the next 10 years.  It now takes 67 minutes to get into the city from Papakura in the morning, from 46 minutes in 2013.

The congestion was also spreading through the day, the report noted.

'What business is telling us and what we're seeing in the numbers is that congestion has worsened exponentially in the past three to five years,' said Kim Campbell, chief executive of the EMA.

He said businesses had to hire 20 per cent more staff to carry out the same work, trucking firms were making fewer runs and taking longer to do so, creating a 30 per cent productivity loss, and some service firms had to establish more depots around the city to meet promises such as one-hour delivery times.

Infrastructure NZ chief executive Stephen Selwood the actual productivity gains might be higher than the $1.3 billion a year the report suggested.

'We know this estimate is conservative. The model only measures congestion on five of seven days and of course business is a seven-day a week operation. It also only values your leisure trips at less than half the value of work time, a value I'm sure many Aucklanders would agree undershoots the cost.

'I'm also very concerned that the Auckland Transport Alignment Plan only sets its sights on not making congestion worse in the next 30 years and its 10-year time-frame for introducing congestion charging is just too far away.'

Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson said the report showed a need for a multi-faceted approach.

'We need to attack congestion with everything we've got: Investment in road, rail, public transport, technology, demand management and so on. We also need to be much smarter and think further ahead in how we plan transport for the future.'

National Road Carriers Association chief executive David Aitken said congestion made it harder to recruit in the freight sector.

'Five years ago a truck driver could make a living on about 50 hours per week, but now with congestion that's up to 70 hours a week and people do actually want to spend time with family rather than sitting in Auckland traffic. At a time when it's hard to get drivers, we are losing them as they don't want to be sitting in congestion all day.'

The report said Auckland's congestion was on par with cities such as Melbourne, five times its size. It is the 47th most congested city in the world.