Auckland congestion charge: City's next political hot potato is already baked

Friday, 9 October 2020

A new congestion charging scheme for Auckland is proposed but secret

OPINION: The idea of paying a fee for each trip on a road that already exists is one that only a brave politician will enthusiastically champion.

Which may be why a joint Auckland Council-Government proposal which Stuff understands is complete, is sitting in a political twilight zone pending the final step from agencies to politicians.

Congestion charging is old-hat overseas, with one of the world’s biggest schemes having started in London in 2003, to reduce traffic and pollution in the inner city, and raise revenue for transport.

The idea was widely debated in the first years of the Auckland Council up to late 2014, but since the council and government got together on it four years ago, little of substance has been heard.

* Why Auckland's transport billions might not move the climate change dial

* Here's why congestion charging could be the answer to traffic woes.

A past proposal suggested a $2.80 charge for each Auckland motorway trip.

Two years of work by a multi-sector working group initiated by the mayor Len Brown, weighed up in its final analysis, the merits of a motorway charge versus a fuel tax and rates, as ways to fund transport.

Both were deemed able to deliver $300 million a year - fund-raising being the object - but congestion charging has since been adopted by many seeking big policy to cut climate-warming emissions.

Back in 2016 it was called the “Auckland Smarter Transport Pricing Project” later morphing officially into “The Congestion Question”.

Toll gantries like this one in Tauranga could become more common in Auckland.

In the eight years since Auckland Council started kicking around the idea, climate change and the need for radical measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has become a city and global priority.

Auckland Council has committed to the city halving emissions by 2030, but as the year’s count down, there is no sign yet of a tangible, deliverable action that will take a big step towards that target.

Climate campaigner Paul Winton thinks lockdown's car-free roads offer a glimpse of our future transport system.(Video from October 2019)

The mayor Phil Goff has previously favoured the idea of a congestion charge, but while seeking re-election in 2019, said it would not be in this term – so not before 2022.

Goff also saw it replacing the regional fuel tax – meeting a political desire for any new impost to be “revenue neutral”. In plain English, new charges must replace old ones.

The transport2030.org.nz website shows the carbon emission impact for Auckland of different policies and actions.

Stuff understands the final report by “The Congestion Question” group, is a proposed design for a scheme, using existing technology.

Technically easy, politically a brave sell. Any charge will disproportionately hurt those less able to pay, and access to good public transport alternatives, and safe cycling and walking, is variable across the city.

The 11.5 cent Regional Fuel Tax was a blunt and quick way to start producing cash to speed up transport projects, and the issue of inequity did not get much of a look in.

But if commitments to curbing climate warming are to mean anything, they need to be backed by bold action, and in Auckland’s case transport is the biggest contributor, and needs to cut its carbon output by 70 per cent, if the city is to reach the 2030 goal.

Work by climate campaigner Paul Winton and his 1point5 project have highlighted how incremental transport changes will not do the job.

An online calculator, produced by consultancy MRCagney and based on Winton’s work, lets you see how little impact is generated by individual transport projects, whereas halving the number of carbon-producing trips, and halving the length of trips, makes a big hole in emissions.

The political climate for courage on congestion charging, looks worrying.

Auckland Council is implementing big spending cuts under its Covid-19-impacted Emergency Budget, and room for new public transport carrots to accompany a congestion charge stick, looks tight.

No one said this would be easy, but neither are these decisions that can be put off, awaiting a more favourable time.

NZTA and Auckland Transport’s boards are due to soon receive The Congestion Question report, and then the council and the government need to move quickly to build community backing for it.