Climate Change: Auckland's puzzling parking political own-goal

Friday, 5 November 2021

OPINION: There are indisputable facts about what has to happen for Auckland to meet its climate change goals, the first of which is to halve carbon emissions in just a decade, and cut transport emissions by 64 per cent.

The place of cars in our daily lives will need to change significantly. Many of the trips we routinely make today, will need to be shorter, less frequent and using a different mode.

It is change that will need astute and compelling political leadership, to persuade Aucklanders that the change is not sacrifice, but creates a better future.

It is change that will require a united voice from both the politicians, and the organisations tasked with rolling out the transformation of how we get around.

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Which is why comments from Auckland’s mayor Phil Goff in a procedural debate about future parking policies, looked like the opposite of what the city’s climate challenge demands.

In a planning committee meeting, Goff sneered at a draft revision of the city’s Parking Strategy, suggesting it was “ideas that can be put out in a discussion document, and changed subsequently to fit the real world”.

The 2015 strategy has been revised in draft form, jointly by the council Goff leads, and its Auckland Transport agency.

It lays out how the way existing road space is used will need to change in some parts of the city, over the next decade.

Or as council officials described it: Roads are critical assets and valuable public space. They serve a range of purposes, principally movement and places, and they need to cater for all modes, rather than just prioritising cars.

Further: The way in which road space is allocated is critical as it should be used, and useable, for all Aucklanders, regardless of their travel choices.

Kerbside parking may disappear on routes where unobstructed bus lanes, and cycle lanes are deemed a priority, something that already exists on some arterial roads or at peak times.

Goff told a planning committee meeting that would create an impossible situation for those living in areas with little provision for off-street parking, and without public transport.

His words could be taken as signalling a rift between the politicians – who face re-election in 2022 – and the agency.

Not so. The crafting of the draft strategy has included political workshops, and with any future changes starting in largely commercial centres, Goff’s scenario was a distant and uncertain possibility.

Part of the mayor’s objection was that some future changes, if they fitted the criteria, would not need local consultation – a detail easily fixed if it is flagged as an issue in next year’s public consultation.

That people are living away from public transport routes could be due to the levels of funding which Auckland Council provides to its agency, funding envelopes constrained by mayoral-led rate rise caps.

Goff’s words will also be seized by those resistant to changing our transport status quo, at a time when the city is already behind the climate change eight-ball.

But in the same breath, he also unintentionally offered encouragement to those urging bolder, faster action, to accelerate the role of “active” modes or public transport.

“Democracy is about governing with the consent of the people,” he told councillors.

The question may be, whose consent is being sought and whose is given the greatest weight.

Goff’s deputy, Bill Cashmore, seconded the endorsement of the draft, and the mayor and majority of councillors voted to move it along, towards next year’s public consultation.

By the time the strategy is finally signed off, three years will have passed since Auckland Council declared a climate emergency.