Mode Shift: Give people transport choices and get right tools for the job

Thursday, 9 June 2022

Mode Shift: Wellington's conscious commuters talk about why they bike and scoot to and around the capital.(Video May 2022)

Thomas Nash is a Greater Wellington regional councillor, Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Massey University and an adviser for Auckland-based social enterprise Big Street Bikers.

OPINION: There’s freedom to getting around a city easily without a car. You can leave your home without looking at the timetable, show up at the station or stop and within minutes you’re being chauffeured towards your destination without a care in the world for traffic or parking or dodgy driving.

Most of the time in New Zealand that freedom doesn’t exist.

Instead, the vast majority of both our transport funding and our public street space is dedicated to a single mode – the private motor vehicle.

Transport should be about selecting the right tools for the job. If the job is to move tiny groups of people in massive numbers of private cars then we should build more roads until we run out of space. If the job is to move many thousands of people smoothly round a city with constrained public space then we need to do things differently.

Thomas Nash: ‘’ ... the private convenience of driving a motor vehicle on public roads shouldn’t come at the expense of public transport or public safety for people walking and biking.’’

* Mode shift: Heading to work across the big blue in Wellington harbour

* Mode shift: Political leadership is vital when transforming transport

‘’This needs to be a city designed for people. A city where if the only mode that works for you is a car, then you will be able to go by car,’’ writes Thomas Nash. (file photo)

This is as much a question of transport design as it is about urban form.

People who enjoy a range of transport choices often live in cities where dwellings and shops and workplaces are closer together and linked by frequent, high capacity public transport. The best examples of this are trains and light rail or trams. Buses are good examples too.

Bus rapid transit increases public transport in a scenario without higher-density housing.

Wellington already has the highest public transport use in the country and if the Metlink network did not exist our roads would be jammed with cars at peak times. The biggest complaint about public transport in Wellington is that we need more of it. We know there’s demand for public transport, and we know as the city’s population grows the current network won’t be enough.

In years to come we can expect many more flats along the main north-south corridor through Wellington, serviced by frequent, high capacity mass transit.

This needs to be a city designed for people. A city where if the only mode that works for you is a car, then you will be able to go by car. Where, if you’re in a position to drive across town with passengers and gear loaded into the SUV, that option will be there.

But you will also be able to ride a bike safely, knowing your kids are safe on their bikes too. And you’ll be able to get around on public transport without having to wait ages at a bus stop or be delayed by cars – or car transporters – blocking the road.

Thomas Nash: ‘’More space for walking and separated space for cycling are tools for moving people in the least-expensive, lowest-emission ways possible.’’

This means sharing public road space more equitably. Because the private convenience of driving a motor vehicle on public roads shouldn’t come at the expense of public transport or public safety for people walking and biking.

It’s reasonable to have these choices rather than simply being funnelled into cars. This freedom to choose from a range of transport options depends on us getting the right tools for the job.

Mass transit is coming to Wellington. It will be either bus rapid transit or light rail.

Bus rapid transit is a tool to increase public transport in a scenario without higher-density housing in Wellington.

Light rail, taking more than twice the number of passengers as bus rapid transit, is a tool to supercharge public transport in a scenario with higher-density housing in the city.

More space for walking and separated space for cycling are tools for moving people in the least-expensive, lowest-emission ways possible.

Moving people efficiently should be enough of a reason to prioritise these tools for our transport jobs, but climate change might be what actually gets us the toolbox we need.

Our laws and policies weren’t set up for today's challenges, but they are starting to catch up with the climate reality. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report highlighted transport and urban form as cost-effective ways to reduce emissions and, aligned with this, New Zealand’s first Emissions Reduction Plan requires a 20% reduction in driving over the next decade. Cities need to deliver the bulk of that reduction.

In a warming world, the urban population of temperate New Zealand will grow. If we want to plan in a responsible way, we need to build the transport infrastructure now to support this growth.

Let’s learn from the mistakes of past planning decisions. We need only look at the scale of Wellington’s water infrastructure deficit to know what happens when we choose not to build for the future.

If we build the right public and active transport infrastructure to support a growing Wellington, we can equip this beautiful harbour city with the right tools for the job and offer everyone the freedom to choose from a range of safe, easy, low-emission and family-friendly transport options. We should do it.