Counting the unspoken cost of travel in our city
SINCE the Dunedin City Council is keen to tell us about the economic upside of having concerts at the stadium, how about we talk about the economic costs of other services provided by the DCC.
The Dunedin economy lost a staggering $9,260,773.68 during working days in February alone. And over the last year, our wellness index has plummeted from a cheerful 4.29 out of 5 to a sad 1.97 out of 5 at some times of day.
That is the cost of Dunedin becoming a city which takes an average of 7min 29sec longer to drive across.
The cost to our city of this extended time taken to get around is an amazing 15,488.09 hours every day in increased time spent in cars. It also takes an average of 63737km per day extra travel for cars in the city.
For those who pay tradespeople, this costs an extra 14min 58sec on your bill for each tradie each trip they take to and from your place.
Those paying for DCC officers to do building inspections, and the like, are paying for 124 of them for an extra 1hr and 27min per day in travel.
Journeys around Dunedin now take an average 0.498 of a kilometre more in each direction, nearly 1km in total per trip, with the extra cost and use of more petroleum products.
And that is only the economic effect of vehicle travel.
The Government is now appropriately wanting us to take note of the noneconomic effects on society, a general wellness measure.
These road disruptions and impediments affect the state of mind of all users of the transport network. For those walking and cycling, and on scooters, more disruptions and cones and signs telling us what to do all the time means far less pleasant travel. It also means more stuff to trip over, more detours, longer journeys and much more stressful moving about.
My walk to the central city through the Botanic Garden has been a highlight of my day for many years. Now, once I reach Dundas St, the rest of the trip is cone after cone, detour after detour and more time in traffic as the whole road system clogs up with snail’s pace travel along the SH1 arterial.
What was a halfhour walk for some of us who live up in one of our seven hills, and a 10minute drive for those who are in vehicles, has become a most unpleasant start and end to the day, reducing our wellness by
2.32 out of 5.
While some of the traffic hazards are unavoidable requirements of running roads and water infrastructure, there appears to be little thought given to the effect on us all of the choices being made by traffic boffins.
For example, why not do the cycleways when you have sorted the hospital out and when we have figured out the best way of doing them once and well?
With the bus hub, the construction would have been quicker if someone had known where the pipes were underground before it started.
While some of the effects may be temporary, other choices are slowing traffic down day in and day out forever. The new traffic lights on SH1, for example, have not one but two times per phase when turning traffic cannot turn because bicycles have priority. Other traffic signals around the city are slowing traffic rather than keeping it moving.
Anyone travelling south along George St hoping to turn into the Meridian car park faces the prospect of a parking ticket while they wait for a chance to turn.
Then there is the issue caused by incentivising road construction teams to do work over and over, and to leave signs and cones out for weeks for construction that has either long been finished or never started. Rumour has it that roading contractors hire cones out at so much per day, so maybe that is part of the problem. This issue causes a type of moral hazard (where someone is incentivised to do something and those who bear the costs are a different group of people).
If the DCC really cares about our economic future and our wellbeing, it is time they looked into how they could minimise these costs.
This is an opinion piece. The figures are based on meticulously calculated guesstimates, which in my view are a conservative approach to quantifying the effects on us all. NZTA could have provided more definitive figures but they refused to even respond to my inquiries.
You can judge from your own experiences whether these figures seem right to you. — hcalvert@xtra.co.nz