Car uptake hampers climate efforts
We are in a climate crisis but the sale of petrol-powered vehicles is skyrocketing.
New Zealand Transport Agency figures show the number of registered vehicles in Wellington City rose 18.1 per cent between 2013 and October this year, from 93,329 to 110,520.
While separate figures from Stats NZ show Wellington still has comfortably the highest bus use per capita in the country (17.3 per cent of people), the rise in car ownership shows we are not willing to part ways with private vehicles altogether.
Between 2013 and 2018, the city’s population rose 6.2 per cent, from 190,956 to 202,737.
Victoria University professor Ralph Chapman, who lectures in geography, environment, and earth sciences, said the rise in car dependency stemmed from decisions made by city planners as far back as the 1950s.
Those planners designed transport infrastructure around the ‘‘freedom’’ of driving a car, rather than the more socialist approach of developing and enhancing railways, Chapman said.
Although Wellington fared slightly better, with the construction of rail links to outer suburbs and a concentration of people living close to the city, the region was still feeling the effects of that early investment.
That meant more people driving, especially to reach the outer suburbs, which were not as well serviced by public transport. ‘‘This all wouldn’t matter much if we weren’t in a climate crisis.’’
The only way to fix the problem was by developing highdensity housing near public transport links, and encouraging a rapid uptake of electric cars, buses, and trains, Chapman said.
Public transport from outer areas into Wellington City needed to improve, even if cars were still used within those areas at weekends.
Michael Spiers lives five minutes’ drive from his workplace at Wellington Airport but commutes by car every day for convenience. Although that is often because he starts work at 4am, when no public transport is available, he also drives when working later shifts. Despite the $150 weekly petrol bill, with weekend trips to Hutt Valley for softball thrown in, Spiers has no plans to give up his car. Spiers did not need to pay for parking, with an employee car park provided.
Although the sale of light electric vehicles (EVs) had risen since 2013, they made up only a fraction of Wellington’s fleet.
Ministry of Transport figures show 751 EVs were registered to drivers in the Wellington region so far this year, taking the total number to 2252. However, that was down on last year, when 835 vehicles were registered.
Nationally, 5841 EVs have been registered so far this year, taking the total to 17,453.
Gazley Motors principal group dealer Oliver Gazley said although new car sales had increased in the past five years, they had flattened off during the past six months.
Sales of the company’s three electric vehicles had been solid but it was battling a lack of supply, Gazley said.
Turners Wellington sales manager Stefan Gillooly said there had been an increase in the sale of late-model used cars over the past 12 months.
He had also noticed a rise in people buying EVs because they were cheaper to run.