Plan for safer highways

Aucklanders will naturally have doubts about Government’s plans to increase fuel excise duty by between 9 and 12 cents a litre over three years, on top of the new Auckland regional fuel tax, but the focus on improving safety on our roads should be welcomed.

The land transport system has been paid for through fuel excise duty since 1927, with the addition of funding from road user charges, paid by diesel and heavy vehicle owners, which were introduced in 1977.

The proposal is to increase fuel excise duty by between three and four cents a year over the next three years, which the Government says would mean an extra 75 cents a week, or $39 a year, for a driver of an average car filling up a 50 litre tank once a fortnight.

The increase will apparently go towards a 42 per cent increase in spending on local road improvements, a 96 per cent

increase in spending on regional roads, a 22 per cent increase in local road maintenance, and a 81 per cent increase in road safety and demand management.

There will be scepticism about some of these ambitions, but it is beyond obvious our roading network is stretched way beyond its capacity.

Many roads in the regions and in Auckland have not been adequately maintained.The Easter road toll provided yet another reminder of this reality.

Safe and efficient superhighways abound across Europe, and even in parts of Australia, but maybe it is time for us to abandon such ambitions, and instead focus on achievable, smaller-scale, safety-focused improvements.