BLUE- SKY THINKING

THE RACE IS ON TO GET COMMUTERS OUT OF THEIR CARS IN FAVOUR OF MORE SUSTAINABLE WAYS OF MOVING AROUND

Traveling the roads to progress

“J.T. IS COMING. Sack the AT board.” And so read the billboard launching the campaign of Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere, who is vowing to overturn Auckland Transport’s “anti-car” strategy.

But surely getting people out of cars and onto public transport, or even better, biking and walking around the city, is a good thing?

Most of the evidence suggests it is. The most obvious benefits include reduced congestion on roads, lower emissions and healthier citizens. In fact, so great are the benefits of getting people out of cars, a group of University of Otago researchers is calling for ambitious national targets for more “active transport”.

They suggest that by 2050, New Zealand should aim for 25 per cent of all trips to be walked, 15 per cent cycled and a further 15 per cent left to public transport. As a Wellingtonian, I’m pretty much hitting those targets, though lingering issues with the city’s bus services sees me occasionally walking when the bus doesn’t turn up as scheduled, or is packed.

For all of what Tamihere describes as Auckland Transport’s efforts to “harass people out of their cars” — cycle lanes and reduced speed limits, scooter schemes and increased bus frequency — many in the City of Sails still prefer to get around by car.

The Ministry of Transport’s household survey found that the only mode of transport to increase its share between 1988 and 2014 was car use. The average time New Zealanders walk for transport has dropped from 10 minutes to eight minutes per day.

The number of people I see on Lime scooters and Onzo bikes in large cities suggests to me that the tide is gradually turning. An Uber driver told me recently that about 5000 people are registered as drivers for the app-based ride-hailing service in Wellington and double that number in Auckland. These services make short hops around town more convenient and inexpensive. But they don’t help at all with road congestion; they make it worse.

A study looking at traffic flows in San Francisco, the home of Uber and its chief rival Lyft, found the services represented the most significant contributor to increased traffic congestion in San Francisco between 2010 and 2016.

People who would otherwise have walked or

got on a bus, now use an app to order a car ride, and cars regularly pulling over to pick people up kerbside are disrupting the flow of traffic.

The world is starting to see some of the limitations of new forms of transport technologies and the complexity of keeping cities moving freely while trying to introduce more sustainable ways of getting around.

University of Auckland professor of epidemiology and biostatistics Alistair Woodward supports the Otago researchers’ targets but says the report is too light on the technologies that will be required to facilitate more active transport out to 2050.

“Electric cars help with climate targets, but will do nothing to reduce congestion, or to promote good health,” says Woodward.

“Electric buses and electric bicycles are more promising all-round technologies. In my view, small-wheeled devices like e-scooters will also be a big part of the future of cities, and we need to make safe spaces for them.”

He and other researchers call for the type of policies that would leave John Tamihere seething — reducing car-park spaces in city centres, increasing the cost of parking and even making it more expensive to own cars.

People who would otherwise have walked or got on a bus, now use an app to order a car ride