Our government is committed to delivering a transport system that provides people and businesses with greater choice in how they travel or move goods.
That is why we are rebalancing transport funding to make sure all modes can play to their strengths.
Whether it’s roads or public transport in the cities, freight moving by truck or rail, we want the most efficient and sustainable option.
We’ve also made safety our number one transport priority.
Many of TransportTalk’s readers will have heard about the NZ Transport Agency’s regulatory issues, which were uncovered by board chair Michael Stiassny.
NZTA was failing in its duty to properly check the companies that certify vehicles as safe for the road, and other services.
This failure, in my view, was in part a result of a reduced focus on the agency’s regulatory role under the last government.
Staff were redeployed and there was an emphasis on education rather than enforcement.
The agency was treating the companies it was regulating as its customers, instead of realising its real customers, were the travelling public.
New Zealanders need to have confidence that their vehicles are safe on the road and I’m glad that NZTA’s board took swift action to fix this problem when the full extent was uncovered.
The agency is now taking a rigorous and pro-active approach to safety regulation.
I am advised all the files have been reviewed.
Where needed, files are under active management and formal compliance action has either been undertaken or is under way.
In total, there are 222 compliance actions underway, including 65 warnings, 100 notices of proposal to revoke/suspend, 39 immediate suspensions and 18 revocations.
The shift in approach requires a change in transport investment.
Rebalancing investment in a modern, efficient, multi-modal land transport system is long overdue.
The previous government spent 40% of the transport budget on a handful of state highway projects that only carry 4% of vehicle journeys.
When we took the government benches, we informed NZTA that we expect to see value for money in road projects.
Half of all vehicle journeys are not on state highways but are on local roads, yet we found that less than 5% of the National Land Transport Fund was spent on improving them.
Rebalancing spending across the activity classes and towards safety and improving local and regional roads was an immediate priority.
The Transport Agency makes independent decisions on land transport projects and their board last year announced the new National Land Transport Programme to 2021.
The programme will see projects such as the Waikato Expressway, Puhoi to Warkworth, the Mt Messenger bypass, the Manawatu Gorge replacement, Transmission Gully, and the Christchurch Southern Motorway progress.
Other projects, such as the East West link – costing a staggering $327 million a kilometre – are being re-evaluated by the Transport Agency and their decisions are expected in the coming months.
It’s worth reiterating that state highways still receive the largest share of funding, with a total of $5.
7 billion.
However, pouring the bulk of our scarce resources into a few costly expressways at the expense of the rest of the network is not and never will be the answer.
Alternatively, improving safety and freight connections to ports, airports and distribution centres offers greater gains and value for money.
Rebalancing investments toward safety has uncovered that there may be around $800 million worth of high-value road safety improvements in need of funding on local roads alone.
Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter and I launched the Safe Network Programme last year to address this issue.
The $1.4 billion programme will make 870 kilometres of high volume, high-risk state highways safer by 2021 with targeted safety improvements, and help local government improve local and regional roads.
Under this programme, local councils are offered a higher level of central government funding to fix high-risk, local and regional roads.
Over half of all fatal crashes happen on local roads and we recognise central government funding will help make these roads safer, sooner.
Making targeted improvements – that generally do not attract the headlines – such as rumble strips, signage, safety barriers, passing lanes, addressing black spots and high risk intersections, can make a huge difference.
Rumble strips alone can reduce all crashes by around 25% and fatal run-off-road crashes by up to 42%.It’s estimated that, once complete, the improvements from the Safe Network Programme will prevent 160 deaths and serious injuries per year.
Road deaths are not an inevitability.
They are the result of choices.
Since 2013, the number of road deaths in New Zealand has been rising.
The people we have lost are more than a statistic.
They are parents, children, friends and colleagues.
Each one has a story, and each one has left people behind who are grieving for their loss.
This shift requires strong leadership, significant changes to policy and practice, and increased investment.
It also means thinking about the way each mode of transport integrates with each other, and how we can work together to improve safety outcomes for the transport system.
That’s exactly what our government is doing.
