National is proposing to build more highways under its roads of national significance programme and introduce road user charges for all vehicles should it win the 2020 election.
Those are just some of the ideas the party has outlined in its pre-election discussion documents and transport spokesperson Chris Bishop says the party wants to go “bigger and bolder” on roading investments.
This will include four-lane expressways on the following routes:
- Whangārei to Warkworth
- East West Link in Auckland
- Cambridge to Tirau
- Piarere to the foot of the Kaimai Ranges
- Tauranga to Katikati, including the Tauranga Northern Link
- Napier to Hastings
- Levin to Sanson
- Manawatū Gorge
- Christchurch to Ashburton
- Christchurch Northern Motorway: Belfast to Pegasus
National is also proposing to improve road safety with roadside drug testing, increased signposted speed cameras and a focus on level rail crossings.
“It is also critical that we deal with congestion in our major cities, which is why National is proposing to introduce revenue-neutral congestion pricing to help unclog their streets,” Bishop says.
“Congestion pricing will be a game-changer by encouraging commuters to either travel earlier or later in the day, take a different route, or use public transport.”
Future road funding
National says the pay-as-you-go National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) will “become unsustainable” as transport spending increases.
Ditching the fuel tax and introducing road user charges for all vehicles is the way forward, it says.
Motorists currently pay 66 cents per litre of petrol in tax which goes into the NLTF for land transport and roading projects.
“Fuel use is becoming a poor estimate of road use as vehicles become more modern and fuel-efficient.
“The common use of hybrid vehicles by taxi and ride sharing services effectively reduces the contribution these drivers make to road investment, while electric vehicle users currently pay no road user charges at all,” Bishop says.
Road user charges would be phased in over the “medium-to-long term” with the use of technology.
However, TransportTalk understands work is already underway by the Ministry of Transport on a shift to such a system, and it is unlikely to be just a National policy.
At the 2018 Road Transport Forum conference, transport minister Phil Twyford said a GPS-based and satellite pricing system could be introduced sooner than most people think and is “only a matter of years away”.
