Auckland’s freight needs must be treated as a priority and not “an afterthought” under sweeping reforms to the city’s transport governance, the National Road Carriers Association (NRC) says.
It follows the Government unveiling major changes to how transport is run in Auckland, shifting most powers from Auckland Transport (AT) to Auckland Council, and creating a new regional committee to set a 30-year plan.
NRC chief executive Justin Tighe-Umbers says freight has long been overlooked.
“Despite costing $1.5 billion a year to run, AT has very limited expertise in freight,” Tighe-Umbers says. “Right now, freight is an afterthought for Auckland’s transport planners.
“National Road Carriers supports the Government’s and Auckland Council’s moves today to address critical failings from both Auckland Council and Auckland Transport in serving the city’s transport needs.
“Auckland has been beset by poor planning, with urban intensification policy not aligned with transport planning, and the results are obvious for all Aucklanders to see.
“Transport is important to everyone, so shifting responsibility to the Mayor and Councillors will improve accountability.
“However, as well as being accountable, the Mayor and 20 councillors will need to be very clear eyed on their policy goals – Aucklanders will be watching closely and expecting this.”
Tighe-Umbers says freight must be built into the planning framework alongside public transport, cycling and walking.
“Transport decisions for Auckland need to be determined by clearly interlinking policy goals between land-use, urban intensification and infrastructure, including transport infrastructure.
“While populations grow rapidly, road corridor throughput for vehicles has conversely shrunk in many areas as cycle lanes are put in, or bus stops block the corridor as they are not offset.
“This means that freight – all the goods we need to keep a city running every day – struggles to get through congestion, and ends up costing residents more due to lost time in traffic. People may not realise it, but these delays hit us in the pocket every time we go to our neighbourhood supermarket and shops.”
He says expertise across all modes – general traffic, freight, public transport and active transport – will be crucial to avoid repeating past mistakes.
“To avoid the same mistakes in the future new transport governance needs to have strong expertise across general traffic, freight, public transport and active modes.
“Moving people efficiently around the city across all modes should be a bi-partisan matter, it is about maximising throughput through all the networks, not just favouring one or two. That means motorways, arterial roads, freight routes, rail and cycleway networks all need to work together to maximise total throughput.
“The framework needs to be set up to make evidence-based trade-offs built on a strong understanding of the costs and benefits for each transport mode, including efficiency of movement across Auckland, and aligned with the broader Auckland policy goals.”
