Transport Policy - Smart Moves

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Vision

The Green Party envisions a system of transport for New Zealand that:

• Is affordable, integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable.
• Assists economic development, safety and personal security.
• Improves access and mobility for all people.
• Protects and promotes public health, and ensures environmental sustainability.

Definitions

'Active modes' means walking and cycling

'Road Controlling Authority' means New Zealand Transport Agency for state highways, local authorities for local roads, and the appropriate agency (eg DoC) for special purpose roads.

Introduction

We can have healthier and more vibrant communities and cheaper, easier and greener ways of getting around. Our Transport Policy is about giving people more choices, and making our streets safer places. Smarter transport will be better for economy and our environment.

Transport accounts for over 40% of climate-changing CO2 emissions. At the same time, the era of cheap oil is coming to an end. As a country, we need to prepare for the changes forced by peak oil and by global responses to climate change.

Our tourism, freight and export industries all can and must be effectively shifted from their reliance on oil. If we start now, it will serve our economy well in the long term. The Green Party supports investment in rail and reconfiguring it to meet our future needs. This includes encouraging freight to be moved by rail and by coastal shipping.

We advocate public planning that takes into account true economic and social costs of transport options. Our society's reliance on cars needs to shift to more use of active modes of transport. The Green Party supports investment in sustainable public transport, which includes ways of making biking and walking even more convenient. To reduce the congestion and pollution of current transport choices, it is important that we change how we organise our cities, our work and our means of production and distribution.

The health benefits of reducing reliance on cars include cleaner air, increased fitness and mobility, and greater safety for walkers and cyclists. Community involvement grows when people walk, cycle and use public transport. People are more likely to meet each other, and are more aware of and interested in what is happening in their neighbourhoods.

The key to reducing our reliance on petrol-based transport is to make the better alternatives easy.

Key Principles

1. Sustainable development, including economic prosperity, will be enhanced by a greater emphasis on sustainable transport systems.
2. Transport policy has a key role in supporting community cohesion and local economic development, and must actively contribute to the health and well-being of people and communities.
3. Transport policy must reflect the diverse needs of rural and urban areas and should help create thriving, liveable cities and towns and nurture rural communities.
4. People of all ages and abilities should be able to access the places they need to go, safely and with ease.
5. The quality of the local and global environment must be protected and enhanced through transport decisions.
6. Transport must be safe and feel safe.
7. Local communities must be involved in transport decisions that affect them, and be able to participate in the decision-making process.
8. Transport planning and decision-making processes must reflect and respect the role of iwi, hapu and whanau as kaitiaki, and enable effective participation by Maori.
9. Transport decision-making must be much more integrated and take into account the full range of economic, social, health and environmental effects of transport choices.

Specific Policies

Planning, Decision Making, and Environmental Law

Transport planning and decision-making should reflect our broad social, environmental and economic goals. Especially in relation to land transport, planning needs to become more 'bottom-up' and participatory, with consideration given to a much wider range of solutions to transport issues. Also, most trips are actually short trips. Transport planning needs to recognise this rather than focus on long journeys that tend to be motorised.

1. Strategic Direction and Institutional Reform

The Green Party will work to:

1. Strengthen the New Zealand Transport Strategy, and associated Government Policy Statement and ensure that measurable targets and timetables for the strategy are closely linked to funding.
2. Review institutional arrangements for planning and funding at a national, regional and local level to ensure they support the transition to an integrated and sustainable transport system
3. Ensure the governance of statutory agencies is impartial and better reflects the wide range of stakeholders affected by these agencies' decisions.
4. Promote greater involvement of health, education and regional development agencies in transport planning and ensure greater coordination between health, recreation and transport planning at a national, regional and local level.
5. Ensure national, regional and local transport decisions take into account the needs of people with disabilities, children, and the elderly.
6. Ensure the relationship established by Te Tiriti o Waitangi is given effect in transport planning by central and local government.

2. Land Transport Planning and Funding

The Green Party will work to:

1. Rebalance expenditure from the National Land Transport Fund, over five years, towards support for sustainable transport solutions (such as public transport, rail freight, coastal shipping, active modes and travel demand management) to redress the chronic lack of investment in this area, funded through a moratorium on major new urban motorways and highways.
2. Require the New Zealand Transport Agency to fully implement its social and environmental responsibilities contained in the Land Transport Management Act.
3. Ensure that the funding system actively supports the implementation of the targets and timetables set for the New Zealand Transport Strategy, the Walking and Cycling Strategy, the Rail Strategy, and the Coastal Shipping Strategy as well as the Safer Journeys road safety strategy, and make implementation a condition of funding.
4. Radically overhaul the Financial Assistance Rate (FAR) system to:
   Support increased use of rail, public transport and active modes.
   1. Link local and regional transport planning and decision-making to the allocation of funding.
   2. Fund up to 100% of projects for public transport, cycling, and walking infrastructure and regional transport centres, that are approved by the New Zealand Transport Agency.
5. Increase the proportion of land transport (rail and road) network safety and maintenance funded nationally through New Zealand Transport Agency, while introducing a contestable pool for new investments in integrated transport solutions.
6. Require the Government and local authorities to adopt measurable targets, timetables and policies for reducing road traffic and increasing transport choices.
7. Ensure transport policy recognises the diverse needs of urban and rural areas.
8. Issue guidelines for the development, implementation and funding of Regional Land Transport Strategies to ensure that:
   1. Strategies are focused on sustainable transport solutions and are developed using participatory methods.
   2. The needs of people, communities and the environment are recognised and provided for within these strategies, and the views of those directly affected by projects are taken into account in planning and decision-making.
   3. Maximum effort is put into finding transport solutions that meet as many New Zealand Transport Strategy objectives as possible, avoid adverse environmental effects and achieve a high degree of public support.
   4. Strategies emphasise demand management as an integral part of transport planning.
9. Allow a wider range of organisations, including those who work with public transport users, pedestrians and cyclists, to apply for New Zealand Transport Agency funds, as long as projects are consistent with appropriate regional or national transport strategies.
10. Expand research into travel patterns and demand, including the impact of advertising, and improve the quality of information collected and made available on these topics.

3. Resource Management Act and Transport

The Green Party will work to:

1. Oppose plans to reduce public participation and fast-track roading projects through the Resource Management Act.
2. Abolish the ability of ports, airports and roading authorities to override District and Regional Plans developed under the Resource Management Act.
3. Ensure RMA processes encourage early and full consideration of alternatives, and the development of proposals that minimise adverse environmental effects and have the support of affected communities.
4. Discourage ports, airports and roading authorities from applying to use compulsory purchase powers under the Public Works Act and review whether it is still appropriate for these authorities to have access to such powers.
5. Strengthen the coverage of the RMA in relation to transport planning processes so that noise, air and water pollution, and other adverse environmental effects of transport, can be brought under control.
6. Introduce National Environmental Standards for water discharges from roads, noise from transport, and investigate the need for such standards for discharges to air by aeroplanes near inhabited areas.
7. Enable regional councils to develop regional plans dealing with the interaction of transport and land use patterns and strengthen the ability of both regional and territorial authorities to undertake growth management and establish growth boundaries.
8. Create a National Policy Statement on sustainable cities and towns to provide clear guidance on sustainable urban form and assist local communities to shift away from car-orientated 'big box' retailing on the urban periphery towards 'urban village' models of development that support greater use of walking and cycling.

Mode Specific Policies

4. Roads

Historically, roads were shared public spaces. Nowadays, they are the largest, and often most dangerous, public space we encounter. In cities, towns and small communities they are places to 'be' as well as ways of getting somewhere else. Road users from pedestrians to articulated heavy trucks share road space. Roads are a predominant land use in New Zealand - occupying over 500 million square metres of land. We need a new approach to roads - one that recognises their multiple uses as gathering spaces, arteries, boundaries, utility corridors and even as a means of spreading unwanted biosecurity pests that 'hitch hike' on road transport. The Green Party will work to:

1. Retain roads as public spaces under public control and management.
2. Ensure legislation and planning recognises that streets are public spaces that affect the way people live, work, play and learn, rather than simply vehicle corridors.
3. Require roading authorities to develop road management strategies that reflect the multiple uses of the roads under their control.
4. Investigate the role played by road corridors in spreading pest plants, animals, and other organisms, and develop management strategies to combat this.
5. Empower local authorities to better coordinate utility work programmes on public roads.
6. Instigate a moratorium on building major new urban highways or motorways and use the money saved to fund investment in developing and upgrading more sustainable transport systems.
7. Require an independent, external, 'first principles' review of all major roading projects within the funding system against sustainability criteria, including:
   1. Impact on both communities and the environment.
   2. Contribution to a sustainable land transport system.
   3. Assessment of whether a full range of alternatives was considered in the project's development, and cancel those projects that do not perform well against these tests before lifting the moratorium.
8. Oppose the establishment of privately owned toll roads.

5. Rail

The rail system is a strategic asset for New Zealand. Rail freight uses roughly one fifth of the fuel of road transport per tonne kilometre and is a highly energy-efficient means of commuter transport. A strong, viable rail system will be important in meeting New Zealand's Kyoto targets, and in coping with the transport needs of forestry and other industries. Rail needs to be revitalised and reconfigured to meet the needs of the 21st century. The Green Party will:

1. Establish targets and timetables to implement the Rail Strategy.
2. Put rail and road access costs on a level playing field by:
   1. Ensuring expansion of the rail network is not disadvantaged by the New Zealand Transport Agency funding system.
   2. Requiring New Zealand Transport Agency to pay rail 'equalisation' payments while there is undercharging for roads.
   3. Funding maintenance of the core rail network, as well as the state highway network, through New Zealand Transport Agency.
   4. Adjusting Road User Charges to reflect the results of the Surface Costs and Charging Study.
3. Encourage heavy freight to be transported by rail and develop 'land port' facilities to minimise heavy truck movements in urban areas and facilitate road to rail transfer of all kinds of freight, including logs.
4. Support completion of electrification of the North Island Main Trunk Line.
5. Develop a national long-distance rail passenger strategy to ensure rail-based services become available as aviation costs rise due to climate change and the end of cheap oil.
6. Specifically address urgent regional rail issues including:
   1. Funding the Auckland CBD Rail Loop and ensuring Auckland Transport has the funding necessary to proceed with all other upgrades and new projects rapidly.
   2. Repairing and upgrading the Northland, Napier to Gisborne, Stratford-Okahukura and North Wairarapa lines so they do not need to be mothballed or closed.
   3. Supporting the creation of spur lines to facilities such as dairy factories.
   4. Reopen the Rotorua line and investigating the possibility of additional rail links in the central North Island.
   5. Facilitating the Marsden Point spur line development.
   6. Facilitating the development of infrastructure in Otago to ensure more logs are carried by rail.
   7. Expanding investment in freight transfer facilities to enable easy movement of goods from rail to local delivery services.

6. Coastal Shipping

Coastal shipping is one of the most energy-efficient means of transporting freight. It uses roughly half the energy of rail and one eighth of the energy of road transport. The domestic shipping industry in New Zealand has stabilised at a low level after a period of decline that spanned several decades, although shipping still carries a reasonable volume of domestic freight. The Green Party believes New Zealand needs a sustainable domestic shipping industry that is competitive and uses best practice. Both domestic and international shipping are vulnerable to the end of cheap oil, although they have clear advantages over roading in the transition to a more sustainable transport future. International shipping is one of the major sources of biosecurity risks to New Zealand. At present there is a hidden trade-off between biosecurity inspections and the avoidance of delays in the arrival of imports. The Green Party wishes to see increased used of offshore inspection and a much higher level of biosecurity scrutiny on imports. Biosecurity management is too important to be 'traded-off'.

The Green Party will work to:

1. Investigate proposals for a concessionary 'tonnage tax' and/or a container tax as discussed by the multi-party Shipping Review as a means of developing the coastal shipping industry.
2. Ensure that adequate labour standards (wages and conditions) on international vessels in New Zealand waters are maintained, irrespective of the flag under which the ship operates.
3. Support the move under CER to consider trips between Australian ports, New Zealand ports, and Australian and New Zealand ports as a single market.
4. Address port market power as it pertains to the 'captured user'.
5. Investigate the feasibility of re-establishing some coastal shipping facilities in areas remote from rail and which are currently only served by road.
6. Restore cabotage for New Zealand coastal shipping.
7. Ensure New Zealand Transport Agency and local authorities have the resources and skills to properly evaluate shipping projects as part of considering options for freight movement.
8. Work to encourage the development of hybrid vessels (eg wind/solar), building on work already done in Germany, Japan and Scandinavia, which are less dependent on cheap fossil fuels.
9. Steadily raise biosecurity inspection standards for containers and other cargo.
10. Tighten procedures for managing risks associated with discharges of ballast water for both domestic and international shipping.
11. Encourage greater cooperation between ports to ensure that biosecurity inspection standards can be steadily raised without causing undue disruption to port operations.
12. Enhance our ability to prevent exotic species from entering New Zealand and the ability to respond to any incursions that do occur (e.g. continued and expanded public education, six-sided inspection of cargo containers, off-shore inspection of containers, increased staff training and technology, emergency response fund, permanent pest surveillance programmes around ports).

As a result of the Green Party's work with the Government on transport, barges are now eligible for land transport funding where they provide a cost-effective alternative to new land transport projects. The Green Party will work to:

1. Promote the use of barges as an energy-efficient means of transporting goods, particularly logs.
2. Ensure New Zealand Transport Agency and local authorities have the resources and skills to properly evaluate barging projects as part of considering options for freight movement.

7. Air

Air New Zealand

The Green Party will work to:

1. Retain a strategic public stake in Air New Zealand so that our country has a national carrier that will serve its best interests.
2. Oppose the sale of Air New Zealand shares to foreign airlines, especially where they are in competition with Air New Zealand.

Air Safety

The Green Party will work to:

1. Review air traffic control standards and practices in New Zealand to ensure that our air traffic control systems are operating to global best practice standards for our level of aviation activity.
2. Ensure all international airports comply with the International Civil Aviation Organisation's safety standards.

Adjusting to the end of cheap oil and climate change

The Green Party will:

1. Ensure planning and investment in aviation, and public sector tourism planning and marketing, takes account of climate change and the end of cheap oil, and work with the aviation industry to develop a long-term plan for its role in a low fossil-fuel future.
2. Encourage greater development of communications systems as a substitute for air travel, and ensure government takes a lead in this area.
3. Work actively for an international agreement to ensure international journeys face the full costs of their CO2 emissions, with any funds raised used to support CO2 reduction initiatives.
4. Assess the domestic environmental impacts of air travel and put in place measures to reduce significant adverse effects.

8. Walking

Walking is the most widely used, cheapest and healthiest form of transport, yet this fact is often overlooked in transport policy and planning. More and more, older pedestrians need communities where they can be independent without driving. Children cannot drive yet need to develop a sense of independent mobility. Around one fifth of households do not have reliable access to a car. Current statistics for modal split underestimate walking numbers significantly for three reasons: 1) Under 15s are not counted. 2) In multi-modal trips (e.g. 5k bus, 1k walk or 10k drive, 500m walk) the walking is usually the shorter, or shortest, distance and therefore discounted. 3) Often the emphasis is on commuting trips rather than daytime/evening shopping or exercise or visiting. Many of the policies outlined in the rest of this strategy will greatly assist walking. Thanks to the Green Party, the New Zealand Transport Agency has dedicated funding for walking and cycling. In addition, the Green Party will work to:

1. Support the implementation of the Walking and Cycling Strategy as an integral part of national and regional sustainable transport strategies.
2. Require the New Zealand Transport Agency to develop Active Mode Facility and network planning guidelines.
3. Ensure greater co-operation between health, recreation and transport sectors in developing and encouraging walking.
4. Ensure publicly provided or funded transport information systems include information on walking and cycling options, where appropriate.
5. Encourage local authorities to develop safe walking routes between parks and streets at a local and regional level, and expand networks of paths connecting streets in urban areas.
6. Require New Zealand Transport Agency to develop a walking strategy in recognition of the fact that many people walk along and across state highways.
7. Requiring major public investments (such as new hospitals) to ensure that access is pedestrian friendly.
8. Improve the quality of road crossings for the elderly and disabled people so all pedestrians benefit.
9. Aim to double the number of well-supported walking school buses in use over three years.
10. Initiate a programme of access and safety audits for journeys to and from schools, and ensure subsequent improvements are undertaken with the aim of increasing the percentage of children walking to each school.
11. Fund ongoing professional development education for transport professionals on how to promote walking as a primary means of transport.
12. Require all road controlling authorities to have in place plans to support active modes, and specific contact points for walking and cycling issues, within three years, as a condition of funding.

9. Cycling

Cycling provides environmental and health benefits as well as being a highly cost-effective means of transport. The New Zealand Transport Agency has dedicated funding for walking and cycling. The Green Party will work to:

1. Ensure the implementation of the Walking and Cycling Strategy as an integral part of national and regional sustainable transport strategies.
2. Require major public investments (such as new hospitals) to ensure that appropriate access and secure parking is provided for bicycles.
3. Ensure greater co-operation between health, recreation and transport sectors in developing and encouraging cycling, building on the success of initiatives such as Bike Wise.
4. Further develop the nationwide network of safe and attractive cycleways.
5. Develop a network of signposted cycling routes in cities and rural areas.
6. Ensure that public transport services are 'cycle friendly' as a condition of receiving public funding.
7. Fund ongoing professional development education for transport professionals on how to promote cycling as a primary means of transport.
8. Improve cycle safety on the open road by:
   1. Widening narrow bridges or clipping on cycle lanes.
   2. Creating separate cycle paths on busy stretches of road and busy bridges.
   3. Widening road shoulders on popular routes.
9. Increase driver education that is focused on sharing the road.

10. Integrated Public Transport

Public transport services in New Zealand are well used and receive low levels of subsidy compared with many other countries. There is massive scope for affordable, reliable and effective public transport services to enhance mobility for many New Zealanders, including those with special needs (eg disabled people, children) and those on low incomes. Many rural areas lack effective public transport. Coupled with the centralisation of services, this can mean increasing isolation for those in rural communities without access to cars. In our cities, integration of public transport services is at a relatively early stage. Thanks to the Green Party, regional councils now have the power to introduce integrated ticketing and coordinate services better.

The Green Party will work to:

1. Encourage a more integrated public transport system by supporting regional councils to set conditions on the operation of public transport services in its area, including integrated scheduling and integrated ticketing between various modes of public transport.
2. Require, and provide appropriate funding support for, regional councils to introduce:
   1. affordable daily, weekly and monthly tickets that are usable on all services, and offer a 50% discount for children, students and beneficiaries.
   2. a '$1 for 2 hours go anywhere' off-peak ticket usable on all services.
3. Retain the Supergold card public transport concessions for senior citizens.
4. Encourage regional councils to develop innovative public transport services that meet a wide range of needs eg more use of cross-town services, use of taxis in conjunction with late night services etc.
5. Encourage regional councils to cooperate in the provision of cross boundary services (eg between Auckland and Hamilton).
6. Expand availability of public transport services in rural and provincial areas by defining minimum service levels on a population basis, encourage innovative ways of providing these and ensuring these services are funded.
7. Improve existing public transport services by expanding the range and type of funding available for new services and removing barriers to infrastructure investment.
8. Maintain and expand the use of electric public transport, such as trolleybuses and electric trains, and ensure relevant infrastructure is properly funded.
9. Support initiatives to power public transport through locally supplied renewable energy.
10. Where electric services are impractical, support the expanded use of high-efficiency, low-emission diesel engines, CNG and LPG in the short-term, and encourage the longer-term development of biodiesel technologies, including hybrid buses.
11. Require regional passenger transport plans to specify:
    1. How they will provide affordable and accessible public transport for children, students, the elderly and those with disabilities.
    2. How they will provide for integration between active modes and passenger transport.
12. Expand funding for information and access to public transport including real-time information services, journey planners, maps and accessibility to stations and interchanges.
13. Review local and central government policy and programmes for public transport, including Total Mobility, in light of the findings of the Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Accessible Public Transport.

11. Fostering Liveable Cities and Towns

'Living' cities - sustainable, vibrant urban areas - exist where there is a low level of car dependence, and movement and interaction are safe and easy for all. Overseas experience suggests that enlightened urban and rural planning, supported by appropriate transport policies, can significantly reduce car dependence. New Zealand is the most motorised country in the OECD. Traffic volumes affect people's sense of home and community. As traffic volumes increase, people's sense of freedom becomes more restricted and their sense of community diminishes. Yet numerous successful examples of traffic reduction initiatives exist. Reducing congestion involves finding ways for people who can leave their cars at home sometimes (eg parents, commuters or shoppers) to do so, so that those with fewer choices (eg those with disabilities, couriers, etc) can travel more easily when they need to. It's about changing the balance gradually - if each of us left the car at home for one in five of our current car trips, then congestion would be drastically reduced. New roads often simply shift congestion and usually encourage more people to drive - adding to the very problem the roads were intended to fix. By contrast, traffic reduction means business efficiency, effective emergency services, and access for those with disabilities. By reducing trips for which alternatives exist, those car trips that must occur are facilitated. The Green Party will work to develop and fund resources to assist local authorities to implement traffic reduction strategies based around the '3Rs' of traffic reduction:

Remove unnecessary trips

The Green Party will:

1. Encourage and expand car-pooling and car sharing programmes in businesses and communities, including through the provision of start-up funding.
2. Encourage the development of travel plans by workplaces, schools, and public institutions
3. Encourage people to combine several purposes in one trip.
4. Encourage shops, such as supermarkets, to provide a home delivery option.
5. Facilitate telework, telecommuting, working from home and community office space.
6. Work with schools and communities to make walking and cycling to school a safer and more attractive alternative for children, including national support for Safe Routes to Schools programmes
7. Ensure local authorities and the public sector generally (including tertiary institutions and DHBs) take a lead in developing work-based travel plans.
8. Encourage the retention and development of local facilities and services in order to reduce the need for travel.

Reduce trip lengths

The Green Party will:

1. Encourage and enable inner-city living and working through integrated land-use planning.
2. Develop economic policies and promotions to encourage people to shop, invest and employ locally.
3. Remove the barriers in district plans to housing developments in close proximity to public transport links, places of work, community, and shopping, including the requirements for on-site parking. (from Housing Policy)

Replace car trips

The Green Party will:

1. Investigate developing a cost recovery scheme for free work carparks to enable employees to benefit directly from not using a carpark.
2. Encourage local authorities to limit the supply and availability of parking in metropolitan CBDs.
3. Reform Fringe Benefit Tax so that car allowances, for example, can be paid as travel allowances without attracting increased FBT.
4. Equalise travel reimbursement for government employees so that it reflects the most efficient mode in a given situation, regardless of travel mode or size of vehicle.
5. Establish improved facilities and greater priority for active modes.
6. Greatly improve public transport services (see public transport).
7. Provide public information about the hidden costs of current transport patterns and the effects of a new approach.

Auckland Issues

Auckland needs investment in sustainable transport solutions. The enormous congestion and pollution problems Auckland faces today are the result of five decades of unbalanced transport planning. In the last decade, demand for alternatives to the private car has been soaring in Auckland. The 2008 oil price spike saw traffic volumes on State Highways fall to 2004 levels, and they haven't recovered since, while people have been flocking to buses, trains and bicycles. We can expect high oil prices to continue for the coming years. But even if we all could afford electric cars, there is not enough space in the city. There is a huge cost imposed by traffic jams and reserving huge amounts of land for parking. Walking, cycling, buses, ferries and trains are win-win solutions that will enable more people to get around without either getting stuck in traffic jams or having to pay for expensive imported oil.

The Green Party will work to implement our Auckland transport plan and in general:

1. Ensure ongoing integration in transport planning and funding in Auckland, either through legislative change or through more active facilitation of dialogue and cooperation between existing agencies.
2. Making funding for investment in public transport, travel demand management walking and cycling investment available on the same basis as State Highway funding so there is no longer a financial incentive for Auckland transport planning to favour major roading projects.
3. Promote the following initiatives in Auckland:
   1. Upgrading the rail passenger network including adding an Avondale-Southdown link and creating a central city underground rapid rail connection that also serves the universities.
   2. Rapid rail access to Auckland airport and a downtown 'check-in' with guaranteed connections.
   3. New feeder bus routes, including cross-town services, to 'stations' with park-and-ride facilities.
   4. Coordinated timetabling for quick transfers between services.
   5. A single multi-use ticket for all Auckland transport modes.
   6. More frequent commuter services, with headways as low as five minutes if practical along key arteries.
   7. Bus priority measures on all main roads, including bus lanes, right of way and lights pre-emption.
   8. A two-way bus lane over the Harbour Bridge as planned in the North Shore Busway project.
   9. A network of cycleways integrated with the public transport network, and including cycle and pedestrian access across the Harbour Bridge.
   10. A walkable city, with walkways and pedestrian friendly traffic crossings.
   11. An integrated transport and growth strategy whereby communities develop around nodes serviced by efficient public transport.

12 Emissions and Energy Efficiency

The Green Party's Energy Efficiency Conservation Act led to the creation of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy. However, much more needs to be done: transport is responsible for over 40 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in New Zealand. The emissions performance of the New Zealand vehicle fleet remains poor. Carbon Monoxide (CO) levels in Auckland have at times been higher than in London, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels are comparable to London's. Progress has been made in reducing levels of sulphur in diesel and benzene in petrol but we need to move more quickly to international best practice. Recent studies also show there is a 'hidden road toll': PM10 alone (particles in the air less than 10 microns in diameter) kill as many people as road crashes do each year. To improve local air quality, the Green Party will:

1. Amend the National Environmental Standard to include a clear and strict mechanism able to be applied to vehicles and transport policy, in line with the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group report on the NES on Air Quality.
2. Set, by mid-2014, comprehensive emission standards for all ages and classes of vehicle, including older vehicles, that are appropriate and reasonable for the age of the vehicle, and gradually increase these standards over time.
3. Undertake a comprehensive education and information campaign about the importance of reducing vehicle emissions and the steps vehicle owners can take to ensure their vehicle has the lowest practical emissions.
4. Prohibit the importation of vehicles older than 7 years unless they can meet strict emissions standards.
5. Prohibit the disconnection of any functioning pollution control equipment (such as catalytic converters) from vehicles to which they are fitted.
6. Introduce mandatory vehicle assessment in order to ensure compliance with emission standards involving a combination of:
   1. Regular surveys of the emissions performance of the vehicle fleet.
   2. Requiring new vehicles fitted with engine management systems to produce evidence at Warrant of Fitness (WoF) or Certificate of Fitness (CoF) inspection that these systems are maintained and tuned to meet appropriate international emissions performance standards on an ongoing basis.
   3. Requiring all new vehicles not fitted with engine management systems to meet appropriate international emissions performance standards on an ongoing basis, verified by random comprehensive testing at WoF or CoF inspection.
   4. Making greater use of roadside emissions testing and requiring comprehensive emissions testing for vehicles that perform poorly on these tests.
   5. Mandatory comprehensive emissions testing as part of Warrant of Fitness (WoF) or Certificate of Fitness (CoF) inspections for classes of vehicles that surveys reveal have the worst emissions performance.
   6. Providing exemptions for specialist classes of vehicles that are rarely used, such as vintage and veteran cars.
   7. Recognising that some costs of establishing and running the emissions testing system ought to be met by the government.
   8. Evaluating the best means of assisting people to adjust to the new regime, including consideration of a six-month warning period (followed by compulsory retesting) for vehicle owners after the first time tests show their vehicle(s) is not meeting emission standards.
7. Regularly review fuel specifications so that they meet international best practice for compounds that degrade air quality, such as the sulphur content in diesel and petrol, and the benzene levels in petrol.
8. Support the transition to low-emission and zero-emission vehicles, such as electric buses, and ensure that public transport funding encourages the use of low-emission and zero-emission vehicles.

To improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Green Party will:

1. Develop fuel efficiency standards for all motor vehicles entering the country that:
   1. Allow for different types of vehicles to meet different needs, but discourage the use of large vehicles where small ones will suffice.
   2. Rise progressively towards a target based on the state of technology.
2. Support the transition to cleaner fuels, such as LPG, for both private vehicles and those in the public fleet, and rationalise the refuelling network for these alternative fuels.
3. Facilitate and encourage localised small scale programmes to develop biofuels from waste.
4. Reinstate and increase funding to implement the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, including the transport component and increase emphasis within this on traffic reduction and modal shift as key goals.
5. Include fuel efficient driving skills in new driver training and testing.

Many of the policies elsewhere in this document will also reduce CO2 emissions and improve local air quality.

13. Fair Cost of Driving

Current patterns of transport use result in massive social, environmental and health costs. People's transport choices need to reflect the true social, environmental and resource cost of their decisions. Because today's patterns of transport use have evolved over decades, they will take a long time to change, unless external events force more rapid shifts. Investment in alternatives must start now - and real alternatives need to be in place before any significant move is made to charge more directly for the social and environmental costs of transport. Change needs to start now and start gradually. Initially, the Green Party will:

1. Bring transport fuels into the Emissions Trading Scheme, with compensating income tax reductions, which will reflect the impact of carbon emissions across the economy on the global climate.
2. Review the existing system of fuel excise taxes for land transport, with a view to ensuring revenue collection is financially, socially and environmentally sustainable.
3. Review the road user charges system to ensure that compliance is dramatically improved and diesel vehicles pay their fair share, and investigate whether it should be extended to other vehicles over time.
4. Empower regional and local councils to finance transport spending through charges on parking, as an alternative to rates.

Once real alternatives are in place, the Greens will support:

1. Charges on petrol and diesel to address the effects of transport on the local environment, such as air and water quality, with the money thus raised to be spent on reducing these effects.
2. Trialling the introduction of congestion charging, and polluter-pays charges for motor vehicles. These would replace other less direct charges.

The Green Party will also seek to remove inequitable fixed costs for motorists, and ensure that people who drive the most pay the most.

1. Drivers' licences should be free - the cost of processing paid out of petrol tax and road user charges rather than being a flat charge.
2. Vehicle registration and licensing fees should:
   1. Reflect the cost of administration; the ACC contribution that makes up most of the current cost should be obtained through petrol tax and/or road user charges.
   2. Be proportional to emissions, fuel use and vehicle age so older, more efficient and cleaner vehicles are cheaper.
3. Investigate the merits of a compulsory third party insurance scheme funded by a levy on liquid fuels.

14. Safety Initiatives

Overseas research shows that being able to move around their community easily and safely is vital for children's mental and physical health. Children need a gradually growing sense of independence. The ability to walk or cycle around the neighbourhood, and to and from school, provides a healthy alternative to sitting in front of the television, it helps tackle childhood obesity and it is important in the development of a sense of identity and self-confidence. Children who walk, scooter or cycle to school arrive more alert and ready to learn. They are also likely to become safer, more considerate drivers. Little recent research has been done on health impacts of traffic on children in New Zealand - what does exist is disturbing. Studies in the early 90s found that deaths and hospitalisations of children due to traffic are higher here than they are in the US or the UK, and the death rate for children older than one from motor vehicle injury is more than four times the death rate from childhood asthma and five times the rate for all infectious diseases combined. A quarter of cycling deaths are in the 10 to 14 age group. Children are also very vulnerable to air pollution. All this is more shocking because the route to prevention is clear - reducing the speed and volume of traffic. Countries that have focused on this rather than educating children about road safety have seen dramatic reductions in child pedestrian injuries and deaths. Moreover if ways can be found to reduce the number of children being driven to school, peak hour congestion problems in our major cities will be radically reduced. In addition to the many steps outlined elsewhere in this document, the Green Party will put children first and work to:

1. Provide resources, advice and support to enable schools and communities to make walking and cycling safer for children.
2. Encourage school trustees, parents and teachers to jointly develop School Travel Plans with students and share responsibility for children's safe and active arrival at school.
3. Set national and regional targets for parents' perceptions of safety for their children and monitor progress towards these targets.
4. Ensure transport policy and decision-making fully comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and ensure that all land transport projects are assessed for their effect on the exposure of children to traffic and their impact on the perceived safety of children.
5. Introduce priority for pedestrian crossings and pedestrian activated traffic lights over traffic 'efficiency'.
6. Empower local communities to obtain traffic engineering and road design changes to reduce vehicle speeds and facilitate road crossings, including on state highways.
7. Increase the use of innovative solutions, such as 'walking school buses', where adults walk groups of children to school.
8. Lower maximum speeds in areas of significant pedestrian traffic, such as routes to schools, hospitals and shopping areas.
9. Introduce dedicated cycleways to and from school and other key destinations, with priority over car parking in the event of conflict.
10. Expand school bus services, especially in rural, provincial and 'urban fringe' areas.
11. Improve information and research on children's transport needs.

The Green Party will reduce the impact of heavy trucks on our roads by:

1. Promoting and investing in other methods of moving freight, such as rail, shipping and the use of barges (see other policies in this document).
2. Opposing increases in maximum truckloads and truck lengths.
3. Adjusting Road User Charges to reflect the results of the Surface Costs and Charging Study.

The Green Party will promote innovative solutions to dangerous stretches of state highways, including:

1. Changing the colour of the road and the nature of the road surface to make people aware of changes from motorway to state highway.
2. Introducing effective, low-cost safety improvement where these do not create new safety hazards.
3. Providing better rest area facilities and road signs, in areas where fatigue is found to be a major cause of accidents.
4. 'Traffic calming' dangerous roads, in order to encourage speed reduction.

The Green Party will improve road safety management by:

1. Ensuring better coordination between the New Zealand Transport Agency, other road controlling authorities, , ACC and the police so that safety issues are integrated into land transport planning and management.
2. Introducing clearer liability for crashes involving active modes so that motorised vehicles involved are liable unless the pedestrian or cyclist has been reckless.
3. Incorporating into transport planning the Vision Zero goal of zero road deaths for people following the road rules.
4. Revising the Road Safety 2010 strategy and associated policy to:
   1. Reflect a pro-active approach based on risk compensation theory, international best practice and innovation in safety engineering.
   2. Set targets based on increasing modal share for walking and cycling as well as focusing on historical accident records.