Faster, Safer, with more choice and less cost

Green Party transport package for car-free day, 22 September 2008
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Today I want to tell you about the Green Party’s latest proposals to get you home faster, more safely, with more choice and less cost.
Our transport planning and funding system was designed for an age of dirt cheap oil, and before climate change was heard of. That age is no longer with us.
Our transport system is systematically biased in favour of cars and trucks, and against trains, buses, ferries, bikes, and people on foot. It is biased against climate change. It is unaffordable and unsustainable. Today I am announcing policies to set right that bias.
The bias has been created over decades of funding new roading projects and not funding rail, busways or cycle ways to anything like the same extent. That has given us a nation wide network of state highways and local roads, a third world public transport service, a crippled rail system and a dangerous environment for cycling.
That bias is made worse every year by the way funding is allocated from the National Land Transport Fund. This year we are spending just under $2 billion on roading work, and only $337 million on public transport infrastructure and services combined. Even if you add in money spent on cycling and walking facilities and on travel demand management and community programmes like walking school buses and work place travel plans, that’s still only 20 cents for every dollar spent on roads.
The Government Policy Statement on Transport makes it clear that that ratio won’t change – in 2018/19, when fuel will be outrageously expensive and scarce, the ratio is still planned to be at least 5:1.
The Greens will progressively increase the proportion of the Fund spent on public transport, walking and cycling facilities and community travel demand programmes from one third in our first year in government to two thirds five years later. So from 5:1 now it will go to 2:1 in our first year and 1:2 five years later.
That would mean in the first year, slightly more than doubling the funding for alternatives to roads, while maintaining the whole current budget for maintaining and renewing roads and a sizeable chunk of funding for new road projects that are already underway. Over the following five years building new motorways would take lower priority to completing public transport systems and cycling and walking networks.
It’s simply about timing: which capital intensive projects do we do first? In our view, if we do the public transport and cycling projects, and given the way traffic volumes are falling with rising petrol prices anyway, our present roading infrastructure, well maintained, will be all we need.

• shift spending priorities in the National Land Transport Fund from new motorways to public transport, cycle and walking facilities and travel demand management
• from 5:1 in favour of roads now, shift to 2:1 in our first year then progressively over five years to 1:2

The next bias that has to be changed is the way local government – with your rates – is expected to pay for public transport but not for new roads.
If Wellington wants to build an inner city bypass, notionally to make access to the airport easier (though actually most people now would agree that it didn’t) that is fully funded from the National Land Transport Fund. But if Wellington wants a light rail from the rail station to the airport, Wellington will have to pay a substantial part of the cost.
If Auckland wants a new State highway 20 across the city, it gets it for free from the national fund. If they want to electrify the commuter rail to do exactly the same job, they pay half in Auckland. It’s no surprise that in some years even the small amount of funding available for public transport infrastructure hasn’t been spent – because any council that tries to raise the local share through rates gets kicked out.
The Greens will fund like for like. For commuter rail infrastructure, busways, and cycle ways that are part of a continuous network of routes, councils will be able to apply for up to 100% funding. We will include regional transport centres where services interconnect and are designed to be people places with a variety of services. This will reduce the burden on rates and ensure there is a real choice of travel options.
Our public transport plans are not just for big cities. The 100% funding opportunity will help smaller cities develop quality public transport options where they do not have them now. A key task for the NZ Transport Agency will be to define minimum standards for public transport for cities and towns over a certain size. There are many innovative ways of providing these services in a demand-responsive way, without necessarily always using 48 seater buses.
How will we pay for it? The change in funding priorities that I’ve just outlined will boost money for public transport, cycling and walking facilities by around $400m in the first year, increasing over the following five years, without any deterioration of the road network.

• increase the funding assistance rate for public transport, cycling, and walking infrastructure and regional transport centres to up to 100% for projects approved by the Land Transport Agency

Buses and trains are expensive to buy and poorly used at present. Services have to be run during off peak hours but are relatively empty, while peak hour services are crammed full. To make better use of off peak capacity, and potentially move some passengers away from peak hours, everyone will be able to travel off peak on public transport for $1, anywhere within the urban limits of any city. (So, Upper Hutt but not Masterton; Henderson but not Hellensville). The $1 tickets will give unlimited travel for a 2 hour period.
The passage of the Public Transport Management Act gives regional councils the power to do this.
We do not believe this will end up costing more, as the services have to run anyway and some passengers may move from peak time where they can. However if it does cost more, regional councils who can make a good case for it will be able to apply for funding from the LTF.

• anyone anywhere in the city for $1 off peak

We also need to make public transport more affordable for those who have to travel at peak times. We will introduce integrated ticketing, also made possible by the recent law change, and create cheaper day, week and monthly passes, usable across all services, with 50% discounts for children, students and beneficiaries.
In Wellington, for example, you should be able to travel on any mix of services for around $5 a day, or $7-8 over the region. This would be $25/week and $75/month for a city pass. The exact fares would have to be set locally, and we accept that fare reduction would initially have to be supported from the Land Transport Fund, though over time we would expect patronage to grow and so less support would be needed.
This will create a strong incentive for children to use the bus to get to school rather than be driven; make it easier for people to get to their first job without a car; and ensure the lowest income people still have real transport choices.
We also need to give public transport priority when it shares the roadway with other vehicles. On roads with a speed limit of 70 kph or less, drivers will have to give way to buses pulling out of a bus stop. This effectively creates a bus priority lane without the need for expensive new infrastructure.

• cheaper day, week and month passes; 50% discount for children, students and beneficiaries
• bus priority when pulling out from a bus stop

Cyclists and pedestrians are always the ones who come off worst in a collision with a vehicle. Safety is the biggest reason people don’t use bikes now. Many motorists just don’t see them, because they aren’t thinking about them. We will create a legal presumption that, so long as a cyclist or pedestrian is observing all road rules and common courtesy, in a collision with a vehicle the motorist will be held responsible.
Speed and traffic volumes are proven to be the greatest cause of child deaths in crashes. We will reduce speed limits in areas of high pedestrian use, especially where children walk to school.

• legal liability for the motorist who hits a cyclist or pedestrian who was observing all the road rules
• lower speed limits in high pedestrian areas

Many employers and even government departments also reflect the bias toward cars in their employment policies. Free car parks, mileage for using private cars on company business and sometimes free company cars are provided with no corresponding benefit to those who prefer not to drive. Government departments will equalise travel reimbursements regardless of the mode of transport used. This could be in the form of bus or train passes or cycle shop vouchers.

• equalise travel reimbursement for government employees regardless of travel mode or size of vehicle, based on the most efficient mode

And finally for cars. We will legislate immediately for average fuel economy standards for all vehicles coming into the country, new and used. This gives importers the flexibility to import a range of vehicles as long as they meet their average. This was agreed by the current government and published in the NZ Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy a year ago, but still has not been legislated for. The Greens will ramp up fuel efficiency standards so that over a ten year period we catch up with the EU.
Even with existing cars, fuel efficient driving can make a big difference. In fact it can make a 20% difference to your fuel consumption. The Greens will make fuel efficient driving practices part of the driver licensing training and testing procedures so that new drivers can save more fuel than their parents do.

• legislate immediately for fuel efficiency standards for vehicles entering the fleet
• include fuel efficient driving techniques in the driver licensing and testing programme

This is the most comprehensive programme ever put forward in New Zealand to protect the traveling public from high prices at the pump and congestion when they travel to work. It will significantly reduce our climate change emissions and prepare us to cope with much more expensive and scarce oil in the future.
We owe it to our children and to ourselves to do all this without delay.
Our cities will be safer, the air cleaner, travel more pleasant and faster and less expensive. What are we waiting for?
Only more Greens in Government. And you know how to achieve that.