Subscribe to RSSA Really Bold Move
Auckland and Wellington now have pro-PTMayors so which of them will be bold enough to do something Spain is doing.
The Government in the Spanish city of Murcia is offering to give citizens lifetime passes to its brand-new tram system in exchange for turning over their cars.
What a great Auckland Transport promotion for when Auckland gets its new electric trains around 2014.
The first part of that effort was a programme whereby citizens could register by the end of June to get a lifelong ticket for city travel on the tram in exchange for their car, which simply had to be debt-free and in working order.
Since that part of the campaign ended, the next phase has involved the city displaying all the cars that were exchanged and gradually disassembling them so as to make them “disappear.”
Specifically, for every comment submitted via Facebook or Twitter, Murcia’s mechanics have been removing one piece of the cars in the city’s new collection, even broadcasting the effort via webcam for all to see. The third and final piece of Murcia’s effort, meanwhile, was a humorous initiative in late June to demonstrate the difficulty of parking in the city. To do that, Murcia set up a series of cars parked in impossible places around town, such as atop other cars.
A recent Auckland Transport presentation to the Auckland Council said the city centre road system was already at capacity; the key intersections over capacity at peaks and the average peak vehicle speed 10 km/h > 15 km/h.
So the time is now to do something radical to shift people out of their cars.
But this will also need a ramping up of public transport capacity including (hello, Beehive!) the CBD Rail Link.
The presentation also warned of the PT capacity issues ahead:
Buses:
Central area bus system reaches capacity in:
• 2014 – Symonds Street
(Karangahape Road > Wellesley Street)
• 2016 – Albert Street southbound
• 2019 – Fanshawe Street
• 2019 – Symonds Street
(Khyber Pass Road > Karangahape Road)
• 2020 – Albert Street northbound
Rail:
Britomart catchment north end of city centre
– away from city centre employment core.
• Britomart capacity 20 trains per direction/hour.
• This train capacity will be reached in Feb. 2012.
• With longer trains, passenger capacity may
extend to 2024.
• However, performance will degrade before then.
• Western Line will hit capacity first.
4 Comments
The translations I say talked about the car having to be less than 15 years old, the tram pass was worth around 360 Euro per year,
Doing a quick comparison with Auckland’s Monthly all zone @180/month, (2160 yr), it would mean it would make economic sense to go an buy a additional car on trademe and use it in any similar offer
Greenwelly - easily fixed. Just make it a rule that the owner, at the time the promotion started, had to have owned it at least for a few months. That will weed out all the ones trying to game the system.
Also, who cares - it’s half marketing stunt anyway! Look here, we have a tram system, isn’t it great? And it comes at no immediate price for the city, though of course it will slightly depress ROI for the tram, as some heavy users won’t be paying at all.
But seeing that our farebox recovery target has just been lifted to 50%, such an initiative would be frowned on by Joyce of course
Unlike anywhere in Europe, Auckland’s airport is not connected via train or fast PT.
New Zealand is not a place you can live without a car of some sort.
you can’t get a train to Hamilton, what would you do for summer holiday if you go to the coromandel?
Again people need to get into the real world.
passes for cars would not work.
but more trains and stations that have decent coverings and connecting bus routes that arrive on time, will make more people leave the car at home.
woah! train system at capacity in 2012!! Glad the Minister has a plan to deal with that… Sigh.