Subscribe to RSSARC To Change Its Public Transport Usage Targets
The ARC is going to consider a new 30 year Road Land Transport Strategy at a meeting next month.
Committee chair Christine Rose says it will set new targets for public transport use, air quality, congestion, walking and cycling in the region.
“Support for public transport is still growing, and we need to ensure we continue to invest to encourage this positive trend,” she said.
A report on progress against the strategy set in 2005 says that, while public transport subsidies rose by 14 per cent last year, there have been 58.6 million trips by rail, bus and ferry, an increase of almost 8 per cent over last year.
“An increase of 4.2 million boardings over 12 months is excellent. It proves that if you invest in public transport infrastructure and provide reliable services, people will make the switch and choose to take a bus, train or ferry.”
But earlier, I reported that thanks to the bus dispute last year, bus patronage to the 6 months to December 31 was up a mere 0.4%, which blows out ARC’s hoped for and targetted 4% annual growth target – and affects income.
On roading, she said :“We need to reduce the amount of time people spend in traffic as it has an impact on Auckland’s economy – freight needs to move freely and people must be able to get on with their business.”
Almost 20 per cent of trips made in Auckland are 2km or shorter, and around half of these trips are made by walking. Trips to school account for almost a third of trips in the morning peak, and just over 50 per cent are made by car.
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6 Comments
Some of those old targets were woefully unambitious - the walking and cycling targets especially. Knowing that Christine is on the right side, I hope she managed to convince people.
I was excited about the Supercity initially but not at all now… I didn’t think I would miss the ARC and ARTA a lot but I will now…
Jeremy, we may still get something good out of this in the long term. Whatever initial mistakes Hide bequeathes on us, regional issues can now be handled in a unified manner - at least unified in terms of transport.
We will have to work on the other aspects (land use integration comes to mind).
The loss of democracy is what has waned my enthusiasm… What Aucklanders wanted was 7 councils combined into one, who would then decide what to delegate to CCOs… The government limiting council control over CCOs and appointing the boards themselves is a massive power grab and is very sad…
“What Aucklanders wanted was 7 councils combined into one, who would then decide what to delegate to CCOs…”
I think a stronger ARC, with some regional powers actually limited to them only, would have been the best move. If ARC was twice as powerful as it had been, many of our regional issues could have been resolved without having to emasculate or remove local Councils.
Anyone aware of any areas overseas where amalgamation has been undone on any substantial scale?
The problem the ARC was to weak and didnt have enough money needed to do what it wanted.
Normally the regional bodies are the strong bossy ones, however in Auckland the small councils were strong.
Amazing how no one has mentioned how having one council for a city of over a million people is extremely rare, almost unheard of.
The way Rodney and the like talk about it is like Auckland has many more councils than the norm, but the opposite is true.
The much mentioned Transport for London is actually very similar to ARTA as it is now.