Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Justin Tighe-Umbers: National Road Carriers Association CEO on report which found congestion will cost Auckland 2.6 billion dollars a year by next year
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: So congestion apparently costs Orkland's two point six billion dollars
- 0:04Speaker 1: every year and certainly, and that's by twenty twenty six,
- 0:08Speaker 1: that is next year. Obviously. This is according to a
- 0:11Speaker 1: report that Wayne Brown, the mayor, has commissioned, and he's
- 0:14Speaker 1: calling for a time of use charge to manage demand
- 0:17Speaker 1: on Auckland's roads. We know those as congestion charges. The
- 0:20Speaker 1: city has the worst congestion of any city in New
- 0:23Speaker 1: Zealand or Australia. Apparently people are spending twenty nine million
- 0:28Speaker 1: hours a year sitting in traffic. It's National Road Carriers Association.
- 0:32Speaker 1: See oh, justin Tiger, I'm business with.
- 0:34Speaker 2: Me, Hella justin morning, Andrew.
- 0:36Speaker 1: How would road carriers feel about the congestion charges? Would
- 0:39Speaker 1: they welcome them if they get all the unnecessary cars
- 0:41Speaker 1: out of the system.
- 0:43Speaker 2: Yeah, look, that's right. National Road Carriers supports. Time of
- 0:47Speaker 2: use is about a tool and the tilkit for tackling congestion.
- 0:51Speaker 2: It's a major issue in Auckland. And I think the
- 0:55Speaker 2: win we'd be looking for out of time of use
- 0:57Speaker 2: in the city like Auckland is to peer back to
- 0:59Speaker 2: some like school holiday level traffic. I think that's around
- 1:03Speaker 2: about six percent reduction, and then what that enables for
- 1:08Speaker 2: track drivers is they can get their goods through faster
- 1:11Speaker 2: and they could probably do more turns in a day
- 1:13Speaker 2: and more runs in a day as well, So certainly
- 1:15Speaker 2: they support it as long as the pricing is price drip.
- 1:20Speaker 1: Is there too much attention paid on, say a new
- 1:22Speaker 1: harbour crossing when we come to wanting to fix our
- 1:24Speaker 1: problems when the problems are actually in other parts of
- 1:27Speaker 1: the motorways and also in the roads that the council controls.
- 1:33Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's all a system that has to be
- 1:36Speaker 2: managed in cohesion. So for Auckland harbor crossing, what's really
- 1:42Speaker 2: critical is that we have a second crossing put in
- 1:45Speaker 2: place so there's resilience. When you've got an older structure
- 1:47Speaker 2: and one that's having to be closed because it's too
- 1:50Speaker 2: windy or winds lanes shut down, we need extra resilience there.
- 1:55Speaker 2: There's no question in the level of traffic on the
- 1:57Speaker 2: motorway needs that getting it in the right place would
- 2:00Speaker 2: help congestion. But yeah, look Andrew, you're right, there's other
- 2:04Speaker 2: parts the motorway that need actually widening, and we have
- 2:08Speaker 2: three lanes narrow down to two, which was all enjoyed
- 2:10Speaker 2: on Hawai getting out of Auckland. They need to be
- 2:14Speaker 2: addressed as well, and that'll have a major factor in
- 2:16Speaker 2: terms of improving congestion.
- 2:18Speaker 1: All right, justin we'll wait to see what happens and
- 2:19Speaker 1: whether this really does occur. Certainly I was driving around
- 2:22Speaker 1: in a rush Houra yesterday and the problem wasn't on
- 2:25Speaker 1: the boatorways. My god. It was a wirerail road, it
- 2:28Speaker 1: was a lake road, it was everywhere. It's suburban and
- 2:33Speaker 1: a little bit on the motorways as well. Good luck
- 2:35Speaker 1: if you're driving into work today.
- 2:38Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
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