NZ Herald supports tolls

To balance up all the critics of Hubbard’s plan to toll existing roads, the NZ Herald editorial today praises the plan and says road tolling takes political courage.

Again this of course reminds me of the old Yes Minister episodes when telling the Minister that such a decision or policy is courageuous, is guaranteed to have the Minister do a 180 degree u-turn.

The NZ Herald talks of its support for tolls generally but doesn’t distinguish between tolls on existing roads and tolls on new roads. There is a difference and reading the editorial one would have no idea that the Hubbard plan is about existing roads as well as new roads.

I personally believe the future will involve electronic tolls on major roads and that this will over time replace petrol tax as the primary source of funds for new roads. User pays basically. What I want to avoid is where you are paying both petrol tax and tolls for the same road.