Auckland’s war on cars is bad policy

Stuff reports:

“I don’t think we are going to get there on our current trajectory,” said Kimpton on the aim to halve driving by 2030.

Kimpton said not only was funding insufficient, but the scale of how Aucklanders would need to change their lives was a conversation that needed to be led by politicians.

The job of Auckland Transport should be to facilitate Aucklanders moving around Auckland, using the mode that best works for them.

A target to halve driving is Stalinist and bad policy. It also will never ever happen by 2030, unless they start shooting motorists (as Bob Jones suggested in the 1980s, as an alternative policy to carless days).

If your aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then as transport is in the ETS all you need to do is allow the price signals of the ETS to work.

One of our two cars is an electric car. As petrol inevitably will cost more and more, people will transition to electric cars. Who is Auckland Council and Transport punishing people for getting electric cars by trying to make driving as difficult as possible?

The notion that everyone can use public transport is an elitist view pushed by people out of touch with reality.

Take my family as an example:

• I can’t use public transport when picking up around ten bags of groceries twice a week
• Even if I lived in a suburb (we have a lifestyle block), talking public transport to drop kids off and pick them up would take an extra five hours or more out of my week.
• Getting the kids to swimming, gym, Keas, or Kung Fu doesn’t work with public transport, With the evening activities you would be getting back past their bedtime
• I work from home, but once or twice a week need to meet people and if I used public transport I would spend longer getting to the meeting than meeting.
• At weekends, using public transport would mean having to keep a three year old sitting quietly on the bus or train for a couple of hours at a time, when going to various activities.

I do use public transport from time to time, when it is practical. I even use e-scooters. But being able to drive a car is not a matter of choice for me, or many families. And having government entities intent of forcing people to stop using cars just angers them.