Congestion charging law is coming

Simeon Brown announced:

The Government will introduce legislation this year to enable time of use schemes to be developed to reduce travel times on our busiest roads and boost economic growth, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.

“Congestion is a tax on time and productivity. It means that we are away from home for longer, sitting in gridlock. It results in fewer jobs being done, fewer goods being moved, and delays to services across the city.

Very pleased to see this. It is a more sophisticated form of user pays.

“Schemes will be focused on increasing productivity and improving the efficiency of traffic flow in our cities. Local councils will propose schemes in their region, with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) leading the design of the schemes in partnership with councils to provide strong oversight and to ensure motorists benefit from these schemes. All schemes will require approval from the Government.

“Time of use schemes will need to consider the impacts on motorists and businesses that use the roads that fall within the charging areas, as well as the impacts on the wider network.

“Any money collected through time of use charging will also be required to be invested back into transport infrastructure that benefits Kiwis and businesses living and working in the region where the money was raised. Councils will not be able to spend this money on other priorities or pet projects.”

This is important, and why the Government needs to sign off on any charging schemes, otherwise Councils would just use them as revenue raisers for pet projects.