Sonya Bateson: Roads v public transport. Why we can and should have both

Having good roads and good public transportation is a win for everyone, writes Sonya Bateson. Photo / NZME

Opinion

OPINION

Roads. Kiwis love them - and love to hate them.

They affect each and every one of us, after all, even those of us who don’t drive. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the appliances we use - none of it would be in our homes if it weren’t for roads.

And we Kiwis certainly have a love/hate relationship with the things. Most of us drive as our primary means of transportation and many take great pride in our vehicles. Yet complaining about the state of our roads is practically a national pastime.

If there’s one thing that’s going to get more people to the voting booths, it’s roads.

National’s recent announcement of their plans for a four-lane expressway from Whangarei to Tauranga is, I believe, a clever move to attract a few stagnant voters who haven’t resonated with Christopher Luxon’s leadership thus far.

It’s a proposal that could impact the lives of the millions of Kiwis living in the northern half of the North Island.

By Stats NZ’s latest territorial authority population estimates, there are 2.76 million people who live in the Northland, Auckland, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty regions - that’s a bit over half of New Zealand’s 5.12 million population that stands to benefit from the policy.

And that’s a whole lot of people that may now be looking more positively at the National Party as the next general election looms.

It’s a common tactic used by the party. They love a new road.

Roads of National Significance was one of their pet projects under John Key, after all. It’s how we here in the Bay of Plenty managed to get the Tauranga Eastern Link.

But it’s a winning tactic for good reason: we’re car-reliant yet our roads aren’t all that flash.

Our state highway network, in my opinion, is very patchwork. I mean no insult to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, it is doing what it can with what they’ve got. But many of our state highways still feel like country roads rather than proper highways - winding, narrow, and often steep. And that’s without mentioning the unending plague of potholes and surface repairs.

Addressing that is a winning tactic indeed.

Now, I’m not usually an advocate for building more roads. There’s quite a bit of research showing that building more roads doesn’t reduce congestion; creating more road space encourages more drivers to use it.

It’s a reason why so many city planners push for better public transport options; building more roads encourages more people to drive and creates more congestion in the long term.

Despite that, I still believe we should be investing significant funds into improving our inter-regional transport network.

I’m no expert, but I have done a lot of driving around the country and it’s my opinion that making our state highways safer, easier to drive on, and reducing the travel time would be beneficial to both private drivers and businesses.

In fact, I’d love to see even more of these kinds of motorways proposed by National being built between more regions.

But - and there’s always a but - I’d also like to see significant investment into rail.

I know, I’m not asking for much. The world on a silver platter, please, medium rare.

But really, it doesn’t need to be one or the other. Having good roads and good public transportation is a win for everyone - it makes driving easier and it makes travel more accessible to more people.

It seems like such a pipe dream. But other countries have managed it.

I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy the freedoms an extensive public transport network provides during trips to Australia.

Like the time I was in Melbourne and overindulged in some gorgeous pasta downtown, so I caught a free tram back to my hotel. Or when I was staying at the Gold Coast and decided to visit Brisbane, so I got on a tram to the train station and travelled by train to Brisbane. Or when I stayed at a cheap hotel in an outer suburb of Sydney and travelled to Bondi by bus and train one day and the Opera House by ferry the next.

Quick, cheap, readily available, and convenient for those who want to utilise it. That’s the beauty of good public transport.

We’re not Australia. Obviously. We’re dealing with a far different terrain and population than our mates over the ditch. But we should be able to do better than what we’ve got now.

And if you’re reading this and thinking to yourself “I hate trains, I’d never get on one!” that’s great, I’m not suggesting you sell your car. But having the option there will benefit you, too, purely for there being fewer drivers taking up space on the roads.

Well done, National, for finding a policy that will make many, many people happy.

But roading versus public transport isn’t a zero-sum game; we don’t have to sacrifice one to gain the other.

We can - and should - have both.

Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader, and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a Millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.