Tauranga traffic and congestion: Council scraps road-pricing project after public backlash

A controversial road-pricing idea to combat congestion in Tauranga has been scrapped after poor public feedback.

But Tauranga City Council proposes to spend $1.5m over three years to keep working on similar ideas, including as part of a national project.

In a statement today, the council said it would not proceed with its proposed business case investigation into SmartTrip variable road-pricing.

This followed the largely negative community response received via Long Term Plan (LTP) submissions.

The idea to toll many of Tauranga’s main arterial routes was labelled “ludicrous” and “unfair” by the public when announced last year, but a New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) staff member said not doing it could lead to “economic catastrophe”.

In a meeting today, council commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said after the LTP consultation document was issued for community feedback in November, the new coalition Government indicated road charging legislation would be considered as a way of reducing congestion and improving travel reliability in metropolitan centres.

Tolley said Tauranga was the only New Zealand council to have consulted on road-pricing, which would likely be similar to the congestion charging proposed by the Government.

“We therefore have some rich feedback to pass on to central Government as it considers how best to reduce the economic and social effects of traffic congestion, the need to reduce carbon emissions from transport activities and generate future funding for transport network improvements in metropolitan centres like Tauranga which will reduce the growing dependency on rates funding.”

Tolley said the council had been approached by NZTA to work on a nationally consistent approach to road-pricing.

“Given that Government policy is likely to take this matter out of our hands, the commission’s view is that we should investigate the key concerns expressed by our community about the cost of road-pricing charges.”

These were the quality and availability of alternative transport options; the locations and times charging could apply to; and equity and wider network impacts.

“… Our expectation would be that any outcomes of the forthcoming investigation would address the concerns raised by our community.”

The council said today it proposed to budget $500,000 for each of the next three years to investigate how to address community concerns and participate in a national approach to road-pricing legislation.

The timing of that funding would be subject to review as part of the council’s next Annual Plan for the 2025/26 financial year and the availability of any subsidy or external funding to reduce the cost to Tauranga ratepayers.