Tauranga transport forum to learn from Auckland's mistakes

Glen Crowther, Bay of Plenty regional manager of Sustainable Business Network, will be at the heart of a smart transport forum taking place this week. Photo/John Borren

It is hoped a forum to discuss Tauranga's transport woes this week will help officials learn from Auckland's mistakes.

The Smart Transport Forum has about 150 people attending today and will include representatives from Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Smart Growth, Priority 1, Tauranga Chamber of Commerce and the New Zealand Transport Agency.

Sustainable Business Network Bay of Plenty regional manager Glen Crowther said the forum was an opportunity to hear from experts and for people to have their say on what transport options they would like to see in the city.

Mr Crowther said the national arm of his organisation had previously run forums in Auckland which were, understandably, very Auckland-focused. Mr Crowther said he wanted to bring that to Tauranga, where there were already rumblings of the city's traffic woes.

"Tauranga is a city of over 120,000 operating in an infrastructure around transport built for a city half that size," he said.

"The infrastructure hasn't kept up with the fast-growing population. Therefore we try to retrofit extra infrastructure to support cars but what we really need to do is have a rethink of how we can design our city for people with different options."

Mr Crowther said there were many people with lots of future transport ideas and he hoped the forum would harness some of that energy.

Speakers include Auckland City Council's Darren David, who has 25 years' experience in handling the city's transport and was expected to share lessons learned.

Patrick Reynolds from transport advocacy group Greater Auckland was also expected to speak. The group submitted a regional rail passenger service plan several weeks ago which the Green Party and Labour took onboard as part of their election campaigns.

Heidi Hughes from Greater Tauranga was also expected to attend.

"Our big concern is we want to get the word out as much as possible and get some real community consultation going," Mr Crowther said.

Mr Crowther said it would be more than "just a talk fest". The forum was expected to link in with the Tauranga Transport Programme, which launched this week and involved prioritising, funding and delivering transport and land use over the next 30 years.

Mr Reynolds said the key thing Tauranga could learn from the forum was from "Auckland's mistakes, and don't repeat them".

"If you build a safe connected network, the people will come. There's evidence of that all over the world. The key is there needs to be somewhere to ride."

Smart Transport Forum

Where: Club Mount Maunganui, 45 Kawaka St, Mount Maunganui

When: Today, 9am - 12pm

Cost: No charge, morning tea provided