Tauranga's congested roads could be here for long time

Morning queues coming down from the Hairini and Welcome Bay roundabouts merge into a single lane before the Turret Rd bridge. Photo/File

Tauranga roading authorities have been warned to be realistic about what can be achieved by trying to reduce the city's reliance on cars.

City councillor Larry Baldock was reflecting on statistics which put Tauranga at the top of the list of New Zealand cities that were most dependent on cars to get around.

Despite years of public education about cycling and catching the bus to work, the dominance of private vehicles on city roads had dropped only 2 per cent to 91 per cent over seven years.

With Tauranga often likened to Auckland in the way its roads were becoming increasingly congested, Mr Baldock decided to investigate how much Auckland's reliance on cars had dropped as a result of the billions of dollars spent on its transportation network.

He said there had been an 0.3 per cent difference in car use, even with all the improvements in buses and trains.

"I am all for modal change but we want to make reasonable comparisons."

Looking at Auckland's statistics, he said: "We need to be realistic about what we can achieve."

Mr Baldock told this week's transport committee workshop that Tauranga was dependent on cars and it did not have much choice at the moment.

Tauranga's other transport modes over the same seven-year period had seen public transport's share grow from 1 per cent to 2 per cent, cycling from 2 per cent to 3 per cent while walking had stayed at 4 per cent.

A non-voting member of the committee, Western Bay District councillor Mike Williams said the question was how to get people out of their cars. "That is the prime driver of what we are trying to achieve."

Referring to a report to the workshop from the New Zealand Transport Agency, he said they all knew about the port, transport constraints and crashes.

"We need to get to the nub of it - to get people out of cars.''

The agency's long-term, business-case scenario for Tauranga's transport network identified three problems and weighed up the value of each problem.

Fifty per cent weighting was given to increased travel on key routes threatening the future viability of the port and other commercial areas.

Forty per cent was how development constraints like the geography of the city had led to a dispersed population and increased travel distances - severing people from key services.

Ten per cent weighting was given to Tauranga's high proportion of death and serious injuries from crashes at intersections, with a high social cost to the community.

Alistair Talbot, from the agency, said the conversation was not just about transport. They had to retain the factor of Tauranga being a city where people wanted to live.

Mr Baldock wanted to know whether the statistics took account of fatal crashes that had nothing to do with whether it was a safe road or not, but were caused by stupid and drug/alcohol-impaired driving.

He was told it was more about greater levels of safety than drilling down to individual crashes, although driver behaviour was taken into account.

The transport agency report then weighed up the transport benefits, with a network that enabled a liveable city coming top at 45 per cent. A transport network better able to manage and support economic activity and urban growth was given 35 per cent, with people being able to make safe and healthy travel choices ranked at 20 per cent.

The dominance of private vehicles in New Zealand's main centres
Tauranga: 91 per cent
Hamilton: 87 per cent
Auckland: 85 per cent
Christchurch: 84 per cent
Dunedin: 82 per cent
Wellington City: 54 per cent
- New Zealand Transport Agency