Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown plans to overhaul the city's roads when Auckland Transport is broken up. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown plans to overhaul the city's roads when Auckland Transport is broken up. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown plans a dramatic overhaul of the city’s roads once Auckland Transport is stripped of its road functions.
He said Auckland Transport (AT) has been “pissing Aucklanders off for 15 years”, doing things on the roads that Aucklanders don’t like.
“We’re going to standardise everything ... thisis going to be a dramatic change,” the mayor told the Herald today.
AT would continue to run public transport. It was not doing that too badly, Brown said.
Brown was speaking during a break at the transport and infrastructure delivery committee, where councillors were briefed on the break-up of AT, with its planning and road-controlling functions to be taken over by the council, and AT remaining as a public transport agency.
Once the legislation – expected to pass next month – comes into force, the council will have six months to dismantle the transport agency. Responsibility and accountability for roads and planning decisions will then sit directly with councillors and local board members.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown wants standardised rules for roads.
Brown said Aucklanders will hear him talking a lot more about “standardisation and optimisation” when it comes to roading, with the council set to establish a dedicated roading division.
He said he wants someone within the council who is responsible for every element of a road.
As an engineer, Brown said the people who work for him understand a road is an integrated system, from footpaths, kerbs and centre lines to tarseal, compacted base layers, bus stops and even the occasional telegraph pole.
He said AT employs a curve expert, a channel expert, a bus‑stop expert, a footpath expert and a cycleway expert, then brings in a consultant, adding it doesn’t have standardisation.
Brown said every intersection ends up being different and he had even come across one with 19 separate faults.
The mayor says Auckland doesn't have standardised cycleways. Photo / RNZ, Tom Kitchin
“They just don’t do sensible stuff, and that’s because of subject-matter experts. Too many cooks boiling the broth, too many consultants designing everything differently.
“We will get one intersection right, take a photo and say that’s what you do everywhere. We don’t have standard cycleways. We have expensive cycleways. Everything gets cheaper if you standardise it.
“Design things which are standardised and sensible and cheap and allow for the movement of traffic.”
Brown accused AT of ignoring his letter instructing it to improve east–west movement on Wellesley St and Victoria St, saying it had not done anything and argued that once he has control, it should finally become easier to cross the city, because, in his view, it certainly couldn’t be any harder than it is now.
A spokesman for AT said it did not have any comment to make on the matters raised by the mayor.
Meanwhile, the committee was told that work on introducing congestion charging in Auckland could deliver a proposed scheme by early 2028.
Six current options are on the table for time-of-use charging, often called congestion charging, which encourages motorists to shift travel times or use alternative transport, reducing congestion and boosting productivity.
Auckland Council could come up with a congestion charge sceme by 2028. Photo / Dean Purcell
The options include the city centre, city centre and fringe areas, city centre and inner isthmus, core motorways, core motorways plus city centre, and targeted motorway hotspots.
Brown has earlier suggested charges on the Northwestern Motorway between Lincoln Rd and Te Atatū and the Southern Motorway between Penrose and Greenlane.
Subject to funding, the council plans to commission detailed development of three shortlisted scheme options in the second half of 2026, including support for public transport and a business case.
There have been no recent costings for time-of-use charges. In 2020, officials suggested weekday tolls of $1.50 to $3.50 from 2025.
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