Brian Rudman: Sick of congestion? Get a home closer to work

If they start handing out Victoria Crosses for political courage, North Shore MP Wayne Mapp must be in with a chance for his latest campaign pledge.

Vote me, he's telling his constituents, and I promise to inflict a $6 return toll on you every time you cross to the south side.

The big question is, will the award have to be posthumous? On that matter, he could do worse than consult his National Party leader, Don Brash. Twenty-four years ago, Dr Brash was the East Coast Bays candidate when his leader, Rob Muldoon made a similar commitment - to raise tolls by 25 per cent.

Three days later Dr Brash was history, swept aside by funny money candidate Garry Knapp. Quarter of a century on, I still find it hard to believe voters will be any kinder to politicians who propose that the residents of one part of Auckland will have to pay extra to get to and from their homes compared to the rest of us.

The present Government acknowledges this in its policy that it will agree to a toll road only if there's a free alternative route available.

But the "second harbour crossing by 2016" policy that Dr Mapp is pushing involves a $2.5 billion-plus tunnel that can be funded only by tolling travellers on the existing bridge and the new tunnel.

He bases this on Transit New Zealand projections that, by 2020, 220,000 vehicles per day will cross the harbour and that a one-way $3 toll would raise enough revenue to fund a $2.7 billion debt. With that income, he says the new tunnel could be built in addition to Transit New Zealand's Government-funded highway construction programme.

Interestingly, last November, Dr Mapp claimed a $2 toll would be sufficient to pay off his tunnel. Then again, this did come as part of an email that invited me to an electorate film evening "to unlock your imagination" featuring Finding Neverland, the story of Peter Pan.

But then, if North Shore residents want to pay extra to come to my side of town, then who am I to complain. I say charge them extra to use the Town Hall and Art Gallery as well. And as for my trips across the bridge to shop or dine, if I don't like the toll I can always choose to boycott it by staying on this side.

What Dr Mapp doesn't attempt to address in his report is what's going to happen when his new tunnel debouches his teaming masses into downtown Auckland and beyond. Nor does he contemplate trying to treat the problem of congestion at source.

Bemoaning the price of congestion, he writes of parents in Northcote experiencing "huge problems getting their children to school" and how commuters "routinely take one hour to travel from Northcote Point to the city, a journey that would routinely take seven minutes with smooth traffic flow".

Why then, you might ask, don't the kids of Northcote walk to school? It would help solve the obesity problem which is costing - and will cost - millions of dollars in health-care costs. As for the commuters from Northcote Point, why are they wasting an hour of frustration in a hot car when they could enjoy a pleasant ferry trip?

He writes that "a business consultant reported that her clients will not employ anyone who lives on the other side of the bridge from their business because of the travelling time. She says this means that they do not get the best person for the position, but the state of the traffic means that they would lose more in productivity than they would make in sales."

I take it from that, that the lucky employee was being paid travel time as well. But travel time or not, you have to ask if the convenience of peak-hour cross-city employees justifies a $2.7 billion tunnel?

I've never understood why people who work in Manukau City choose to live in Torbay, or why they expect the rest of us to build highways to accommodate this expectation.

Think of the time, to say nothing of blood pressure medication, saved if the morning and evening peak hours migrations up and down State Highway 1 fell out of favour and people moved into homes rather close to work.

If that were to happen, maybe the need for the tunnel might go away.