Five big questions about Auckland’s new transport setup

THREE FACTS

• Auckland Transport is losing most of its authority and will become a public transport operational agency.
• A powerful new transport committee with equal Government and Auckland Council membership will be established.
• Local boards will gain authority over many aspects of local roads.

With a pair of senior Government ministers standing behind him, Mayor Wayne Brown announced today that Auckland is finally going to get “a genuine 50:50 partnership” with central Government for the policy and planning of transport in Auckland.

Make no mistake. Despite the prominence they gave to the mayor, this is the ministers’ plan.

Implementing the decisions of the new “partnership” will become the direct responsibility of Auckland Council, with Auckland Transport relegated to an operational role for public transport. It won’t even be in charge of local roads anymore.

The mayor said it will now be “easier to fund and get on with transport projects”. This was all about getting things done “better, faster, cheaper”.

Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown called it “a great day for Auckland”. They were “empowering local boards” and “restoring democracy” to decision-making.

At the top level, I’m with the Government and the council on this. Auckland Transport has been inefficient, resistant to council policy and unable to build strong relations with local communities.

Despite knowing for three years that Mayor Brown was going to swing the axe if he could, AT has not been able to overcome these weaknesses. Time for a change.

It won’t happen overnight. Transport Minister Chris Bishop revealed the legislation to enable all this would be introduced today and get its first reading in a couple of weeks.

It will then go through the select committee process and become law “some time next year”.

All of these changes were announced last year: what’s new is the legislation.

And it drives me a little crazy. Change is needed and the focus on local decision-making is excellent. But there’s also a big dose of Government over-reach.

Here are five big questions the new plan doesn’t answer.

1. Why does Wayne Brown think he’ll have more power?

The partnership between central and local government will operate through a new Auckland Regional Transport Committee, with three elected councillors, three ministerial appointees and an independent chair.

This isn’t the council getting more power, it’s the Government getting to sit alongside the council in its planning. No other local authority in the country has the Government in the room with them doing this.

If that binds the Government to the decisions of the committee, it will indeed mean more power for Auckland. But there’s no suggestion the committee will control the purse strings. That’s where the real power lies and it will mostly remain in Wellington.

I reckon Mayor Brown’s being taken for a bit of a ride with this.

2. Why the obsession with speed bumps and cycleways?

Some people hate them, others don't. Under the new transport rules, it should be up to local communities to decide. Photo / NZME

Minister Brown followed his “great day for Auckland” comment with the claim that “Aucklanders are sick and tired of decisions being made without their direct involvement”, giving the example of “speed bumps, and car parks being removed so cycleways can be installed”.

I asked him, given how monumental this restructuring will be, what’s it going to mean for the big transport issues? Surely change on this scale isn’t happening just because of a few speed bumps and cycleways?

But in his mind, it seemed it was. There were no bigger matters he wanted to mention.

As Bishop puts it, the new setup “gives local boards some new powers to ensure local accountability and that local communities have a say”.

“They’ll make decisions on local and collector roads including setting speed limits, closing roads for events, managing parking and creating cycleways.”

Does this mean local boards will be able to restore the lower speed limits the Government has just overturned?

Minister Brown said the Speed Rule he introduced when he was Transport Minister has scope for speed limits to be reviewed. But it’s a cumbersome and flawed process and there is no indication it will be changed.

The minister seemed to believe local opinion opposes speed humps, cycleways and lower speeds. That will be true in some parts of the city, but public surveys and the policies of most local boards suggest he may be in for a surprise.

This will be tested in the council elections now under way, with candidates for many local boards divided on issues like cycling infrastructure and safer streets.

City Vision, an alliance of Labour, the Greens and progressive independent candidates, says; “Councillors and local board members will now have to weigh up the competing demands of our scarce road space and decide how to use it most effectively”.

Transport writer Connor Sharp, who’s on the City Vision ticket for the Waitematā Local Board, says; “We know what works. Space-efficient modes such as public transport, cycling and walking are what keeps our transport system moving, while forcing everyone into their cars and into congestion slows this city down”.

Whether you believe that or you don’t, a postal ballot is on its way to you next week.

3. What about the big projects?

Mayor Wayne Brown and other dignitaries visiting an underground station in the new City Rail Link. Photo / Michael Craig

At the announcement, Mayor Brown gave the City Rail Link as an example of bad planning which the new setup would stop.

But the new Regional Transport Committee won’t do that. The really big strategic decisions, like a new harbour crossing, motorways and rail projects like the CRL will remain the preserve of the Government.

The Government is doing geotech analysis of the seabed right now, investigating options for a harbour crossing, and the mayor said the council hasn’t been consulted or even kept informed.

Bishop said he thought the engineers were talking to each other.

But at the political level?

“I think we put out a press release about it,” he said.

4. How will splitting public transport and roads work?

Auckland Transport will remain in charge of the operation and maintenance of public transport, although in practice KiwiRail owns the railway lines and corridors, while service providers are contracted to run the trains, buses and ferries.

But the council will become the road-controlling authority (RCA). It will be directly in charge of arterial roads and streets in the city centre, and will delegate RCA powers for local roads to the local boards.

Most public-transport users are bus passengers. It’s not clear how bus efficiency will improve if AT has responsibility for buses but doesn’t have control of the roads they run on.

5. Will local boards have the skills, support and funding?

Empowering local boards to make more decisions for their neighbourhoods is splendid.

But to work well, it requires three things. The first is good support from council officials. The second is more funding devolved from the council’s central budget. And the third is good elected board members.

Check your letterbox for those voting papers. Suddenly, there’s a whole lot more at stake.