NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • Deloitte Fast 50
    • Generate wealth weekly
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Opinion
Home / New Zealand

Michael Wood: Providing transport choice to people is the balanced approach

Opinion by
NZ Herald
30 Aug, 2022 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Ngā Hau Māngere - the new bridge. Photo / RNZ-Marika Khabazi

Ngā Hau Māngere - the new bridge. Photo / RNZ-Marika Khabazi

It was wonderful to see thousands of people turn out on Saturday morning to attend the opening of Ngā Hau Māngere, the new Māngere Bridge.

A mix of young and old, locals and visitors, walkers and cyclists, and even a local seal joined the celebrations.

The bridge will be a new connection between the communities of Māngere and Onehunga, and a vital part of the safe, connected walking and cycling network we are building in many towns and cities.

With a lovely wide path, gentle slope, and places to stop for a chat or to fish, Nga Hau Māngere is a massive win for the community, and I am proud our Government has delivered it.

However, judging from their column last week (NZ Herald August 25) the Opposition would point to infrastructure like this as an example of a war on cars.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I call it giving people transport choices and taking the challenge of climate change seriously.

For the last century, the growth of the automobile has allowed our cities to grow and deliver greater connectivity. However, it hasn't been without costs.

More and more space has been consumed to provide for motorways and car parks, carbon has been pumped into the atmosphere, our health has suffered, and we are missing out on crucial productivity gains as more of us spend time sitting in traffic. Waiting.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

We cannot continue to pump more vehicles into our cities, even if they're all electric.

That's not to say private vehicles don't have a role to play. In the current three-year period our Government will spend almost $7 billion on maintaining existing roads, we'll invest in important new roading connections like Penlink in Whangaparaoa, Takitimu North Link in Tauranga, and Ōtaki to north of Levin to improve resilience, and we'll put $500 million into the Clean Car Upgrade to help Kiwis get into low emissions vehicles – hardly a war on cars.

Discover more

New Zealand|crime

Suitcases homicide: Why police backed suppressing names of children

29 Aug 03:29 AM

However, after half a century of transport policy and investment almost exclusively focused on private vehicles, it is time to have some more balance and provide other transport choices to people.

This is what people overwhelmingly say in survey after survey – that given safe and efficient infrastructure they want to increase the amount of walking, cycling, and public transport travel in their daily lives.

Again, it's not all or nothing – a 10 to 20 per cent decrease in traffic through good alternative options (similar to school holiday volumes) would massively reduce congestion and emissions.

To give people this choice, we need to open up our streets for safe walking and cycling and improve the frequency and reliability of public transport services.

This will help to unclog our streets, allow goods and services to move around more efficiently, and support greater productivity, building our country's economic prosperity.

Research shows that if we encourage smart transport choices early in life, there's an increased likelihood they'll transfer into adulthood.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Many of us walked and cycled to school when we were young, yet we don't feel safe letting our children do the same. The reason is simple; there's a lot more cars about.

In the five years pre-Covid, more than 180 children were injured outside schools by a vehicle.

Why on Earth would we accept that? And how on Earth is it responsible to resort to political scare-mongering by labelling attempts to change this a "war on cars"?

Our proposals in the Reshaping Streets package are about empowering local communities and schools to work together make getting to and from school safer.

This isn't cancelling the school drop-off as per the misleading claims that have been made.

It's simply about allowing communities and schools the ability to make changes so streets can be safer for all involved.

The answers won't be dictated by government, but worked out at the local level. Communities might decide that some areas should be prioritised for kids to safely walk to school, but they might also decide that a drop-off zone can be put in around the corner where it is safer for everyone.

Over the past few months, region after region has been hit by increasingly extreme weather events caused by climate change.

Politicians can no longer mouth words of sympathy as communities are flooded and roads washed away, while simultaneously running campaigns opposing any and every measure to reduce the emissions that ultimately cause these events.

By giving people more transport choices, we are taking action to reduce emissions, reducing congestion, while also keeping kids who just want to walk or bike to school safer.

- Michael Wood is the Minister of Transport and MP for Mt Roskill.

Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Father takes legal action against daughter over $5k for overseas trip

21 Sep 07:00 AM
New Zealand

How to safely watch the partial solar eclipse visible from NZ tomorrow morning

21 Sep 06:48 AM
New Zealand

Health NZ data shows 18,000 patients waited more than six weeks for vital scans

21 Sep 06:17 AM

Sponsored

Kiwi campaign keeps on giving

07 Sep 12:00 PM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Father takes legal action against daughter over $5k for overseas trip
New Zealand

Father takes legal action against daughter over $5k for overseas trip

Before the father filed his claim, he told his daughter: 'You will regret this.'

21 Sep 07:00 AM
How to safely watch the partial solar eclipse visible from NZ tomorrow morning
New Zealand

How to safely watch the partial solar eclipse visible from NZ tomorrow morning

21 Sep 06:48 AM
Health NZ data shows 18,000 patients waited more than six weeks for vital scans
New Zealand

Health NZ data shows 18,000 patients waited more than six weeks for vital scans

21 Sep 06:17 AM


Kiwi campaign keeps on giving
Sponsored

Kiwi campaign keeps on giving

07 Sep 12:00 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP