'No time to waste' in battle over congestion

Lee Schipper's attitude to Auckland's traffic problem hardened after a trip to the airport in the after-school rush. Picture / Richard Robinson

International transport and energy expert Lee Schipper says the longer Auckland delays charging motorists to use scarce road space, the harder it will become to beat congestion.

Dr Schipper, research head at the World Resources Institute Centre for Transport and Environment in Washington DC, acknowledged in Auckland yesterday that the region's congestion woes were on a far smaller scale to those of many overseas cities.

A project in which his not-for-profit organisation has helped Mexico City introduce 19.5km of bus lanes carrying more than 250,000 people a day has still left almost four million private vehicles fouling the air.

"But here's the challenge to New Zealand," he said outside a conference of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, which is hosting his visit with several other organisations, including the Ministry of Transport and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.

"It's not that bad here, but why would you want it to get worse?

"A place as sophisticated and motorised as New Zealand ought to have a better finger on its pulse and be able to cure some of its developing ills before they really become potentially fatal diseases."

Dr Schipper, an astrophysicist and former chief scientist at the International Energy Agency who is also an accomplished jazz pianist and vibraphonist, was less forgiving later yesterday after finding himself stuck in after-school traffic while trying to catch a flight to Wellington.

"I was really appalled by the traffic. I don't like to tell people what to do, but I can't believe how poor the planning is."

He said the International Energy Agency had found that New Zealand had become by far the world's most "motorised" country relative to its gross domestic product.

Only the far wealthier United States had more cars.

"You motorised so fast that nothing kept up with it," Dr Schipper told the Herald.

"Because it happened during the period of economic reforms, nobody wanted to strengthen public transport or regulate the local toxic emissions from vehicles. Nobody wanted to even think about regulating fuel economy."

But Dr Schipper said New Zealand still had an opportunity to redeem itself by using a combination of market forces and regulation to achieve a more balanced transport future.

He was impressed by a ride on the heavily patronised Northern Express bus service, but said far more space should be allocated to public transport, even if it meant taking it away from general traffic.

"You now have a good demo," he said of the bus service, which is to receive its own two-lane carriageway in 2008.

"The next step is for smart entrepreneurs to put nice housing close enough to walk to the busway."

Dr Schipper said Auckland should not hesitate to accept road charges to reduce congestion, a concept under active investigation.

"Even though people who use their cars have to pay more, everybody in total is much better off because of the lower congestion, lower noise, lower emissions, lower fuel use and the higher speeds."