The draft for Waikato Regional Council’s Land Transport Plan for 2024 to 2054 is open for public consultation.
What will Waikato and its transport options look like over the next 30 years? Waikato Herald journalist Malisha Kumar reports.
A vision of the Waikato‘s future for the next 10 to 30 years has a plan in place. It comes as the draft for Waikato Regional Council’s Land Transport Plan for 2024 to 2054 opens for public consultation.
The council says its vision is to have an integrated, safe and resilient transport system that delivers for the wellbeing of the Waikato’s diverse communities.
Regional councillor and chairman of the regional transport committee, Mich’eal Downard, said the draft plan focused on five core areas.
“Taking into account the wide range of transport issues and priorities around the region, the proposed plan focuses on network resilience, climate change, safety, accessibility and growth.
“Regional resilience is a critical component of the proposed plan, [and] we have seen first-hand the devastating effects that nature can inflict on our transport system.
“Nowhere has this been more evident over the last 12 months than in the Coromandel and along our rural networks.”
According to the council’s draft plan in the key focus of climate change, it expects to see a 41 per cent decrease in transport-generated carbon emissions by 2035 from 2018 levels. This is going towards the path of being net zero by 2050.
Land use and transport planning had led to transport being a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbating the effects of climate change.
An environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient and low-carbon transport system delivering emissions reductions, and enhancing communities’ long-term resilience to climate change effects, is now on the cards.
To improve network resilience by 2035, there are two key focuses.
The first is to reduce the number/duration of annual unplanned closures of state highways by 10 per cent. The second is to reduce the number/duration of annual state highway closures caused by natural hazards, also by 10 per cent.
The transport network has become increasingly vulnerable to climate change and other disruptions, putting communities at risk and affecting the ability to maintain route security.
The objective now is to have an efficient and resilient land transport system, ensuring communities had route security and access to essential services.
One network-resilient project is the rebuild of SH25 between Hauraki and Coromandel.
Growth in the upper North Island and the Hamilton-Waikato Metro Spatial Plan area is impacting the efficient movement of people and freight.
The draft stated the Waikato was expected to grow its population from 500,000 people in 2018 to 615,000 in 2048, with half of the region’s population living in the metro spatial area that was projected to double in the next 30 years.
The region has 13 per cent of the country’s freight task, and nationally freight volumes is expected to increase by 20 per cent by 2035, with freight volumes in the region forecast to grow by 47 to 65 per cent by 2030.
The council’s plan is to have an integrated transport system that supports compact urban form and planned future growth, and an efficient and resilient strategic corridor network that advanced regional economic and social wellbeing.
The Hamilton-Waikato Metro Spatial Plan Transport Programme Business Case would be implemented to reach its goal.
The programme consists of elements including rapid transit, land use intensification, walking and cycling (micro-mobility too), freight hubs, shared bus and freight lanes, and supporting interventions like a regional and rural access programme, and park and ride.
The target to improve accessibility and transport options by 2035 would see active mode share and public transport doubled from 2018 levels.
The Hamilton-Waikato Metro Area Mode Shift Plan is the first step to a long-term plan to co-ordinate walking, cycling and public transport in the area. The focus of achieving mode shift is shaping urban form, making shared and active modes more attractive and influencing travel demand and transport options.
The current transport system struggles to provide people with safe, reliable and equitable transport options to meet their social, cultural and economic needs, the draft said, and an integrated transport system that provided transport options for differing community access and mobility needs is now on the cards.
This includes seeing policies to improve the Te Huia railway service and implementation of the Hamilton-Waikato Metro Area Mode Shift Plan to improve accessibility and travel choices.
The last key focus of the plan is improving transport safety, with the council expecting to see a 40 per cent drop in road fatalities and serious injuries by 2030 from 2018 levels.
The draft states the region’s fatal crash rate was higher than the national average, with an increasing trend in the number of fatalities since 2013, with 70 per cent of the crashes happening on rural roads.
Pedestrians and cyclists are exposed to higher risk than car users, with the report stating Hamilton had the country’s highest rate of death and serious injury involving pedestrians and cyclists.
The estimated social cost to the region was about $500 million a year.
The draft noted system failures and user behaviours exposed people to risk that resulted in deaths and serious injuries, and the region needed a safe, accessible transport system, where nobody was hurt.
The council’s priority is to implement the approach of the Road to Zero Safe System, education and behaviour change for high-risk and vulnerable users, the Speed and Infrastructure programme, and a collaborative regional approach.
Downard said planning and developing any transport system is a long game and the Land Transport Plan is critical for presenting Waikato’s case for central government funding, alongside work funded at a council level.
“We’re working to build a clear and compelling case for investment in our region. We know that Waikato is strategically important to the New Zealand economy, and our network has faced some serious challenges in recent years. Our ability to face challenges in the future depends on planning today.”
The Land Transport Plan is updated every three years and it sets out how the region’s land transport system will develop over the next 30 years.
The Regional Transport Committee is made up of Waikato district, city and regional council representatives, New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi and KiwiRail, which work together to develop the plan to create a regional consensus of priority work and projects.
With plans under way, Downard encourages Waikato residents to read the plan and submit their feedback.
“We need to know what people’s transport needs are so we can advocate for them on behalf of the whole Waikato.”
Public consultation is open until March 4 and residents can read the plan and have their say on the Waikato Regional Council website.
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.
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The woman was shaken by the incident.