Sonya Bateson: Getting Tauranga people out of their cars is a tough sell

Traffic in Tauranga. Photo / NZME

OPINION

Today I am reminiscing about a particularly awful day at work.

It was hot day, not a cloud in the sky.

I was sitting on the road. Incongruous, that. It was perhaps the busiest stretch of highway in the Bay, and I was sitting on it in the middle of the day. It was the only place I could find a bit of shade; a patch of shadow cast by my work car.

I'd been waiting on that road for, ooh, about three hours at that point and desperately needed a pit stop. But the road was closed which meant I had to wait it out.

I was joking around with a woman parked near me when the police sergeant approached to escort myself and the photographer to the crash scene. We got back into our car and followed behind him as we drove half a kilometre or so to the crash scene.

As the sergeant explained what he knew about the circumstances of the crash, I stared at the mangled wreckage that had claimed a person's life. Not a single part of that vehicle looked unscathed. I wouldn't have been able to guess at its make or model, especially as large chunks had been cut away by firefighters during the rescue efforts.

There was glass and bits of twisted metal everywhere. I remember not wanting to look too closely at the car, just in case I saw something I wouldn't want to see, despite knowing the police wouldn't have escorted us inside the cordon if there was anything sensitive.

Pictures like that stick in your mind forever. Even now, years later, I look at that patch of road whenever I drive by it and remember.

Thankfully, there have been far fewer serious crashes in that area since the Tauranga Eastern Link was opened.

Only one person has died on the TEL since it opened in 2015, and 15 injuries have been reported. Compare that to the nine deaths and 138 total injuries on the old highway between 2010 and 2015. It's a stark difference.

Whether or not you agree the road was necessary in the first place – and I know there are some people who think it was a waste of time and money – it has almost certainly saved lives. Not to mention how much more pleasant it is to drive that four-lane highway compared to the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the old road.

Road building can be a contentious issue when it comes to city planning, because of the theory of induced demand, or as Bloomberg put it: "In urbanism, 'induced demand' refers to the idea that increasing roadway capacity encourages more people to drive, thus failing to improve congestion."

When you're sitting in queues of traffic for long stretches of time, alleviating that pressure becomes paramount. A trip that takes 10 minutes off-peak and 45 minutes during rush hour is infuriating.

So, those of us sitting in our cars will shake our fists and yell "fix the road!", demanding more lanes, more traffic lights, more car parking, more, more, more.

But according to induced demand, more lanes and more roads make driving more attractive and therefore more people will do it.

That's why some city planners believe in making driving less attractive. Reduce the number of car parks. Reduce speed limits. Don't build any new roads or add any new lanes. Rely on frustration to get people ride a bike or taking a bus.

But do these really work? In Tauranga, I'd argue no.

The alternatives just don't suit a large portion of our population. We have buses available, and the fares at the moment are pretty cheap. But they don't go everywhere and, if you're not going to the city centre, they can be a nightmare to navigate.

For example: I live in Welcome Bay. If I worked on Hewletts Rd, the earliest I could get to work by bus is about 8.20am. But my job starts at 8am, so in the car I'll hop.

What's the answer? Do we keep building new roads and watch as they reach their capacity in just a few years? Or do we invest more in our public transport and other alternatives such as cycle lanes?

In my opinion, we need to do both. New, quality roads are sometimes worth the investment, particularly on roads with high rates of serious crashes. Look at how many lives were potentially saved by building the TEL.

That's why I reckon it makes sense to throw money into our state highway infrastructure, improving both the safety of these roads and the ease of driving on them.

But I do earnestly believe we should be trying to encourage city commuters out of their cars in a viable, safe, and sustainable way. And yes, fellow ratepayers, that means building infrastructure you may not personally use, like separated cycleways and dedicated bus lanes.

And, just think – if we build separated cycleways, we don't have to see the Lycra Brigade staring smugly down at us in our driver's seats as they whizz past. It's a win-win for all of us I say.

-Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader, and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a Millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.