since the 1950's transportation planning in new zealand
has been oriented around automobiles
we haven't invested in public transport we haven't invested in rail
and
consequently
all of our urban development and it's really obvious in a place like auckland
is very automobile dependent so the urban form has followed
the transportation system we have provided
domestic transport is actually responsible for over forty percent of
all of New Zealand's Carbon Emissions
in addition to that
transport is the fastest growing sector carbon emissions
so
not only is it not decreasing as it should have been after we made our Kyoto commitments
it's actually increasing and it is projected to increase even further
if things don't changed
in new zealand most towns and cities
are fairly automobile dependent
you need a car at some point to get to a store
get to work now automobile dependency
is not only responsible for high carbon emissions it also has a lot of other
negative effects
on the city, a lot of negative externalities that costs that
are not paid for by
motorists
that would be air pollution
water pollution
even like storm water contamination
other costs include social cost in accidents
and health
in new zealand there's a
rising obesity epidemic they call it and this can be quite linked to car use
There is also economic costs
we all know we hear about all the time how congestion is costing newzealand
economy billions of dollars
the other economic issue has to do with land affordability
we have so much land taken up by transport infrastructure
because we're using cars
there's less space there's less room for more dwellings
so that means that the price of land is higher
and the second problem has to do the amount of money that households have to
spend to get around just to get from the house to the workplace or shopping
and in new zealand household spend a large portion of income i think it's upwards
of twenty percent on transportation
thirty percent of New Zealanders don't have access to a car
whether that's because of the age
or disability
low-income or choice
that's a huge percentage of a country with very high car ownership
per capita
that doesn't actually have access to their own car
now in automobile dependent
society
you are basically at a huge disadvantage if you don't have a car
it is important for people to
ask themselves
what are the external costs
of my lifestyle choices
my decision to live
you know ten or twenty kilometers from where i work or my decision
to take the car every time
I'm not
saying people should feel guilty about that they should
think about it
and think is it fair is it fair
for you know
local government or central government to try to address the problem on automobile
dependency
by increasing the cost of driving
is that fair
uh... i think a lot of most households feel like it's not fair because it's not
their fault
but they have to drive but instead of seeing it as a as a punishment
rather
a way that we're going to get
less automobile dependent society
i think that's
ultimately it's not unfair
What's important about the Northern bus way is that it's a dedicated
dedicated bus way so
that means that it's not going to change it's not going to move
now some people think it's better to provide buses because they're
more flexible
instead of a train line for example because then if
depending on the people's demand travel demands change
we can
reroute buses
but that doesn't provide any certainty
for a real estate agents or for people who are choosing a house to live in
if you have
a rail line or a dedicated bus way
that has the power to affect consumer choices
if we replace every car in new zealand with an electric car
we may be reducing carbon emissions
that have to do with our everyday transport needs
but ultimately there is fossil fuel use
implicit in the manufacturing an electric car there are
resource use in the batteries and those questions about how the batteries
are going to be
disposed of
can you imagine the costs of every household in new zealand replacing the
current car
with an electric car or a car that runs on bio fuels
um... said that will be an enormous cost to the economy we would have to import
those cars because were not manufacturing care in New Zealand
are there going to be carbon emissions related to the transport of cars to new zealand
and how long are they going to last, so i mean... it's not a sustainable solution
because ultimately there are carbon emissions
involved in manufacturing of vehicles
but moreover it does nothing to
bring the benefits of the city
where you can walk and cycle and take electric tram to get around
in the city, for most of your needs
I don't think it's a lost cause for New Zealand
we don't have to say all this developments is here and it's so automobile dependent
how are we ever going to build a transport system that could possibly cater for all of the trips we
need to make
and to look at it that way is to look in the wrong way around
the fact is that
trips that we need to make should follow the transportation system that we want
to have
and not the other way around
i think the best way to go about this is to
attack the problem subsidized
motorized transport
if you start incorporating internalizing the cost of all those extremities we
talked about
into the cost
using a car
you are going to see households and different
businesses and organizations making different choices about their transport
trips now in the short term they might not be able to make those choices different
right away it takes time
but development and redevelopment is going on all the time so we can see a
rapidly changing urban form
but instead of seeing it spread out
uh... what we want to see it happen is we want to see it pulled in
around
transport nodes and we want to see it get to a point where people
feel safe and can easily take
bicycles or walk to do alot of their daily needs
This motorway interchange is fairly recent
you can see how
well it might have done something great for trucks and cars and people who
want to get in the city in that respect
it necessarily limits the options for other forms of transport, it necessarily
takes away the ability to walk to the central area or to cycle to the central area to the domain
so
we can't promote
both car oriented development
and pedestrian and cycle friendly development, we got to choose from one or the
other
given the challenge of climate change
and other challenges of sustainability that affects the society
I think it's clear what our choice should be.