Council lets slip potential for positive change
Yesterday's Land Transport Regional meeting let slip the means
of both resolving short term congestion and achieving long term sustainability.
Paul Bruce, a candidate for Greater Wellington, said it was about time the Mayors and Regional Councillors got the bull
by the horns, and put in place some economic tools such as a congestion tax, which would move business and transport in
the Capital to more sustainable patterns.
The Regional meeting yesterday considered a Road pricing study as part of a Travel Demand Management Plan, which could
improve transport network efficiency through the use of congestion pricing. Any such scheme would provide exemptions and
extra support for local public transport. A decision for Council to proceed was deferred with a further report back in
September 2008.
Mr Bruce said this matter should have been treated with urgency and it was another lost opportunity. A congestion tax
had been applied very successfully overseas, and if implemented here in Wellington, could be fine tuned to achieve
desired outcomes in areas of gridlock, while providing a support for essential upgrades in public transport.
The urgency of a transition has been reinforced by the recent publication of reports from the International Energy
Agency, which showed that spare capacity in oil production will dry up over the next five years, leading to a supply
crunch in the world's oil markets, and also by a recent report from NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studios,
which showed that human induced climate change impacts was accelerating.
Paul Bruce
Candidate for Greater Wellington Regional Council
Ends