Thursday, 16 June 2005

Time to revisit car pooling rules

United Future's Auckland issues spokesperson, MP Paul Adams, says it's time to take another look at the rules covering carpooling if Auckland's traffic congestion problems are to be solved.

"Even with $10.7 billion to be spent on the roading network, we're told that the average speed on the Auckland transport network will continue to slow.

"In the past, carpooling required three people as a minimum per vehicle and it was not widely taken up.

"But anyone who drives on Auckland's motorways during rush hour (or any other time) will see that the vast majority of vehicles are carrying only one person."

Mr Adams says if the rules were changed to so that car pooling required only two people per vehicle, then the time taken to pick up only one other person, rather than two, would dramatically cut down the time required and would halve the number of vehicles on the roads.

"With the greater use of bus lanes well under way, perhaps we again need to think of allowing cars with three or more people in them the right to use the bus lanes, but then also dedicate the outside fast lane for cars with two or more passengers.

"Perhaps the local authorities could run a competition to think of the best incentive to encourage people into car pooling. Who knows? This might bring about a real commonsense solution and the speed of our motorways may again be able to increase instead of continually decreasing," said Mr Adams.

ENDS

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