Joshua Arbury has beaten me to it over at his blog, but today we presented Josh’s five year plan for Auckland Transport to the Transport Committee of the Auckland Council.
An incredible amount of voluntary effort has gone into the plan, almost entirely Josh’s. It is a tribute to the quality of the presentation that the Auckland Council has directed its officials to investigate the recommendations within the plan. Auckland Council acknowledged that they don’t have a monopoly on good ideas, so hopefully we can look forward to some more engagement with Auckland Transport than we have had in the past.
Bearing in mind some of the councillors are relatively new to transport, I introduced Josh’s presentation with this:
We’ve presented ideas on how to improve transport to a number of councils, and today we find ourselves presenting ideas to a brand new council – a council I hope will become the “can do” Council.
Our advocacy is not about forcing people to use public transport or any other mode. Its about providing choice.
When looking at roading projects, its not about just the capital cost to the ratepayer and the taxpayer, but the cost as a whole to the economy – the running costs of cars, our reliance on ever depleting fossil fuels, the cost of building more and more parking spaces to support the more than 800,000 cars we now have in the city.
When we look at public transport, its not about providing for everyone that lives in Auckland. Its about building a cost effective, integrated network of buses, trains and ferries that especially focuses on reducing peak time congestion.
Finally, its not about planning for the modes of transport we travel on today, but the modes we will be travelling on in the future.
