Auckland road pricing shouldn’t negate EV benefits

While the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development (NZCID) welcomes the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) interim report, it says road pricing shouldn’t negate the benefits of emerging technology such as electric vehicles and driverless cars.

“Rigorous analysis of the costs and benefits of each ATAP approach is required to determine the optimum mix that will get Auckland moving,” says NZCID chief executive Stephen Selwood.

“The purpose of a transport network is to enable the movement of people and goods, and it is the responsibility of officials to achieve this at the lowest overall price. Demand management is an opportunity to get the most out of networks, not discourage travel,” he says.

“Further analysis is needed to demonstrate that demand management proposals deliver a net economic, social and environmental benefit, which is much broader than just managing down congestion,” says Selwood.

“Something still to be addressed through ATAP is determining the feasibility and timing of technology. There are as many analyses showing road demand will increase, for example, as fall with the emergence of innovations such as driverless cars,” he says.

“Given that the New Zealand vehicle fleet is on average around 14 years of age, from a technological and affordability perspective some solutions remain many years away,” says Selwood.

“Options like traffic signal phasing, are ready to go now and need to be accelerated. Other technologies such as electric vehicles will lower the cost of travel and provide increased mobility. We wouldn’t want road pricing to reduce the benefits that these sorts of technology have to offer,” he says.

“The challenge for the next phase of ATAP is to identify the optimum mix of investment, technology, land use and pricing that Aucklanders can afford and will support,” says Selwood.