Should All Of NZ Be Giving Money To Auckland?

[AngelTwin]

There was a tui billboard in Welly by the basin reserve that was very relevant to this!!

"I don't mind paying for Auckland's roads" - yeah right!

It was classic!! Hands up if you saw it!! I went to take a photo of it the other night to post it up, but some aucklander has obviously painted over it, so it's a blank tui billboard now!!

[Huffer]

Has anyone remembered that the congestion on Auckland's motorways is because of:
1. the lack of a light rail or dedicated bus transport system
2. the reluctance of the 1970 and 1980 city councils to work together to join the major sections of the motorway together.

The AA published an article about the layout of the Auckland motorway system, and there are two major sections which are missing from the original 1960 (?) plans - in West Auckland and Manakau/Mangere.

Admittedly the traffic volumes experienced now are far and away greater than what the original town planners perceived, but it is easier to widen a motorway than bulldoze houses...

The fact is, the Auckland region is playing a 30-40 year catchup on it's traffic system, and unless some people make hard decisions in terms of laying new roads, and constructing a light rail system, the problems will not go away.

A good deal of traffic suffers because of the lack of a direct link from the airport to the city...

Having lived in Auckland for a time I can vouch for the ridiculousness of the commute, there is a near constant rush hour...I lived in Glenfield and worked on Pitt St in the city, I would leave home at 9:45 and arrive at 10am. If I wanted to be at work by 8:30 I needed to leave home at 7am.

I also live in Wellington, so I know about the commute here, which is somewhat inconsistent, but nowhere near the insane levels that Auckland suffers.

Wellington also suffers from some bad examples of road planning...the Paramatta Roundabout is a ridiculous peice of engineering - expanding a 2 lane bridge into 4 lanes will not solve the fact that the roads leading to it are still 2 lanes. But if they built a flyover to allow traffic heading to Whitby to divert, and traffic arriving from Whitby to merge seamlessly, then traffic heading north/south on SH1 would be much smoother, instead of start/stop. Fortunately there is the railsystem which is actually not too bad (when the tracks are in useable condition...another story).

It's not really about how fast you go, it's about how often you have to stop that slows you down.

Auckland and Wellington really should be looking at Sydney for solutions. Sydney has invested considerable effort into building and maintaining light rail and intelligent motorway systems, not to mention increased waterway usage.
Having lived there also, I can vouch for the effectiveness of their transport systems.

[BlakJak]

[Parker's posts removed due to their extreme stupidity]

Any further posts which are obviously making fun of what is actually quite a decent discussion going on - or with such obviously negative connotations - will be removed.

Sigh. Children.

[AngelTwin]

Here's a solution:

* Put the petrol prices up in auckland for all road users.

* Put the diesel mileage up for auckland 4wd drivers and the like.

* Build a toll gate at all entrances to auckland, so any visitors to the city are pitching in while using the roads.

This way, Auckland pays for their own roads and any people visiting assist in paying for it, while anyone else who never uses the roads don't have to pay for them!!

Yay, everyone's happy!!

[MrBob]

Here's a solution:

* Put the petrol prices up in auckland for all road users.

* Put the diesel mileage up for auckland 4wd drivers and the like.

* Build a toll gate at all entrances to auckland, so any visitors to the city are pitching in while using the roads.

This way, Auckland pays for their own roads and any people visiting assist in paying for it, while anyone else who never uses the roads don't have to pay for them!!

Yay, everyone's happy!!

righty. Are you gonna do this for all cities ? or just Auckland, because you're angry and don't understand the situation....

[deaf_rattle]

i havent had time to read all of the replies so if i am repeating something im sorry.

auckland is paying export prices for things such as milk and farm produce. How would you southerners like it if we did the same to you?

I reckon auckland should become a republic so all aucklands taxes stay in auckland.

then you southerners would all die and we wouldnt have to put up with your moaning.

[zEpHyRiNe]

I reckon auckland should become a republic so all aucklands taxes stay in auckland.

then you southerners would all die and we wouldnt have to put up with your moaning.

Well, wasn't that constructive.
I didn't really want to get involved in this debate because I thought it would basically end up as a slagging match... Nice to know I wasn't proven wrong.
IMHO, I don't see why its fair that people who don't use Aucklands roads should be paying for them.
In saying that though, we must all remember that life isn't always fair; if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all; and no-one likes a whinger.
I have an opinion, so sue me.
Thanking you kindly.
End.

[gt4mike]

If Auckland has 1/3 of the population and a low unemployment rate compared to other parts of the country I think you would find that Auckland is probably paying for most of the roads all around the country. Think of all the roading everywhere, certainly 1/3 of the roads in NZ are not within auckland, yet 1/3 of the population is, so that would indicate that Auckland is already paying for roads in other parts of the country.

In saying this though, I do think the tax is wrong, because there is already a huge slice of petrol costs taken for roading, yet hardly any of this money is spent on roads. The Auckland traffic is just an excuse to put a bit more tax on the petrol and use if for other stuff. If the government did a push to get people capable of working off welfare I'm sure it would more than pay for our roads.

[zEpHyRiNe]

Nicely put.

[jr007]

Nice 1 GT4Mike, you said what a lot of us tried to, but in english, and not drawn out, and boring, and stuff.

Also, not only Aucklanders benifit from Auckland roads. The haulage leaving ports goes to the rest of the country, and vice versa. Where would the rest of us be if there was no (usable) road to Auckland to export our wares?

Oh yeah, back on topic, again, the tax sucks and is another crappy Labour cop-out from having to deal with a major problem.

[Parker]

You only deleted my post because it answered the question perfectly. Thus ending the need for this thread.

[BlakJak]

Heh, I dont think so Parker.

Youre a pathological attention seeker judging by your post history. Nuff said...

Well done GT4mike, good post.

[MYSTKL]

I went to take a photo of it the other night to post it up, but some aucklander has obviously painted over it, so it's a blank tui billboard now!!

It wasnt me I SWEAR!!!!!

Ok so is everyone sure that this isnt because they all hate JAFAS???

I dont see a problem with it and im sure that if welly needed new roads that the aucklanders and the rest of the country wouldnt really care either coz i mean reality pple it could happen elsewhere.

Theres no point arguing it the goverment has spoken and like i said im sure that they will do it elsewhere aswell, i personally couldnt care less to be honest !!