Auckland Transport’s new targets: More spending on roads, less on public transport and cycling

Although it’s updated every year, the targets in this year’s document are significant because they are the first to respond to the Government’s new plans for transport.

These were set out in the Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport, confirmed by then Minister of Transport Simeon Brown in June last year, and the Regional Land Traport Plan, also adopted on his watch, which was written to align with the GPS.

“Renewals” is the largest item in the capital expenditure budget, growing from $344 million this year to $498m in 2027, a rise of 45%. Despite this, the SOI suggests that “current funding levels may be insufficient to keep up with our assets’ deterioration rate”.

Councillor Daniel Newman noted that the allocated maintenance amounts are “less than depreciation”.

“This is a critical issue,” he said. “The problem will grow exponentially worse.”

Mayor Wayne Brown told Leggat that “listening to the public” should be the aim. Instead of setting customer satisfaction targets in the 30% range, “Why not 75%?”

He himself was pretty happy with the public transport he uses, he said. “I catch buses quite regularly, including late at night. I’ve found them nice and cheerful and bright. And safe.”

The SOI draft says AT is taking a series of steps to improve its customer relations processes, including better consultation and responding better to queries and complaints.

“We have an increased focus on community activation – responding to community requests, especially from schools around safety.”

Brown has been agitating for “smarter” use of the roads. Making existing roads more efficient is a lot cheaper than building new ones.

Steps to achieve this include more “special vehicle lanes” (SVLs), dedicated to buses and high-occupant vehicles. Also, dynamic lanes that change direction in the morning and evening (like on the harbour bridge) and traffic lights that can respond to what’s happening on the streets around them.

“How many intelligent signals have been put in this year?” Brown asked.

AT’s general manager of the networks, Andrew Allen, replied, “That is a very challenging question to answer because we need to define what it means. All of our signals have intelligence built into them. But where bus or emergency vehicles can’t be detected, it comes down to sensor quality. We are delivering 65 better sensors this year.”

He explained that this meant “cameras that can detect queues, that know when a pedestrian has pushed the button to cross but then walked away, late running buses, all these things”.

Brown told him to speed up the delivery. AT plans to add only 5-10km of bus and T3 priority lanes per year, and next year there will be only four new dynamic lanes and nine new sets of smarter traffic lights.

“I don’t get the impression that it’s as exciting for you people as it is for me,” said the mayor.

Councillor Julie Fairey agreed with the mayor. “You’re forecasting only 10km additional special vehicle lanes. Why is your ambition so low?”

Allan said, “I guess that comes down to an observation of whether 10km is ambitious or not.” This year, we’re doing only 5km, so next year we’re doubling it.”

The SOI target for congestion is effectively zero: AT doesn’t expect a drive across town to get faster or slower.

Another big target for AT is “taking public transport from good to great”. This includes the 2026 opening of the City Rail Link, along with new train timetables, and further progress on the Eastern Busway from Panmure to Botany.

Passenger and driver safety, especially on buses, is being addressed with a range of measures, including a CCTV trial and an “Active Bystander” strategy.

Road safety remains a priority, but with the Government’s reduced focus on this, AT has lowered its own targets. Instead of reducing deaths and serious injuries by 25 a year, it now aims for 10 fewer a year. But it will beef up its own spending.

Growth in the number of people cycling has also fallen, from 2.5% per year, to 2.0%, again because of changes to Government funding. AT has cut its own spending on cycleways in half and there is no longer a targeted number of new kilometres of cycleways.

Mayor Brown said there should be targets to reduce the number of road cones, but Leggat said it was very difficult to count them.

Since August 2022, the council has had a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, which requires a 64% cut in transport emissions by that date.

The council has not amended these targets and the SOI says, “Transport investment will be one of the council’s most important tools to reduce carbon emissions.” But targets for this have been abandoned.

Leggat said Audit NZ has advised the measures they had been using were unreliable and could result in a qualified audit.

Councillor Shane Henderson responded, “There is expertise out there to quantify emissions data. Governments do it all the time. Do you have that expertise?”

Leggat said, “My understanding is that Audit NZ says even if you have experts, we don’t believe your data.”

Emissions targets aside, AT is providing “support for motorists with electric and low-emission vehicles” and buying new electric buses and ferries. By 2028 about a third of the bus fleet will be electric.

All up, there are 24 KPIs (key performance indicators) and 37 “deliverables” in AT’s statement of intent.

“It’s all set out like this,” said Leggat, “so there shouldn’t be any surprises.”

Simon Wilson is a senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.