First a warning. I don't use this blog as a place for debate or polemics, but on this occasion, I have decided to respond to an article which is quite damning, as an example of the sort of debate one endures around the topic of road pricing. This article is by no means the worst I've ever seen, but it is full of assertions with little to no evidence, mistakes and bold claims that appear to be more motivated by a desire to undermine the policy itself (and perhaps this is because it is from a government he himself does not support), than to critically review the merits of it.

The NZ Herald is Auckland’s (New Zealand) newspaper of record. Simon Wilson (no relation) is the NZ Herald’s senior writer on transport issues. Given the NZ Government’s recent announcement of its intention to advance congestion pricing (called time of use pricing), he has written a column on the topic, which is arguably a polemic of weak argument against it. Note it is behind a paywall. I am a subscriber, but it is not worth you paying to read his article though. 

It is possible to critique time of use pricing in Auckland on some grounds, such as whether it could be expanded at reasonable cost sufficiently to significantly address congestion, or whether net revenues should be redistributed through tax cuts rather than spending on infrastructure, or if it is better to introduce road pricing more generally, so driving outside congested time and locations is cheaper.  It is possible to argue that there should be more and better public transport to accompany road pricing, or that it could cause government to delay or cancel some new road projects, but none of that is apparent.  

I’ve spent over 20 years working on road pricing policy around the world and I have seen arguments against road pricing from a range of perspectives. Some on the right see it as an additional tax that intends to limit motorists’ freedom and increases the power of the state against them or is used to invade their privacy through "tracking". Some on the left see it as unfair that a scarce resource (road space) is allocated on the basis of price rather than queuing.  Wilson is on the left.

Simon Wilson has written many columns in the past about the importance of tackling climate change, of getting more people out of their cars and into public transport or active modes. He is a fervent believer in behaviour change in urban transport policy. Now he is making himself perhaps the highest profile campaigner against the one policy that could achieve more of what he claims to want than any other – more efficient road pricing.

He titles his article “Sorry Simeon Brown, congestion charges are not the key to freeing up the roads”. 

He’s wrong. I doubt Wilson can identify a city in the world that has freed up its roads without road pricing, he certainly doesn’t name any. Short of Pyongyang (or Covid lockdowns), I don’t know of any major city in the world without road pricing that has significantly reduced congestion, although certainly some that have it do still have severe congestion (notably London). Singapore and Gothenburg certainly have much less congestion than before either city had congestion pricing, Stockholm has much lower congestion approaching its central city and along its main bypass route (although there remains congestion elsewhere in its network). Milan still has bad congestion, although it is better with pricing.  Wilson does not indicate which cities on a scale of Auckland have freed up their roads without either road pricing or depopulation

So what else did he have to say?

He repeatedly asserts that time-of-use pricing, congestion charging etc is a “tax”, which presumably he is saying for pejorative impact to appeal to readers on the right of politics (new taxes are "bad" from a traditional rightwing perspective).  Whether or not it is a tax would be a legislative matter. I’m not sure if he thinks water meters are a “tax” or electricity meters, but applying a price, that varies by time-of-day, and is periodically reviewed as to user demand (as in Singapore), is not very much like a tax. In Sweden, congestion pricing is called the “congestion tax” for legal reasons, in Singapore the term “Electronic Road Pricing” is used to describe simply a fee for using the roads. Does he see bus fares as a tax? Does he see the existing toll roads in NZ as a tax? This is hardly a major point, but it sets the tone for this article, which is a not particularly coherent piece, sometimes opposing road pricing and in one place saying "it has a role". 

Although he admits that congestion pricing works, he then makes several claims that do not stand up to scrutiny, namely:

• They can “do a lot of harm”;

• They are “not the key to reducing congestion”.

He also says they are not popular, which is hardly a surprise, as reports from The Congestion Question (the last major study into the topic from 2016-2020) indicated that public acceptability is the greatest challenge to implementing congestion pricing. Wilson’s column is of course helping to add to this challenge. I don't think you should complain about something being unpopular by contributing to its unpopularity sans the merits.

What about "do a lot of harm”? He doesn’t elaborate, and in fact provides zero evidence of a "lot of harm" anywhere, so why say it? Why scaremonger?

He then acknowledges that for commercial traffic, congestion is a cost, whether for freight delivery or simply providing services that require getting between sites.  However, he then describes Stockholm, London and Singapore as all being cordon schemes, which isn’t quite accurate. Although he cites The Congestion Question report, he clearly did not read the report on international experience (PDF) (disclaimer: I wrote that with colleagues of mine).

Let's be clear, Singapore is predominantly a corridor scheme (with two small cordons), with most charging points on major roads and arterial routes approaching the downtown. Stockholm is a cordon (PDF), but also now has a corridor charge for the Essingeleden motorway that passes through the city.  London is strictly an area charge (it charges circulation within the cordon as well as crossing it).  

Wilson mentions this because he prefers cordons it seems but sees corridor charging (which the Mayor of Auckland did propose last year) as being flawed because they are easy to avoid by rat-running on local roads. That’s true, if you don’t put in place measures to price that rat-running (e.g. by pricing exiting and then re-entering a road to avoid a priced point). 

This appears to be a very weak attempt to condemn road pricing schemes that aren't cordons, but the Government's policy is not that there should not be cordons, or that there should be any specific type of congestion pricing scheme at all.  

Of course, there has been no decision at all about what proposal to introduce in Auckland, but the Congestion Question did recommend a downtown cordon supplemented by corridor charges, on the most congested routes on the Isthmus and towards the North Shore first. More work has to be done on what the first scheme would look like. So it seems rather premature to be antagonistic to the very concept as a whole at this stage.

The Congestion Question indicative downtown cordon

His next point is to appear to be critical of the timeframe, as he claims the first scheme would not be in place until 2028. This seems pessimistic. Sure the legislation and approvals will not be finished until 2025, but it is entirely plausible for a scheme to be operational within two years of that. He indicates that the timing of elections (local in 2025, national in 2026) is driving this, but it’s unclear that this could be accelerated to be significantly faster. He says it should be operational when the City Rail Link opens, which I agree, but it seems unlikely that even if approved today, that a scheme could be operational in 18 months. Yet surely if that is the best time, the second best time is as soon as possible afterwards?

Then Wilson goes back to how unpopular it would be. He claims it is a “regressive tax”, yet I don’t recall him calling the introduction of the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax that, even though there is a study that explicitly concluded that (PDF). The fuel tax applied 12.5c/l on petrol and diesel sold in Auckland, and of course meant everyone driving paid it, except those able to afford an EV or hybrid vehicle. Wilson did support the regional fuel tax when it was introduced, and he said “It does hurt the poor disproportionately …. But it also targets almost everyone who's clogging up the roads”.

That’s nonsense. It targeted nobody. He also said “one day we’ll have better ways to manage demand” saying essentially road pricing would be that but “we don't have the technology in place to do that yet and it's controversial”. The regional fuel tax was not introduced as a demand management tool, but moreover the technology to do road pricing exists now.

Now the government is now advancing it, and he opposes it, not because of the unavailability of technology. Of course the regional fuel tax is now history, but that measure improving the cost of living for most Aucklanders is unnoticed, because this is a polemic.

He gives no evidence for road pricing being particularly regressive, although as a concept it is no more “regressive” than pricing water, electricity or indeed public transport or food. As part of developing proposals for Ministerial approval, an impact analysis of the proposed “time of use” pricing scheme will need to be undertaken.  Perhaps Wilson could focus on what that analysis should look like, rather than dismissing the whole idea of pricing as regressive. Now the Gothenburg congestion tax IS regressive, there is evidence of this (PDF), but it was a scheme set up to raise revenue and is far larger in scope than the scheme that would have been needed to relieve congestion.  The NZ Government is proposing time of use pricing specifically to improve network productivity, not to raise revenue, but Wilson ignores that, as it doesn't fit his polemic. Of course congestion is regressive, as the richest don't commute at peak times or can buy homes close to work.

He claims “It’s not the key to solving congestion. And one of the most common arguments for it is economic gibberish”. This is rather embarrassing. If you don’t understand an economic argument then the best way of understanding it is not to call it gibberish, in fact it displays astonishing ignorance. His understanding of the value of time and the economic impacts of congestion is poor indeed.

He claims “These charges will be a cost of doing business that companies will pass on to their customers. For the general public, they will raise the cost of living”. Will they? Having claimed correctly that less congestion will make all sorts of businesses more productive, whether it be for freight deliveries or services such as the building trades, they will be able to undertake more jobs for the same cost (wasting less time and fuel). Pretty much all benefit/cost analysis indicates businesses save much more than congestion pricing costs, so it would not be passed onto customers. Of course congestion costs are passed on.

It's his next claim that is the most embarrassing.

Alan McDonald from the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) has said much the same. “Recent traffic monitoring data has found that Aucklanders are losing 22 million hours per year out of their lives while they sit in traffic,” he declared. “That equates to a $1.3 billion annual hit to GPD.”

Gibberish. You can’t link private travel to productivity because very few people drive to work on company time. However long your commute takes, it’s your own time you’re wasting.

Everyone resents it, and fair enough. But the economic value – the “annual hit to the GDP” – is zero.

Wilson claims that the economic cost of congestion to private individuals is zero. He claims this doesn’t impact on GDP.  Let’s set aside the obvious social cost. Congestion means commuters leave home earlier and get home later than they would otherwise. That’s less time with family, less personal time, less time to cook, to exercise, to sleep even. Wilson understands what externalities are, I think, so he could at least acknowledge that.  However, what he misses out is what congestion does to opportunities for individuals.

You see the available job pool for most people is directly related to the duration of commute from wherever they live to wherever jobs are located. Most people are happy to commute for up to half an hour, and many in a larger city for up to an hour, although those with children to look after are more challenged. Beyond an hour those able to spare that amount to time to travel to and from work are much more limited in number. In short, congestion reduces the opportunities people have to increase their incomes with better employment, and it also reduces the labour pool available to employers to improve their productivity. I’m always a little sceptical of the methodologies used to “cost” congestion, but to dismiss traffic congestion as not imposing costs on GDP as it applies to private individuals is ignorant. There is literature to back this up.

Wilson then determines that the answer isn’t road pricing, but more rapid transit. Yet he doesn’t seem to be able to explain why cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Tokyo, New York, Sydney or San Francisco all have chronic congestion WITH lots of rapid transit? The Northern Busway is a great piece of infrastructure, but it hasn’t fixed congestion on the Northern Motorway, although it has absorbed a lot of demand growth. Buses do carry a lot of people over the Auckland Harbour Bridge, but the idea that this is a substitute for road pricing is simply absurd. He may as well say that you don’t need parking fees if there are free buses.  It’s completely false to equate the impacts of the Congestion Question, which was a network wide reduction in congestion, from the effects of the Busway on one corridor.  He claims rapid transit reduces emissions. This only happens if it enables modal shift from driving cars, which of course congestion pricing promotes as well (bearing in mind transport emission in NZ are capped with the Emissions Trading Scheme anyway). 

The article explains all of the benefits from a lot of public transport, without even really noting that the costs of all of this infrastructure he wants need to be paid for, and one way of doing it would be through congestion pricing. That doesn’t mean I think that’s how the money should be spent, but surely that connection could be made? Furthermore, all of the rapid transit he touts does absolutely nothing for freight or tradies or other commercial traffic, as they can’t use it.

He then makes this remarkable failure to connect thoughts:

Our roads are appallingly congested, we are failing to reduce carbon emissions and our road safety record is among the worst in the developed world. The opportunity is for a rethink about how and why we use the roads, so we can build ourselves a more functional, friendlier city. Instead, the Government proposes a new tax.

He claims “a great many people will not be able to avoid a congestion tax”. How does he know? If it is a downtown cordon, where only 13% of employment is based and half of commuters already travel by public transport or active modes then hardly anyone will be affected. Even if it is just the Mayor’s two corridors, that wont affect most commuters either. Again, this is just nonsense. 

If Simon Wilson can’t see the link between road pricing, reducing congestion and emissions, and making a city more functional and friendly, then he is either ignorant or deliberately disingenuous. I fear he is simply a polemicist seeking a headline and he can’t give any credit to a politician he doesn’t like or support for implementing a policy that does more for what he wants than any other single measure at the lowest cost.

Opposing the very concept of time-of-use road pricing at this critical stage indicates he is not really interested in enabling all of the potential tools to reduce congestion, lower demand for emissions and encourage modal shift at all, but rather is just writing polemics for headlines. 

Wilson would be better placed to focus not on opposing the first government in NZ’s history to advance road pricing to implementation, but rather to focus on the design of the first scheme proposal for Auckland, to ensure it has a positive impact on reducing congestion, minimal impact on those with low incomes and limited choice, and to encourage creative solutions, such as those used elsewhere, to address any issues. If he wants a cordon, then talk about it. If he wants a different option, then fine. However, if he doesn’t know anything much about the topic at all, he might prefer to read a bit more, talk to people who do and not try to undermine a policy that actually has general support across the political spectrum from the Greens on the hard-left to ACT on the classically-liberal right. 

Time-of-use pricing could help Auckland look much more like what Simon Wilson wants it to, it’s just a shame he wants to get in its way, on grounds that are spurious and almost entirely baseless.

The Congestion Question evaluation of impacts

 I wrote on my Rational Transport policy blog on this topic, largely because it was around transport governance issues.  The article is here.

The big road pricing news in New Zealand in the past week was the Mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, calling for congestion charging and appearing on media declaring how critical it was for the city. This was not in terms of raising revenue, but in addressing congestion.  On Radio NZ he said Auckland could not afford another motorway, and that the charge would be avoidable by driving outside of peak times.

“I am of the view that this should be on our motorways in the central areas of Auckland, which are the most congested, and this is also where public transport works best, which gives some people an option rather than paying the charge”

He ridiculed concerns about equity around trade businesses, saying that to pay $5 to save 20 minutes was a small fraction of the price the tradespeople charge their customers in an hour. He also said that schoolchildren “don’t’ have a right to be taken to school in a BMW” and more should walk, bike or use public transport. 

The Mayor was elected in 2022 and has a three year term, but his support for the concept was only solidified when Auckland Council voted 18-2 in favour of setting up a team to oversee implementation of congestion charging.

Despite that report, Auckland is not going to get congestion pricing in two years. Legislation will take around a year to introduce and pass at best, and it will take around 18 months to procure and install a system at best. However, you have to admire the ambition.

The astonishing level of local political support for the concept is unheard of in any other city where the private car is by far the dominant transport mode.  In 2018 (according to the Census), around two-thirds of Aucklanders commuted by car (whether as driver or passenger), 11% by bus, 9% walked and 8% worked from home, 3% by train and just over 1% by bicycle. It seems likely that the proportion working from home, cycling and using public transport has increased since then. 

Let's be clear to those unfamiliar with Auckland. The Mayor is ostensibly "centre-right" and got elected opposing the "war on cars". The Council as well is fairly balanced between left and right wing members.

Unlike New York and almost all other US cities that have been investigating congestion pricing, Auckland is regarding the net revenues as secondary (although the Mayor is interested in revenue, as the incoming government has pledged to abolish the regional fuel tax of NZ$0.10 per litre that raises revenue for transport projects in the city). The primary focus is reducing congestion and encouraging behavioural change. However, it would clearly generate net revenue and would also have positive environmental benefits.

Why does this matter?

All of the cities that have introduced congestion pricing around the world so far have been quite different from Auckland, and indeed all of the predominantly car-oriented low density cities that are seen in New World cities in New Zealand, Australia and North America. Singapore, Oslo, London, Stockholm and Milan all have significant mode shares for public transport. However, Dubai and Abu Dhabi (and soon Doha) are car dependent cities, even moreso than Auckland, whereas Gothenburg in Sweden is much closer to the mode shares seen in New World cities. 

Although New York will be the first US city to introduce some form of congestion charging, it is being implemented in lower Manhattan, which is much more like central London than most US cities, and it is being introduced 24/7 (with peak charges) primarily to raise revenue. New York is not a model for other North American cities.

Auckland on the other hand, has around 87% of its employment outside the central city, it has around a 50% mode share for public transport and active modes for trips to the central city at peak times, but a much lower mode share for trips to other parts of Auckland at peak times. In short, congestion in Auckland is primarily about trips across the city, not to the downtown.  Pricing in Auckland will work only in part by encouraging modal shift, but will in a large part be about encouraging a small proportion of trips to shift time of day or frequency of driving. 

Furthermore, unlike many other developed cities, Auckland has had over 20 years of billions of dollars in continuous major capital spending on its transport networks.  During that time, the road network has been significantly upgraded, with additional lanes on motorways and a ring route around the west bypassing the congested central motorway junction. The commuter rail network was extended to the downtown, electrified with new trains, adding new lines, and is now being expanded with an inner city loop. Bus services have been expanded, with busways and new buses, routes and expanded frequencies.  In short, Auckland has seen extensive capital spending on its transport infrastructure and it has been unable to keep up with demand, and congestion has not been resolved.  

Supply of transport infrastructure does not sustainably reduce traffic congestion. 

If Auckland successfully implements congestion pricing, it will be a world leader in implementing road pricing in a city with automobile dominance.

What has been proposed?

The Mayor has specifically proposed a charge on two segments of motorway of NZ$3.50 - $5 per trip.  It would operate in the AM and PM peaks only on the North Western Motorway (SH16) between Lincoln Road and Te Atatu Road, and on the Southern Motorway (SH1) between Penrose and Greenlane. These are two of the most congested parts of Auckland’s motorway network.  The map below depicts the short section of North Western Motorway, the segment of Southern Motorway and the earlier proposed downtown cordon (which is bypassed by the motorway network which goes from south to the Auckland Harbour Bridge and from the west to the Ports of Auckland).

Auckland congestion pricing concepts.

Undoubtedly the motorway proposals would have a positive impact. While the North Western motorway at this location has no reasonable alternative route, the Southern motorway does have a wide at-grade arterial road, albeit with multiple sets of traffic signals and a much lower speed limit. Some measures would need to be taken to minimise diversion onto the parallel routes. 

It's worth noting that a major study into congestion pricing in Auckland, called The Congestion Question, was carried out from 2016-2020, and recommended that a downtown cordon be introduced, followed by corridor charges on major routes in the isthmus and beyond.  The Mayor is proposing the second stage, but that is good as the downtown cordon concept was likely to have a less dramatic impact than the proposed corridor charges.

The proposed technology would be automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

What needs to happen?

Does congestion pricing need all motorists to have a "reasonable alternative", by mode of transport?

No.

The alternatives to congestion pricing include:

• Modal choices (public transport and cycling/walking for shorter trips)
• Time of day choice (driving outside charging periods)
• Route choice (avoiding driving on priced roads if possible)
• Trip frequency choice (driving less frequency if a trip is regular)

The single biggest reason cars have become ubiquitous in cities is because they enable trips to be undertaken between origins and destinations that are not, and are likely to never be efficient to take by other modes. For trips to city centres, public transport can be an option for many, at peak times and indeed for trips between locations on public transport corridors, they obviously can be undertaken instead of driving, but for many cities, especially lower density cities like Auckland, characterised by houses on blocks of land in outer suburbs. It is not ever going to be efficient to have bus services that are always walkable to all of those suburban outlying areas.

So those that claim public transport alternatives need to exist for everyone are mistaken or actually just opposed to congestion pricing.  I hope the Mayor of Auckland is simply mistaken.

Background

I've written before about Auckland, New Zealand's, experience in investigating congestion pricing.  A major report was released just before the pandemic (see here) and I wrote about it here.

In short it was recommended that Auckland implement congestion pricing, starting with a small inner city cordon (effectively as a pilot, but consistent with Auckland Council's objectives to reduce car use in the inner city and provide more space for pedestrians, cyclists and buses) followed by corridor based charging, in some ways resembling how Singapore's excellent ERP system was rolled out. 

The pandemic stopped further progress, but in the meantime the Government of the day was re-elected, with a majority for the ruling Labour Party, and it followed up with a Parliamentary Inquiry into congestion pricing in Auckland. which recommended that congestion pricing proceed.

It's worth noting that congestion pricing is not controversial at the level of national politics, although there is debate about how to use the money, and the priority of objectives. The Green Party supports it, so do the Opposition centre-right National and free-market liberal ACT parties.  However, it would be fair to say that progress in advancing congestion pricing in Auckland has been glacial over the past year.

To enable congestion pricing, the Government needs to introduce legislation to permit it to be introduced and this has not yet occurred.  However, in the meantime there were local elections in New Zealand. Auckland's Mayor had retired, and he has been replaced by the centre-right candidate Wayne Brown, who has reportedly now said that congestion charging is a "distraction" and 

"Congestion charging could only make sense once every Aucklander has the option of catching a bus or a train that they know will show up on time, every time – and we are two years away from that, at the very least"

There are two big mistakes with this:

1. If it were decided to introduce congestion pricing, it would take at least two-three years before it could be ready in any case.  Indeed, the argument has been made that the right time to introduce it is when Auckland's underground city rail loop is completed in 2025 or so.
2. There is no reason for EVERY person to have a public transport option to substitute every possible car trip, indeed it is neither possible nor rational nor necessary.  This is because many trips will simply change time or frequency of travel, especially more discretionary trips.

I've been very busy, but there are some announcements worth noting as follows

Western Australia announces it will introduce distance-based RUC on EVs in 2017

As part of an package of measures to incentivise increased sales of electric vehicles, the Western Australian Premier has announced that the state government will introduce 

 introduce a distance-based road user charge for zero and low emission light vehicles commencing from July 1, 2027 to ensure all motorists pay their fair share towards the maintenance and construction of WA roads.

A base rate of 2.5 cents per kilometre for electric and hydrogen vehicles and two cents per kilometre for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will apply, with both rates indexed to the Consumer Price Index.

This parallels what has already been announced in New South Wales, what has been introduced in Victoria in 2021 and what was also announced for South Australia (but for which the recently elected Labor Government has vowed to repeal).

Western Australia has some history in looking at heavy vehicle RUC, but it will be interesting to see how this may be implemented, as it could be a simple odometer reporting based system given there is little interstate light vehicle traffic. 

New Zealand Government to make announcement on progressing congestion pricing in Auckland next week

It has been studied and investigated for some time, but Radio New Zealand is reporting (alongside other media outlets) that when the New Zealand Government Emissions Reduction Plan is released on Monday 16 May, it will also announce it will implement congestion pricing for Auckland.  It is likely to be focused on a downtown inner city cordon-style scheme at peak times only, but with the potential to expand into corridor charging beyond that. It also appears that the net revenue may be used to offset a cut and eventual abolition of the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax established only in 2018 to help fund transport projects in the city.  That tax is currently at NZ$0.125 per litre including Goods and Service Tax.

Virginia to launch RUC for EVs on 1 July 2022

Virginia will be the third US state to implement distance-based RUC for light vehicles on 1 July according to NBC12.  Branded "Mileage Choice" it will offer EV, hybrid or other ultra fuel efficient vehicle owners the choice of paying by mile instead of paying a flat annual fee for registration (currently US$109 per annum).  Distance will be measuredly a plug-in device supplied by Emovis, with an initial odometer reading captured by smartphone imaging to register.  

Yesterday, New Zealand's Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee started hearing submissions on proposals for congestion charging for the city of Auckland.  I am strongly in support of this, and have sent in a written submission and hope to present it virtually later this week. 

Written submissions can be found here and hearings are available via Facebook here including all of the submissions presented yesterday.  

Once all submissions have been considered, the Committee will present a report to Parliament with its recommendations.  A majority of Committee members belong to the ruling centre-left Labour Party, but it is worth noting that the other parties on the Committee (National (centre-right), Greens (left-environmentalist) and ACT (liberal-right))  have been supportive of congestion pricing, indeed the current work on congestion charging in Auckland commenced under the previous National-led government.  The officials papers are available here.

What has been recommended so far is a city-centre cordon during morning and evening peak periods, followed by strategic corridor charging on congested routes. It will be interesting to see how the Committee responds to submissions. It is led by a Wellington based Labour MP, Greg O'Connor, and deputised by former transport planner and Green MP, Julie Anne Genter.  I am cautiously optimistic that the momentum achieved so far in Auckland congestion pricing is not slowed down by the Committee process, and that it can be advanced, especially given the significant spending that has been made and continues to be made in upgrading Auckland's transport network, including a multi-billion dollar underground rail loop to increase the capacity of Auckland electric commuter rail network.  

Disclosure: I worked on both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of The Congestion Question project as a consultant for Milestone Solutions (then D'Artagnan Consulting).

Following the release of the Phase Two report and significant numbers of reports on congestion pricing in Auckland, Stuff reports that a Parliamentary Select Committee (presumably Transport and Infrastructure) will conduct an inquiry into the issue.  This arose from comments from both the New Zealand Transport Minister Michael Wood (who is new to the portfolio, since Labour won the general election in October 2020) and Finance and Infrastructure Minister, Grant Robertson, alongside the naming ceremony for a railway tunnel boring machine - part of the NZ$4.4 billion Auckland City Rail Link project. 

The congestion charging report indicated that the two scheme options with the greatest merit are:

• City Centre peak time cordon scheme;
• Congested Strategic Corridors scheme.

It was notable that although the Mayor of Auckland spoke favourably about congestion pricing after the reports were released, both Ministers were non-committal about the proposals in the reports. Deputy Chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee, Green MP Julie-Anne Genter has been reported as supportive of congestion pricing stating:

"The Green Party is supportive, and believes the government should be driving this forward, especially if there are mitigations in place to ensure it doesn’t disproportionately penalise low-income households...Replacing the regional fuel tax with a congestion charge would do that because it is disproportionately high income people who drive into the city centre...We are disappointed the report didn't focus more on the impact on greenhouse gas emissions, I suspect congestion charging could make a big diff[erence]."

This is a positive start and she is correct, there should be positive impacts on low-income households if introduction of congestion pricing replaces the regional fuel tax, so that only those driving at peaks on congested roads are paying more, but everyone else is paying less. 

It is also worth noting that there have been no statements opposing congestion pricing from Opposition political parties on the centre-right (National) and free-market right (ACT) (both supported congestion pricing as a concept before the election). There has been no statement to date from the Maori Party (centre-left) either.

However, there are much greater impacts from congestion pricing on strategic corridors, compared to the Auckland city centre. Already around half of all commuting trips to downtown Auckland use public transport, cycling or walking, so there is less scope to shift mode compared to all other commuting, which is dominated by car use. 

Key to the next steps is how to conduct public engagement and consultation, with Auckland Council's planning committee approving ongoing work on the project last week.

Part of this absolutely has to be to present the case as to how congestion pricing can replace the regional fuel tax, and what to do with additional revenue generated assuming that, as it scales up in size, it raises more than the regional fuel tax does now. It could replace ratepayer funding for new capital transport projects, but there will be a range of views including reducing ratepayer contributions to road maintenance and public transport subsidies. Questions around governance and delivery of congestion pricing must also be considered, particularly as there will be pricing on a mix of local roads and state highways, and governance will affect decisions on operational policy, rate setting and use of net revenues.

The Congestion Question project has been innovative in developing options for congestion pricing in a city dominated by car use, with most employment not located in the downtown area, and with 74% of commutes by private motor vehicle (11% by public transport, 5% by active modes, remainder work from home or "other means"). Auckland is a new world city, with relatively low density development, so is much more akin to many North American cities than European cities. If it can pioneer congestion pricing that effectively reduces congestion across the city, for lower density cities, it will be an example for others to follow.

Auckland Transport and the New Zealand Ministry of Transport today released a series of reports that represent Phase Two of The Congestion Question study, that has been investigated the merits and options for congestion pricing in Auckland. The point of the study is to investigate congestion pricing to improve network performance a stark contrast to more recent examples discussing road pricing (see Australia on electric vehicles, the UK on road pricing) which are about raising revenue. In fact, the Auckland Mayor has already stated that he sees this as replacing the regional fuel tax (NZ$0.10/litre plus 15% GST), which is likely to have positive economic, environmental and social impacts, as it would mean only those travelling at peak times on congested roads would pay. 

t is a joint project between central and local government, and the technology option proposed is use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, although other options were considered.  The proposal for pricing is peak only, with the sample tariff below considered for the city centre cordon option:

The purpose of the study was to undertake a detailed investigation of the options and established some preferred options for more detailed design and possible implementation.  Given transport in Auckland is dominated by use of the private car (and trip patterns that are highly dispersed, with only 13% of employment in the central business district).  Transport in Auckland has had literally billions of NZ$ spent on it in the past twenty years, this includes:

• Completion of the Western Ring Route of the motorway network, allowing through traffic between south-west and north Auckland to avoid the Central Motorway Junction and Auckland Harbour Bridge, and multiple upgrades to other parts of the motorway network, including grade separation, new lanes and ramps, and targeted capacity increases;
• Transformation of the commuter rail network, including opening of a downtown railway station, electrification of the network with new rolling stock, additional tracks, upgraded stations and a significant uplift in service frequencies. A city centre underground railway loop is now under construction to increase capacity of the network;
• Busways on corridors without railways (North Shore and now eastern and north western under development);
• Significantly enhanced bus and ferry services, some bicycle lanes and park and ride facilities.

The table below summarises the analysis of impacts of the shortlisted options:

Auckland City Centre Cordon congestion pricing option