Tauranga Commission drops business case into road charges

File photo. Photo: 123rf

The Tauranga City Council Commission will not continue with its proposed business case into variable road pricing after a largely negative community response.

The commission consulted the community through its long-term plan (LTP) about its SmartTrip variable road charges. This meant higher costs during peak travel times and lower costs when demand was less to ease congestion.

The entire business case was estimated at $2-3 million, though exact costings were not made.

Although the commission was dropping its own investigation into the idea, chairperson Anne Tolley noted that the new coalition government had indicated that road charging would be considered as a way of reducing congestion and improving travel reliability in metropolitan centres.

"Tauranga is the only council in the country which has consulted on the road pricing concept, which would likely be very similar to the congestion charging proposed by the government.

"We therefore have some rich feedback to pass-on to central government as it considers how best to reduce the economic and social effects of traffic congestion; the need to reduce carbon emissions from transport activities; and generate future funding for transport network improvements in metropolitan centres like Tauranga, which will reduce the growing dependency on rates funding."

She said the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi had asked the commission together with other local authorities like Auckland Council, to work on a nationwide approach to road pricing.

"Given that government policy is likely to take this matter out of our hands, the commission's view is that we should investigate the key concerns expressed by our community about the cost of road pricing charges; the quality and availability of alternative transport options; the locations and times charging could apply to; and equity and wider network impacts."

Following LTP deliberations today, the council proposed including a $500,000 budget for each of the first three years of the LTP, to investigate ways of addressing community concerns and participate in a national approach to road pricing legislation.

The proposed funding would be reviewed as part of the council's next annual plan for the 2025/26 financial year and the availability of any subsidy or external funding to reduce the cost to Tauranga ratepayers, said Tolley.