Submission to Let’s Get Wellington Moving
Posted: December 17, 2017 Filed under: Other, submissions | Tags: air travel, Basin Bridge, basin flyover, basin reserve, car cult, desperation, Fair Intelligent Transport, fear, Let's Get Wellington Moving, LGWM, light rail, motor cars, pedestrians, petrol tax, public transport, rail transport, tunnels, Wellington Airport, Wellington Regional Transport Plan Leave a commentThese paragraphs were used in creating my submission (on their form) to the Let’s Get Wellington Moving project.
Scenario A is the place to start and finish. Getting people onto public transport is the top priority. Providing better public transport must happen. Light Rail would be the centre of those improvements. This should be referred to as “Scenario A+”.
Scenarios B, C, and D are superfluous to this project, and are in fact dangerous. They are just the old desperate, and by now boring, attempts to retain the total dominance of the personal motor car in transport here in Wellington. The Chamber of Commerce’s suggestion of doing all the scenarios at once is an act of desperation, as usual from them. It raises the question of just what is the goal of LGWM. They seem to be trying too hard on the flyovers/tunnels. Is it a ploy to pass over the singular importance of Scenario A. (Where has the suggestion for a safe pedestrian crossing of State Hwy 1 at the airport gone? Does LGWM feel that would be trying too hard for pedestrians at a location which is the ideological centre of that desperately old-fashioned transport mentality – the airport?)
Further, the conception and presentation of the question is of utmost importance. It’s not just getting Wellington ‘moving’; in fact it should be mostly about getting Wellington ready for this century’s need for zero net carbon emissions within a wider sustainability culture.
The Basin Reserve is not the centre of the problem when seen in that context. The centre of the problem is that there are too many cars on the road. Travel demand management, one possibility a petrol tax, is essential. Once public transport is improved and has been in place for a while, the infrequent congestion at the Basin would settle down.
If the Hutt and Kapiti feel a strong need to have a shortcut to the airport, they should come up with suggestions to consider and decide how they will pay for it themselves and let Wellington get on with developing public transport.
