The tunnel would run from north of the Terrace to Wellington Road.
This would be amazing for anyone heading out to the bays or Wellington Airport, no intersections or lights to worry about, and it would make life so much easier for the CBD as well, not having so much through traffic in the CBD.
This is being explored as an alternative to a second Terrace and Mt Vic tunnels, and sounds like just an idea for now.
We desperately need to improve access to that area though, getting out to Miramar, Seatoun and Titahi Bay is a nightmare at times, including on weekends.
And public transport can only do so much, it's not an option for everyone.
It's not an option because we neglect it to the point it's not usable for a lot of trips.
That doesn't mean improvements aren't possible, and they would help free up capacity on the existing road network. Roads are such a poor investment at this point, especially ones like these
The whole point of my reply was pointing out why public transport isn't an option for me, and why, no matter how good it gets, we will need to upgrade our road infrastructure eventually.
I think their point is that we don't necessarily need to upgrade road infrastructure. The majority of the people on roads could be using public transport.
Not the ones carrying kayaks or plumbing vans or disabled people that can't get to a bus or train stop. But imagine how much better traffic would be for those people if all the other people were on public transport!
Thank you. Doesn't even have to be the majority, there's studies out there that suggest moving as little as 10-15% of trips out of cars can take traffic from jammed up to free flowing. Although the more the better, motorways are expensive as hell and car dependency creates all sorts of wider problems.
Given what a mess Wellington traffic is, especially getting in and out of the city, I don't think many people are driving at the moment when public transport is an option.
I honestly think most of the people who could use PT are already on it, at least in and out of the city.
Public transport is expensive. If you are a couple working in Wellington, it's cheaper to drive in one car and pay for parking than it is to both take the train.
And these days with second hand Leafs being cheap, even on your own it's probably cheaper to drive. Public transport seems priced so that just enough people use it.
Auckland transport estimated about $300m extra funding a year would allow free public transport (assuming no additional services). I remember leading into the election last year there was controversy because National devided to spend 7B on roads people didn't think were necessary.
We could take that money, and pay for free public transport in Auckland for 20 years, and still have 1B left over for extra pothole fixing. This is money currently allocated to roads that no one wants.
I don't think we have reached the peak of public transport usage, not by a long way. Though I am admitedly only talking about one side of the story. I could write another comment about things I've not talked about here that mean free for all probably isn't the right answer, but my point was just that subsidising public transport further is still a good payoff. Currently using public transport as a user is not a financial no-brainer, so many people who could use it still aren't.
I know this is a hard concept to grasp, but there are people out there who are not yourself who, if the option is there, will leave their cars at home meaning the roads are less congested overall.
And what I said was not everyone needs to use it to benefit from it because unlike just blowing billions on more roads, it reduces congestion overall instead of adding to it.
Anyway on the tunnel, fantasy at best, Tory grift at worst, probably both