The Dominion Post flashed a dire warning of increased road costs based on the Greater Wellington Regional Council asking the government for a law change allowing for congestion charges to be made legal.
This stems comes from a report from 2007 indicating that transportation through the region would likely benefit from congestion pricing. Ideally, it’s a push to get people from cars onto buses and trains. At the same time, funds raised through the scheme are intended to feed into public transportation modes, much like the petrol tax proposed in Auckland.
I expect that the public response will be shockingly negative and it looks like Mayor Kerry is covering herself early:
It’s illegal now and I don’t think there’s been enough work done. We must do everything we can to protect Wellington cbd.
I can’t tell you what she’s protecting the CBD from, but I’m with the regional council – I think that putting a price on traffic is a good way to protect the CBD from itself.
There needs to be a lot of discussion on this topic, and not just the knee-jerk responses that are sure to get fired out. This sort of pricing will likely hit low-income households, especially at the start, but their problems will only get worse as petrol costs saunter on past the $2/L mark. Discussion needs to be real and honest, starting now. Unfortunately, the backpedalling on any useful discussion has already begun.
1 The government has a running comparison of domestic and international fuel prices available.
