Smarter Transport Pricing project gets underway in Auckland

The New Zealand Government and Auckland Council have begun a project to investigate smarter transport pricing in Auckland.
June 9, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The New Zealand Government and Auckland Council have begun a project to investigate smarter transport pricing in Auckland.

The Smarter Transport Pricing Project will undertake a thorough investigation to support a decision on whether or not to proceed with introducing pricing for demand management in Auckland. Officials from the Ministry of Transport, Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, the 6296 New Zealand Transport Agency, Treasury and the State Services Commission will work together and engage the public to develop and test different options.

The first stage of the project, which will lay the groundwork for assessing pricing options, is expected to be complete by the end of 2017. However, any decision on the use of a demand management tool like road pricing is still some years off, according to finance minister Steven Joyce.

Transport minister Simon Bridges commented that work undertaken last year by the Government and Auckland Council found that smarter transport pricing could help make a big difference in the performance of Auckland’s transport system. He said smarter transport pricing could involve varying what road users pay at different times and/or locations to better reflect where the cost of using the roads is higher (i.e. where there is congestion). This could encourage some users to change the time, route or way in which they travel.

“The Government has also made a clear undertaking that any form of variable pricing will be primarily used to replace the existing road taxes that motorists pay. This is about easing congestion, not raising more revenue,” said Bridges.

Charging, Tolling & RUC

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • How to win over car owners to public transit
    February 16, 2021
    Public transportation agencies need to look at what private sector firms like Amazon and Netflix have offered their customers, argues Bonnie Crawford of Cubic Transportation Systems
    Read More
  • Interoperability: towards the new frontier
    October 22, 2018
    After six years of intensive research, testing and negotiation, the US tolling industry is well on its way to groundbreaking results in the effort to establish regional - and eventually national - toll interoperability, says IBTTA’s Bill Cramer. Interoperability has been a high priority on the US tolling industry’s agenda for more than a decade. But several factors made it a uniquely complex issue to resolve - including the number of agencies involved, the significant investments those agencies had already
    Read More
  • Governments must look beyond short-term spending of public funds
    February 2, 2012
    Phil Pettitt, Chief Executive of innovITS, the UK's ITS Centre of Excellence, argues that governments need to look beyond the short-term when looking to pump-prime economic recovery with public funds. It seems, in the current economic climate, that a 'good' day is one in which no company is announcing job cuts or going into administration. Consumer demand is down and businesses are retrenching, cutting costs and fretting over the consequences of shrinking opportunities and order books. It has not been this
    Read More
  • Increased automation is already improving road safety
    April 20, 2017
    Richard Cuerden considers how many of the technologies developed as part of a move toward autonomous vehicles are already being deployed as ADAS improve road safety. The drive to create autonomous vehicles has caused a re-evaluation of what is needed to safely navigate today’s roads and the development of systems that can replace the driver in many scenarios. However, many manufacturers are not waiting for ‘tomorrow’ and are already incorporating these systems in their new cars as Advanced Driver Assistanc
    Read More

Highlighted Content