Media Release
Vic for Mayor

25 August 2016

More park and rides a must for Auckland

Auckland Mayoral Candidate, Vic Crone, says a change in Council attitude is needed to boost the number of public transport park and ride spaces across the region.

“Auckland has about 5,500 park and ride spaces for our population of about 1,500,000. Only 2,800 extra have been planned from 2015-2025. That’s simply not enough,” says Ms Crone.

“Not everyone lives within walking distance of public transport, especially with new housing developments planned away from good public transport. Every morning park and rides from north to south are overflowing onto grass verges and kerbs by 6:30am.

“People who genuinely want to use public transport miss out and are forced to make their full journey by car. Then you get people like Phil Goff wanting to slap them with a congestion charge.”

Crone says she will benchmark Auckland's park and ride stock against international standards. Auckland is behind global cities where for example in Melbourne 79 per cent of stations have park and ride facilities, along with 75 per cent of San Francisco’s stations. In those cities the number of parking spaces per station is also substantially higher.

“Auckland Transport has been approached by companies wanting to build these facilities and they have said no. They have been approached by companies to trial efficient feeder services and they have said no. We will never get anywhere with that attitude,” Ms Crone says.

“I’m committed to boosting park and ride facilities right across Auckland and I’m open to good partnerships that will deliver them. That definitely includes improving the quality, lighting and security measures.”

Crone is also advocating smart feeder services to and from stations. Check out her park and ride explainer video and transport thoughts at https://vic4mayor.nz/policy/transport-initiatives/. A time-lapse video of the Silverdale park and ride will be available later this afternoon.
1.Auckland Regional Transport Plan 2015-20222.Transport Solutions for a Growing City (NZCID)
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