Swarbrick, Goff, and Hay waiting for the candidates debate to begin.

Swarbrick only Auckland mayoral candidate to think outside the transit box
Paul Minett
Auckland ~ 13 September 2016

Tonight I attended the Auckland mayoral candidates debate on transportation, sponsored and chaired by the Campaign for Better Transport.

Six of the multitude mayoral candidates attended to tell us what they will do if elected mayor, with a particular focus on transportation.

To my mind, it was a litany of last century solutions to last century problems.

Candidate Penny Bright provided light relief by saying outlandish things with a straight face – but you know she really means what she says. Her main concern is the corporates who are getting fat filling the contracts to provide transportation services, and she promises to open the books. Deviously and to question master Cameron Pitches’ discomfort, she would not say what else she supports until the books have been opened.

Phil Goff explained how he will get Wellington to pay for an incredibly expensive list of projects – and reeled off lists of a billion here, a billion there, and all with the glib ease of a seasoned politician. His grandfather was a tram driver and Goff wants Auckland to have light rail that could ‘suddenly serve everyone without congestion’.

Mark Thomas pointed out that a vote for Phil Goff was a vote for the status quo, and for another opposition transport spokesman in office in Auckland, before outlining how he would find the funds for the same set of projects, just from reorganizing existing council funding sources.

John Palino could not bring himself to say exactly what he would do, nor what it would cost, except to mention that it is amazing that more than 2 million people live on Manhattan Island, and a further 2.5 million go there each day to work. Using experience of New York to drive a vision for Auckland’s public transport would be to suggest that all of New Zealand should live on the isthmus. He talked about planning new satellite cities and installing the entire infrastructure from the start and he has written it all down in a book you can get from his website.

David Hay established his flexibility and awareness of innovation in transportation by stating that the plan he presented sometime last century is still his position on what should be done.

And Chloe Swarbrick promised to do all the same projects as everyone else, but added that she would implement a bike-share system to help people in the burbs to get to the bus and train; or, one thinks, anywhere else they would like to get using what has become a ticket to world-class-city-ness. You can try out bike sharing in many cities around the world, including Christchurch. These are systems that really do make a difference for local transport if given enough support and integrated with other modes.

Finally, Vic Crone, who probably understands how little a politician gains from making promises about transport because they are so hard to deliver on, got plenty off airtime because she chose to speak to the Howick Rotary club instead of the Campaign for Better Transport, and you could feel CBT’s pain. One hopes that if Crone had been there she would have added something a bit more exciting.

Transportation today is a swirling maelstrom of innovation and opportunity. None of the candidates mentioned the pilot projects with “autonomous cars as taxis” that are happening in Singapore and Pittsburg. None of them suggested that we should all take a collective deep breath and wait a while before launching into the billions of spend on infrastructure projects because there is a possibility that the autonomous car might change the whole urban transportation landscape – and within 5 years. None of them suggested that Auckland should seek out the opportunity to be the hub of transportation innovation rather than just spending our taxes on last century solutions.

Who can blame them, when the mode agnostic Campaign for Better Transport attracts a mainly bus-using and train-using crowd? I guess I should not have expected different when I found a parking space right outside the door.

Hats off to Swarbrick for putting bikesharing in her platform. Hats off to the Campaign for Better Transport for putting the event together, and to Cameron Pitches for compiling a set of searching questions for each candidate. The loser on the night is Auckland’s citizens because one feels that in reality, the status quo plans of copious transit spend will prevail, but at great cost that will never be returned, and opportunities for true innovation will be ignored.

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