Empty Buses on Empty Roads whilst RUC payers wait

Empty Buses on Empty Roads whilst RUC payers wait

Motorway bus lanes are currently under-utilised, and the cost of this is congestion. The problem is buses in Auckland are such a terrible way of getting around that they are always something other people should use.

I have been driving up and down the Northern Motorway for the past week or so and seen nothing but empty bus lanes and empty buses careening up the empty lanes, while cars and heavy transport mix it up right beside each other. The very people who pay the RUC that pay for the roads are having to wait. This is wrong.

The bus lanes to and from Albany and the city are busy for a very short and limited period around rush hour in the morning and the evenings, and the rest of the time we have massive amounts of capital investment tied up in empty bus lanes.

To get rate payers and tax payers a proper return on investment, and to ease congestion, the Whaleoil transport policy is to allow all trucks onto motorway bus lanes except during peak hours of 7am and 9.30am south bound, and 3.30am and 6.30pm north bound.

This pragmatic policy frees up space on our motorways for cars, cars that people have chosen to drive because public transport is never going to work in Auckland.

I'll go further and say that vans and cars who are willing to pay an exclusive toll fee and after a suitable driver safety course will also be allowed to use the lanes.

Allowing heavy transport to use roads actually built for them would remove an enormous amount of congestion from the motorway proper and reduce the damage cause to roading surfaces that slow, turning heavy transport causes. I estimate millions will be saved in road repair alone.

ENDS