Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency has been accused of ignoring Hamiltonians\u2019 love of cars and possibly giving too much priority to buses says Hamilton City deputy mayor. Geoff Taylor\u2019s ire was sparked during a report to Hamilton City Council\u2019s strategic growth committee on the future Southern Links roading network. \\
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\nTaylor was particularly irked by news of a forthcoming review by the government transport agency of the \u201cform and function\u201d of the massive transport network, long planned for the city\u2019s south. \\
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\nAddressing the committee members on Tuesday, regional system design manager Jessica Andrew said part of the review would investigate \u201cwhether there should be priority given to public transport and freight, over providing priority to single-occupancy vehicles\u201d. \u201cNone of this is pre-determined. It\u2019s looking at those opportunities, and whether \\[the current plan is] still fit-for-purpose,\u201d she said. \\
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\nBut Taylor said he suspected a degree of pre-determination was in play. \u201cThere may be 10,000 \\[to] 12,000 houses planned in that area … are you planning that they are all going to be bus users? \\
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\n\u201cThe reality we\u2019re finding in Hamilton is people aren\u2019t using the bus, no matter how much you people want them to. People still want to drive cars. Business needs cars as well. So I\u2019m really quite concerned to hear this. \\
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\n\u201cI kind of think you owe us a bit more of an explanation than you are giving us, given we have waited this long. And now you are telling us you are reviewing form and function. \\
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\n\u201cI\u2019m finding this explanation totally unsatisfactory.\u201d \\
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\nResponding to the deputy mayor\u2019s concerns, Waka Kotahi New Zealand\u2019s relationships director David Speirs said the forthcoming review would not delay the project. \\
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\n\u201cWe\u2019re not the only ones who want transport to change. You guys do too, as far as I remember. It\u2019s critical for us that we deliver a … transport system that is sympathetic to a functioning city.\u201d \\
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\nTaylor interjected: \u201cRealistic would be nice.\u201d \\
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\nSpeirs continued: \u201cIf we don\u2019t get that right, we will end up with congestion … \\[and] lost productivity in terms of commercial and industrial transport. We\u2019ve seen that in plenty of other places. \\
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\n\u201cThe form and function \\[review] is about what is the most efficient and effective system we can deliver for everybody. I get a bit uncomfortable when we start talking about cars versus buses versus pedestrians. It\u2019s not that. It\u2019s about a network that works to deliver the whole \u2013 including cars. \\
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\n\u201cYou are right, people will continue to use their cars and unfortunately in New Zealand, and in Hamilton particularly, we seem to love our cars more than anything. But if we want to induce more public transport use, we have to produce a system that works.\u201d \\
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\nOnce completed, the 31-kilometre Southern Links network will include 18km of state highway straddling the Waipa district, Hamilton city and Waikato district boundaries, and 13km of urban arterial roads in the new Peacocke neighbourhood. \\
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\nIt should take the pressure off other transport corridors such as Cobham Drive, Ohaupo Road and Kahikatea Drive, which could eventually be augmented with special purpose lanes for freight and public transport. \\
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\nAccording to information contained in an agenda for last month\u2019s meeting of Waikato Regional Council\u2019s regional connections committee, bus patronage in Hamilton has not quite recovered to pre-Covid levels. \\
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\nThere were 612,868 bus trips made in Hamilton in the second quarter of 2021 \u2013 a dip from the 716,000 recorded in the second quarter of 2019. \\
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\nFigures from the same period in 2020 are deemed an unreliable comparison, as they were skewed by the sudden drop in patronage due to the initial Covid-19 lockdown. \\
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\n*This article was originally published on 7 September 2021 in the [Waikato Times](https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/waikato-times\/news\/126306559\/totally-unsatisfactory-public-transport-focus-sees-waka-kotahi-manager-earn-grilling-from-deputy-mayor).*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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