Public transport benefits all road users

Written by Jeanette Fitzsimons

Monday, 21 May 2007

It is time road users realised that they are the main beneficiaries of investment in public transport, especially rail, the Green Party says. The Road Transport Forum and Federated Farmers cannot operate in a bubble, Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said today in response to the plaintive complaints from both groups in the wake of last week’s Budget. "It is disingenuous of them to base an argument against a regional petrol tax to support public transport on whether farmers and truckers use buses. The contribution to future transport costs cannot be based on such superficialities," Ms Fitzsimons says. "For years, the rest of the country supported farmers through Supplementary Minimum Prices and other farm supports. Even now, farmers resist being charged the true costs of telecommunications, power and social services to rural areas. There is also much resistance within Federated Farmers to farmers fronting up to the true environmental costs of intensive dairying - and the organisation seems more than happy for taxpayers to pay the cost of New Zealand's Kyoto obligations incurred in large part by methane emissions. “In the spirit of user pays that it suddenly wants to apply to the regional petrol levy, can we take it that the Road Transport Forum would be happy to impose a levy that would apply only to truckers, to cover the noise nuisance they cause rumbling through rural townships? “In reality, the Road Transport Forum and Federated Farmers belong to New Zealand society, and that has responsibilities as well as rewards. In fact, both organisations would stand to make direct gains even if all of the proposed petrol levy was directed towards improving public transport. “The Auckland Regional Transport Authority’s recent report on the Auckland rail electrification project clearly showed that by far the biggest beneficiaries of the rail upgrade would be road users (44%) compared to public transport users (28%). “Road freight operators need to share the responsibility for contributing towards building a sustainable economy. They should be supporting initiatives that will lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, reduced accidents, improved air quality, reduced noise pollution, reduced urban sprawl and many other benefits.

 

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