this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
12 points (83.3% liked)

Aotearoa / New Zealand

1650 readers
2 users here now

Kia ora and welcome to !newzealand, a place to share and discuss anything about Aotearoa in general

Rules:

FAQ ~ NZ Community List ~ Join Matrix chatroom

 

Banner image by Bernard Spragg

Got an idea for next month's banner?

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A few surprises here, namely that PHEVs will pay a lower rate of RUCs, I was under the impression there would be a rebate scheme for petrol purchased.

No revisions to the weight brackets, which I imagine will be necessary before all vehicles eventually go to RUCs.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Most motorways are actually cost positive as far as maintenance is concerned, due to the relatively low maintenance cost relative to the amount of traffic they serve.

Out of curiosity, which projects do you think will be "white elephants"?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All of them. They will increase sprawl, increase emissions and make congestion worse in cities.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't think you understand what a "white elephant" typically means.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think I do, spending tens of billions of dollars on motorways to make traffic worse and increase transport emissions when they need to be reducing is a bad deal. It also starved the rest of the road network of maintenance funds the last time they did this.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A "white elephant" is something that isn't being used, or is too expensive to maintain.

You can always tell the office workers on here, they have no concept of the idea some people need a vehicle to do their job.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Wow, trying to take it personal huh. People who need a vehicle for work would benefit from people who have other options besides driving through fewer vehicles on the road. I have told you this before, but you seem to be trying to claim I'm advocating people not to have vehicles fullstop.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

See, you can repeat the same line as much as you want, but it just doesn't work like that.

The Kapiti coast, for example, has great public transport, especially in and out of Wellington, and traffic was still a nightmare until transmission gully opened.

The Hutt Valley is the same, great public transport available, and yet the motorway still chokes up at rush hour.

Reality just doesn't align with your trite catchphrases, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I love the PT Wellington does have, and am glad it's there but calling it great and implying its all fine and not in need of a significant upgrade is imo an enormous stretch.

There are very regular bus replacements at the moment, they shut down when the tracks heat up, the jville line is massively speed limited, services are infrequent out of commuting times and the whole system is geared to getting people into town. It's not a service many people can rely on for most of their trips and it forces people to drive and create the traffic you complain about. And that's not even getting into the buses.