HOME   >   OUR MPS   >   MARTIN GALLAGHER   >   SPEECHES

NZ Parking Association
Wednesday 17 October 2001
Christchurch

THE FUTURE DIRECTION OF TRANSPORT


Introduction

Kia ora, good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

The Minister of Transport Hon Mark Gosche asked me to pass on his apologies for being unable to be with you today. He wishes you well in your discussions and looks forward to learning about the outcomes of your conference.

This is the second time I have addressed your conference. As Chair of the Local Government and Environment Select Committee, I have an interest in transport issues, for as you know local authorities are major players in the transport sector.

PARKING ENFORCEMENT

Parking enforcement is an important local authority function. While no-one likes getting a parking ticket and those of you who have been on the sharp end of enforcement have had to put up with grumbles – and worse – from the motoring public, the fact remains that without effective enforcement, there would be traffic chaos in our towns and cities.

As the central business districts of our main centres become more congested, parking controls are an increasingly important tool for managing traffic. Well enforced short term parking limits ensure a good turnover of vehicles in high demand areas. That is important to retailers, who want to see that customers have good access to their businesses.

Robust controls in the major urban centres can also help discourage car commuting and encourage the use of other forms of transport.

We must also not forget the important work done by enforcement officers in checking that warrants of fitness are up to date and other safety requirements are complied with.

And of course revenue from parking meters is an important source of income.

Your organisation has an important responsibility in representing the interests of parking managers and enforcement officers; disseminating and sharing knowledge on new techniques and new technology to the membership; and helping to maintain quality and standards in parking enforcement.

CURRENT TRANSPORT ISSUES

What I’d like to do on the Minister’s behalf is bring you up to date on a range of issues facing the New Zealand transport system, in particular some issues of interest to those involved in parking enforcement.

Discussions on many of these matters are continuing which means I’m limited in what I can say to you but I can share with you some general points.

First let me re-emphasise something the Minister has said on more than one occasion – our land transport policies do not aim at fundamental restructuring of the system. Local authorities have made it abundantly clear that there should be no “change for change’s sake” and we agree with that.

Any changes the Government makes will be pragmatic and incremental. And they will be flexible so that needs of different communities and regions are met. What is good for Invercargill is not necessarily good for Auckland and vice versa.

A NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORT STRATEGY

The Government’s transport policy must clearly integrate social, environmental and economic issues.

To achieve this, we must take a strategic approach to transport policy and, as you know, the Government is now working on a New Zealand Transport Strategy. We expect it will be released early next year. I’d like to tell you now about some of the land transport issues which we can expect that strategy to include.

TRANSPORT ISSUES

Our roads daily demonstrate their inadequacy and we all bear the cost, no matter where the problem is.

Our traffic has grown by four per cent a year for the past 10 years and, at the present rate, will double in 18 years. Congestion in Auckland is costing us nearly a billion dollars a year and that’s without taking into account the impact of increased air pollution from idling engines.

Major changes in economic activity, such as the shift from sheep to dairy in Southland and Canterbury, increased forestry in Marlborough and growing tourism in a number of regions are putting huge pressures on our roads.

The fact is that investment is not keeping pace with our infrastructure needs.

The Minister has been working on policies that would generate additional funding, or spread the funding load over time. This includes, for example, looking at tolling arrangements possibly involving public/private partnerships.

The Minister will also be asking his colleagues to consider putting passenger transport capital and operational funding on a clearer long-term basis in the National Roads Fund. This might include, for instance, a separate passenger transport output within the Fund, and specific arrangements for cycling and pedestrians.

Paramount in all this, of course, is safety and the Government is investing more on road safety education than ever before, nearly doubling the amount spent after nearly six years of no increase at all.

The first of the 225 extra police officers – the new Highway Patrol – began working exclusively on road safety late last year. We have almost doubled the amount of money going to community driver education initiatives. The Police are carrying out more breath testing campaigns, especially in rural areas, and you will have heard that the ACC has provided nine new booze buses.

The Police have also adopted a strict 10 km/h tolerance for speed limit enforcement, and are getting tough on those who ignore seat belt requirements.

The number of disqualified and unlicensed drivers on the road is going down. The LTSA advises that the number of disqualified and unlicensed drivers caught behind the wheel is down 30% on two years ago, when tough new road safety laws were introduced. In 1999, Police were empowered to impound vehicles driven by disqualified and unlicensed drivers and people whose licences have been suspended. Since 1998, before impoundment was introduced, the number of road deaths attributed to disqualified and unlicensed drivers has fallen from 50 to 32 in 2000 - a significant road safety benefit.

However, the Police are still impounding more than 1,100 vehicles per month. Clearly the road safety message has still not got through to some members of the community. I am confident the Highway Patrol will be able to help us send a pretty strong signal.

The impoundment regime has brought another, unexpected benefit. Many impounded vehicles are worth less than the towing and storage charges – about $350. For this reason these vehicles are never reclaimed. Most unclaimed vehicles are unsaleable and unroadworthy and are eventually sent to the crushing plant. In this way hundreds if not thousands of dangerous vehicles have been permanently removed from the road.

ISSUES FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES

I’d like now to talk about issues which I know are of special concern to local authorities and their enforcement staff in particular – illegal street racing, enforcement of transit lanes, disposal of abandoned vehicles and the road safety problems caused by utility structures in the road reserve.

Illegal street racing
On Friday and Saturday nights, some of our suburban streets are becoming unofficial racetracks and burnout pads. For those of you who don’t know what a “burnout” is – it involves spinning the wheels of a car until tyres get so hot they explode. Sometimes diesel or liquid soap is poured on the road to help the wheels spin. Often cars involved in these stunts have been illegally modified and can be quite unsafe.

The boy racer problem is a major source of community concern in my home town of Hamilton but it is an issue in all the main centres.

As you well know, burnouts and drag races damage the roads, disturb the peace and encourage poor attitudes to road safety. Also, these events attract large crowds of young people, some of whom tend to engage in vandalism and other criminal activities while watching the events.

Councils have been working with Police to control the problem. Councils have passed bylaws but these have not always been effective. Some are providing off-road facilities where young people can ‘burnout’ under supervision. These are a good idea but there is still a hard core who enjoy the thrill of breaking the law and playing cat and mouse with the Police.

Despite the efforts of councils and the Police, illegal street racing continues and we are taking this problem seriously. Some Councils have written to the Minister of Transport seeking legislation empowering the Police to impound vehicles. My good colleague Clayton Cosgrove MP for Waimakariri and myself have prepared a draft Member’s Bill to deal to this problem. The Bill would allow Police to impound, at the roadside, vehicles used in street racing and other dangerous activities defined in the Bill. It would also provide for the Courts to confiscate and sell vehicles in certain circumstances.

Late last month the Labour Party Caucus approved the Bill to be lodged in the formal Parliamentary process.

Enforcement of High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes
Another issue is the illegal use by single-occupant cars of bus lanes and high occupancy vehicle lanes – also known as transit lanes. These are an important tool in making travel by bus or car pool a more attractive option. Illegal use of transit lanes undermines their effectiveness.

Studies have found that a high level of enforcement is needed to suppress illegal use of transit lanes. Unfortunately the Police resources are limited and they are obliged to give priority to road safety enforcement. Auckland local authorities in particular have told us they are keen to take over responsibility for the job.

As you may be aware, no legislative change is required to allow this to happen. The Commissioner of Police may appoint any person to enforce “transport legislation” which could include a bylaw implementing a high occupancy vehicle lane.

However, before appointing an enforcement officer the Commissioner has to be satisfied that the person has the necessary qualifications and experience. This is a critical point: people enforcing transit lanes will have a high level of contact with the public in possibly tense situations. They will need good inter-personal skills and proper training in dealing with irate and possibly aggressive drivers.

While the Commissioner is perfectly free to make appointments now, there would be benefits in local authorities working together with the Police and other stakeholders on establishing national protocols for the appointment of transit lane enforcement officers. This is an area where the New Zealand Parking Association could make a valuable contribution and I encourage you to get involved, if you aren’t already.

Work in Progress
Another concern for local authorities is abandoned vehicles. Low prices of older cars and the increasing cost of keeping them up to standard have significantly reduced their value. Some owners prefer to abandon them rather than pay to have them disposed of legally and this imposes a cost on local authorities. Local Government New Zealand believes the existing procedures for dealing with abandoned vehicles are slow and unnecessarily complex.

I understand the Minister of Transport proposes to ask officials to revisit these procedures to see how they can be streamlined. One option might be to reduce the amount of time Councils have to store cars before they can dispose of them.

Local Government New Zealand has also expressed concern about the activities of utility companies on roads. These activities are increasing with the growth in telecommunications and they affect road safety.

Of particular concern are hazards such as poles and cabinets at the roadside. The question is – where else can they go? There is also the problem of utility trenches in roads – not only do they cause disruption to traffic but they also weaken the structure of the roadway itself, leading to increased maintenance costs for the local authority.

The challenge for policy makers in dealing with this problem is to balance the social cost of roads being used as a utility corridor against the benefits which utility infrastructure delivers to communities. This is an extremely complex exercise and I do not expect a solution in the short term. But we will try.

CONCLUSION

There is a lot to do. This Government wants to work with all key interest groups to make some real progress in transport and that means we have to talk to each other.

Finally, as I mentioned at the beginning, parking enforcement has an important role in road safety and traffic management. I have been asked to acknowledge the contribution of 4 of your life members and I am pleased to do so - Trevor Lewis of Dunedin, Roger Meyrick of Hamilton, Joy Hamer of Taupo and Barry Cornford of Wanganui - thank you very much.

And thank you all and best wishes for the rest of your conference.

 

• OUR MPs | 
• FEATURES | 
• LATEST NEWS | 
• SPEECHES | 
• PORTFOLIOS | 
• POLICY | 
• MULTIMEDIA | 
• SEARCH | 
• CONTACT US