No sign of Auckland’s congestion woes improving - AA
Auckland’s congestion hit record highs in months free from Covid restrictions last year, despite a slight decline in the city’s population.
That’s the key finding from the AA’s Auckland Congestion Report 2021, which provides an annual review of Auckland’s congestion trends based on Google travel-time data.
“While most months in 2021 were impacted by Covid-related restrictions, those that weren’t saw significant growth in congestion compared to previous years,” Sarah Geard, Senior Policy Advisor says. “This was quite a surprise as last year also saw Auckland’s overall population drop for the first time ever.”
“Peak hour motorway users would have really felt the pinch around the middle of last year. If we look to June – a month that wasn’t affected by Covid-related restrictions – typical morning peak travel times on the motorway network were the highest we’ve seen for June since we started monitoring in 2017.”
The AA expects that a key factor behind this result is that, while Auckland’s total population declined, there were big differences in population change across the region.
“While the population of central and inner areas fell in 2021, outer areas have continued to experience growth – and we know that typically the further people live from Auckland’s city centre, the greater the likelihood that they travel to work by car and the longer their commute,” Sarah continues. “We expect this is contributing to Auckland’s congestion growth.”
“We also expect that lower-than-usual public transport patronage may be translating into increased car trips but, at the same time, more people are also working from home on an ongoing basis so it’s still unclear how big an impact this is having on congestion.”
The AA is renewing calls for transport decision makers to make tackling congestion a key goal, like improving safety and cutting emissions. Significant ongoing investment needs to be made across all transport modes to keep Auckland moving.
“Auckland Transport’s forecasts are for vehicle kilometres travelled to continue to grow over the next decade. Failing to provide effectively for this will inevitably mean worse congestion, which comes at a major cost to Aucklanders, the economy and the environment,” Sarah adds.
27 May 2022
No sign of Auckland’s congestion woes improving - AA
Auckland’s congestion hit record highs in months free from Covid restrictions last year, despite a slight decline in the city’s population.
That’s the key finding from the AA’s Auckland Congestion Report 2021, which provides an annual review of Auckland’s congestion trends based on Google travel-time data.
“While most months in 2021 were impacted by Covid-related restrictions, those that weren’t saw significant growth in congestion compared to previous years,” Sarah Geard, Senior Policy Advisor says. “This was quite a surprise as last year also saw Auckland’s overall population drop for the first time ever.”
“Peak hour motorway users would have really felt the pinch around the middle of last year. If we look to June – a month that wasn’t affected by Covid-related restrictions – typical morning peak travel times on the motorway network were the highest we’ve seen for June since we started monitoring in 2017.”
The AA expects that a key factor behind this result is that, while Auckland’s total population declined, there were big differences in population change across the region.
“While the population of central and inner areas fell in 2021, outer areas have continued to experience growth – and we know that typically the further people live from Auckland’s city centre, the greater the likelihood that they travel to work by car and the longer their commute,” Sarah continues. “We expect this is contributing to Auckland’s congestion growth.”
“We also expect that lower-than-usual public transport patronage may be translating into increased car trips but, at the same time, more people are also working from home on an ongoing basis so it’s still unclear how big an impact this is having on congestion.”
The AA is renewing calls for transport decision makers to make tackling congestion a key goal, like improving safety and cutting emissions. Significant ongoing investment needs to be made across all transport modes to keep Auckland moving.
“Auckland Transport’s forecasts are for vehicle kilometres travelled to continue to grow over the next decade. Failing to provide effectively for this will inevitably mean worse congestion, which comes at a major cost to Aucklanders, the economy and the environment,” Sarah adds.