Substantially improving Auckland’s rapid transit options isn't enough to reduce kilometres travelled by private vehicles, according to a study exploring the impact of rapid transit on congestion, vehicle use, wages, and city size.
Business School academics Dr Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy and Dr James Allan Jones model improvements to public transport, such as the construction of a new rapid transit line, in their forthcoming paper titled Mode Choice and the Effects of Rapid Transit Improvements on Private Vehicle Use and Urban Development.
Their model seeks to reconcile evidence that overall driving tends to decrease in European cities following an improvement in public transport, but tends to increase in American ones.
They show that despite rapid transit improvements, total kilometres travelled by private vehicles will increase if a city is highly congested or the public transit network is underdeveloped.
The researchers use their model to show that building an additional rapid transit line in Auckland would likely result in an increase in vehicle kilometres travelled as the city grows in response to the improved transportation network.
To see a meaningful reduction in the distance travelled by commuters in private vehicles, Dr Jones says increases in rapid transit options, such as rail or subways, could be paired with a congestion charge.
“Our findings underscore the need for policy coordination for cities such as Auckland to meet their emissions and energy reduction targets,” says Jones. “Improvements to public transit have a lot of benefits for a city, unfortunately reducing total driving is unlikely to be one of them if undertaken in isolation."
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