Auckland motorway tolls

Page 1 / 2
ninja_man, Apr 9, 11:55pm

ninja_man, Apr 9, 11:55pm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm!c_id=1&objectid=10797759
Dont we pay enough in petrol and rego costs already!

sfw4, Apr 10, 12:08am
All NZ's Main roads to all be privatised in next 10years. please pay private overseas faceless Corporation to use their roads in NZ

smac, Apr 10, 12:08am
What's your alternative!

galex, Apr 10, 1:38am
How about actually using using the money already collected via Rego, petrol tax etc for the roads!. Or maybe even god forbid the government actually spends OUR money on basic infrastructure instead of wasting it on every new "social initiative" that some loony academic comes up with.
Back to Basics is what we need in all areas of goevernment.

smac, Apr 10, 2:09am
Yeah I guess none of them ever thought of that.

Quick check: do you have any idea how much is spent on NZ highways in a year, versus how much is collected in vehicle licensing, various petrol taxes, RUC etc!

If anyone responsible for sorting these things out ever read any of the various forum postings on this topic they'd string themselves up out of frustration.

elect70, Apr 10, 2:42am
Yep eventually every car will be chipped & pay every timeuse astatehighway., & local councils for secondary roads.

curlcrown, Apr 10, 2:52am
Good bye Len.

nightboss, Apr 10, 3:06am
Not just Len, we need to get rid of Len's nasty little lap dog Cameron Brewer too.
This is another of Cameron's projects, along with breaking the unions at Port of Auckland and hunting down all the Occupy Auckland protesters months after they left Aotea square.

chris_051, Apr 10, 4:31am
While they're at it charge all the selfish tossers in single occupancy cars 5 bux to enter/leave the cbd during peak hr times.

socram, Apr 10, 5:24am
So those of us with one man businesses needing to see more than one client in any part of the metropolis and beyond, in a single day, are selfish tossers! I don't see many people standing at the bus stop at the top of Onewa Rd at 6:15am either - and if you don't think that is a peak time, you obviously never witnessed the stationery traffic at 6:25am through St Mary's Bay, before they added the extra lanes to Vic Park flyover.

andrewph, Apr 10, 10:26am
Dont we pay enough already any isnt Mr Brown and co going on a holiday to China on the prtence of digging up some trade.

r15, Apr 10, 12:10pm
roadworks could be done for a lot less.eg people on dole could be basic level roadworkers.this would make our roads a lot cheaper to maintain and get some people off the dole and save money from both directions

rozendaal, Apr 10, 12:34pm
It is actually paying for the light rail service. I am so glad I don't have to visit or go through Aucks anymore

pollymay, Apr 10, 12:37pm
You deal with the unions on that one. Good luck

richardmayes, Apr 10, 8:27pm
Y'see, the thing is, the world doesn't OWE you a lovely, new, smooth, fast, non-congested motorway network that grows year by year to meet the traffic flows.

All that needs to be paid for somehow.

dr.doolittle, Apr 10, 8:40pm
It's not trade he's looking for. It's 'investors' to own infrastructure & initiatethe tolling system.

socram, Apr 10, 8:49pm
One day, we'll see a Government or Council department actively reducing their own running costs. Yeah, right!

I wonder how many person hours (can't say man hours.) are lost through employees reading the email funnies, searching TradeMe or dating sites, grabaseat, or working at a lesser pace than would be considered normal for the manufacturing or farming sector!

I would hazard a guess, having been involved in measurable productivity improvement for 35 years, that the savings overall would be a minimum of 10% on labour,plus a further 10% on better systems or eliminating a lot of the red tape.

That would adequately fund all roading improvements, rail extensions (catering for a tiny minority) and a better health system.

If you think that I have no experience of local councils, you'd be wrong, as the most boring, lack lustre, soul destroying job, with the worst possible departmental productivity, was a the year I spent working for a large UK City Engineer's Department, as an 18 year old.

mone, Apr 10, 11:06pm
That's why tolls are better. Because only people who use it pay for it.IN other words, your taxes and levies are paying for a national road in whangarei that you never use, that's why it's so high.Now if there was a toll there, they would not need to charge you so much levy and tax, because tolls would pay for most of it.

That's the theory, but in reality, government may still raise taxes.

socram, Apr 11, 5:34am
What about those of us who HAVE to use the motorwaysw (sic) as there is no other route! Why should we pay a toll!

North Shore residents have already paid for the Bridge by a toll.

Judging by what it currently costs for the Northern motorway tunnel toll collection, it doesn't seem to be a very efficient method of raising or collecting cash.I think it costs in the region of $1.80 per trip just to collect the toll.

It merely creates extra employment for non-productive people.

richardmayes, Apr 11, 5:41am
Because the road has to be paid for, and YOU are the one getting a benefit from its existence!

I drive thefrom Karori in to Wellington city every day, so the Auckland North shore motorway is of little use to me. Yet I am paying for it through my taxes.

Why should my taxes pay for a motorway to make your commute better, while I sit in a daily traffic jam on a totally overloaded road that hasn't been upgraded much in about 70 years!

mgmad, Apr 11, 5:42am
But what about those who benefit from a new road, but don't pay the toll for it! Case in point is the Northern toll route, Orewa residents love it and haven't had to pay for it. The linking of SH20 to SH16 will benefit those travelling on the southern to the northern through significantly less traffic volume, if that road is tolled to pay for it they will get benefit at others expense. This is still all of benefit to locals so can be argued that something like a local fuel levy (ie like the one the current government recently scrapped) would be the way to go, but then Auckland has been paying for a lot of the country's roads for some time now, so perhaps some time for a little pay back.

socram, Apr 11, 6:51am
You seem to forget that the north shore motorway as you put it, WAS tolled until the bridge (and approaches) were paid for (by locals) and well beyond, certainly not by people in your area!
Whilst I have every sympathy for anyone stuck in traffic, anywhere, 25% of the population lives around the Auckland region and therefore contributes 25% of the total funding, one way or another, whether by GST, fuel taxes, income tax or any other tax.I really don't see where the notion of people outside of Auckland believe they are subsidising it.

Auckland's major problem is a lack of long term planning, trying to save a dollar today that will cost them $10 just a couple of years later.

Public transport just isn't a viable option for a metropolis that is so vast, as unless you only want to go to the CBD, from south or north of the bridge, it ain't easy.I tried to use their on line planner the other week.To get to a client at factory opening time of 7:15am, I would have had to have left at 7:15pm the night before!

bashfulbro, Apr 11, 8:44am
Residential roads will be busy, all our trucks will be using them if they toll the Motorways that we have already paid for.Lenny Bro can get stuffed.

galex, Apr 11, 12:20pm
Excellent summation.BTW I think you will find most Jaffas are more than happy to have a percentage of their taxes going to pay for roads in Karori or anywhere else. Time for everyone to get over the Jaffa B.S. surely richardmayes and friends realise that if it happens in Auck. it will happen in the rest of the country shortly afterwards!!United we stand, divided we are a pack of arguing nitwits who just open the door for another piece of government theft, be it by National, Labour or whoever. They allthink it is their money, it isn't, it is ours.