Yes – so apparently this blog thinks it is better for people to pay the same to use empty roads offpeak as to use congested roads at peak times. Tired old Soviet style road management, that even Ken Livingstone rejected in London, Stockholm has rejected, as has Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Japan and South Korea, all with thriving toll road networks.

There is an old saying that i think started in the construction industry, but applies to lots of other areas as well (especially public transport):

Fast, Cheap, Good… pick any two.

Indeed, BeShakey. But it is necessary to give people some real choices first. If their only realistic choice is to drive (because the trip takes 160m by public transport as opposed to 40m to drive) then there really isn’t any realistic choice anyway.

Travel time is work and leisure time wasted – unless you are unemployed (but few are now), in which case you’ll be headed off to job prospects overseas.

But for those of us who have to travel for work, there should be fast and cheap public transport into Auckland Airport. My own experince is that I have to leave home 90m before check-in time if I use public transport. By car I can do it in 30m.

That is ridiculous, and sends all the wrong signals to people who have to commute inter-city or internationally in their employment.

Extend the Onehunga rail spur line that is being recommissioned both North-west to join the Western line at Avondale, and South to the airport and then East to join the Southern line at Puhinui and you’ll take so much traffic off the roads that there would be no demand for the Waterview connection either. Most people who drive that route do so only because it takes forever to do it by public transport.