Martin Glynn: AA Policy Director on the introduction of congestion charging

The AA says the devil will be in the details when it comes to “time of use” charging.  

Transport Minister Simeon Brown says he'll introduce legislation by the end of the year which will see drivers taxed to use some sections of road at certain times.  

AA Policy Director Martin Glynn says while there are benefits, there are also kinks to be worked out.  

He says certain tweaks to the charge will likely be needed.  

Martin Glynn says people going to work or school at set times with no access to public transport need to be catered for. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The legislation is on the way to introduce congestion charging
on our busiest roads. The bill will be drafted and
introduced this year select committee. From early twenty twenty five,
local councils will propose what their ideas are for local roads.
N ZTA will help with the design. The funds supposedly
will be ring fence. They must be reinvested back into

(00:22):
transport in the area. They were taken from the AA
Policy director as Martin Glynn's with us this morning. Martin,
good morning, Good to have you on the show.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Good morning, right.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
So is this just local roads that we're talking about?
Will this actually help motorway traffic?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
No, I don't think it's local roads at all. I
think there's a very high chance that the two scheme
will be on one or more walks leaves.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Okay, so we're not just talking about CBD congestion charging here.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
No, we're not. I mean all the singles we've had
Ryan As. It'll be focused on negwork performance. Auckland City
centers to such a tiny proportion of the traffic it
doesn't it's sort of unable to have it impact on
the whole network. So yeah, we're expecting it'll be beyond
the city center. But we'll have to wait and see
what finally, what Auckland proposes.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Which I guess makes sense. The NZTA is involved, right,
given the motorway networks run by central.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, I think it's a combination of that and the
government wanting to be really sure whatever's proposed is actually
going to shift the dialogue congestion.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
In Europe, Asia the Middle East where they've done this.
It only seems to work in those central areas if
you have good public transport alternatives. Do we have that
on our motorway network, No.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
We don't. Most of the motorway trucks are heading to
the city center, they're all over the place. A public
transport is now pretty good. And then out of the
city center and an Auckland's cases, of course we'll get
a lot better with the city rail length. But generally, ye,
public transport is a unable to provide a motorway trips.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
What's a reasonable charge? Do you reckon? I saw Wayne
Brown saying five bucks a cup of coffee?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah. I think it's a hard question to right to answer,
and I will need to be about that. And they've
automated people, you know, really think about whether they need
to be on the network or not. But they're led up. Yeah,
like you know, five bucks a trip for someone who's
you know, it doesn't work in the office and they're
not not don't have the kind of work from home
offer in a couple of days a week, that's you know,
that could be fifty bucks, that's the way. But yeah,

(02:31):
that's a big amount. And that's one of the things
we're really concerned about that the charges has got to
be affordable because you know, people don't need the alternatives.
You know, they've still got to drive.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Absolutely, Thanks for you Tom this morning. Martin Martin Glenn,
the AA policy director for US. And don't forget that
those changes, I mean that will be a couple of
years before they come into for so for people who
are worried right now.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
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Speaker 1 (02:58):
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