Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland, Aotearoa/ New Zealand’s largest city, with a population of 1,695,200 in 2022, a one-third of the entire population of Aotearoa, suffers from typically significant primate city issues. High car dependency focused on an extensive motorway network, combined with the core of the region being on a narrow isthmus, means many Aucklanders lots of time staring at the brake lights of the car in front of them as they commute. Housing (un)affordability, lack of supply, zoning restrictions, and limited choice, location and quality means that Auckland has the seventh most unaffordable housing market on the planet. And the situation doesn’t look like getting better in 2023. This exacerbates pre-existing transport issues with extensive greenfields growth on the urban periphery not washing its own face financially, requiring extensive public funding support.
At the same time, transport makes up around 39% of Aotearoa’s CO2 emissions. Aotearoa needs to reduce Vehicle Kilometres Travelled (VKT) by 20% by 2035 as an interim step to meet our statutory target of net zero carbon by 2050. The biggest single impact possible in the short-term is in Aotearoa’s largest cities, and Auckland is much larger than all of Aotearoa’s other large cities combined. Public transport, supported by all ages and abilities walking and cycling networks to town centres, schools and rapid and frequent transit, has a key role in addressing Aotearoa’s climate crisis.
