The big flaw in your argument Owen is the fact that over the past few years public transport patronage in Auckland has increased significantly while traffic flows have stagnated. So, yeah, well Aucklanders actually are using public transport in increasing numbers.

Joyce is really getting isolated here with his roads-fetishism. I wonder what he’s going to think of the Regional Land Transport Strategy the ARC is due to release in a few days for consultation. I reckon it’s Auckland’s best transport strategy in 60 years.

More thoughts on the RLTS: http://transportblog.co.nz/2009/10/21/2010-2040-rlts-finally-a-good-transport-strategy/

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>> Most said more public transport.
But when we followed up by saying “would you use it?” They said no.
When asked why they wanted money spent on public transport if they did not intend to use it they replied ‘It would free up the roads so I could drive to my destination faster.”

An interesting result, but: What percentage of respondents provided this countervailing second order answer? Also, by the same token, one can also posit at least some of the ‘anti public transport’ respondents claiming that they want more use of private transport in order to free up room on the bus/train.

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There are two problems with this survey and they should be well known to anyone in the busy.
The first is the public good problem.
If you ask people on the street whether they watched the 6.00 TV news or Big Boobs on Baywatch 99% say they watch the news.
But if you ask what they watched at 6.00 last night they will say “Did you see the size of those boobs on Baywatch.” This was an environmental awareness survey and all the questions were about having the right attitude to the environment and the work of the ARC.
The other problem came through in surveys we did in the sixties. We asked Aucklanders if they wanted money spent on public transport or more roads. Most said more public transport.
But when we followed up by saying “would you use it?” They said no.
When asked why they wanted money spent on public transport if they did not intend to use it they replied ‘It would free up the roads so I could drive to my destination faster.”
It’s called the second order question. No one should based their decision making on a first order question alone.

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It is sad that Auckland is destined to remain tightly tethered to a small city 900km away for decision-making around most of it’s transport decisions. If this were not the case, I’d say some far more normative decision-making would have occured many decades ago and Auckland would have a much better transit infrastructure alongside roading.

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