Ensuring environmental sustainability

Related outcomes

NOT RELATED: Assisting ecomomic developmentRELATED: Assisting ecomomic developmentNOT RELATED: Assisting safety and personal securityRELATED: Assisting safety and personal securityNOT RELATED: Improving access and mobilityRELATED: Improving access and mobilityNOT RELATED: Protecting and promoting public healthRELATED: Protecting and promoting public healthNOT RELATED: Ensuring environmental sustainabilityRELATED: Ensuring environmental sustainability

New Zealand Transport Strategy (NZTS)

The government's high level outcomes for land transport were first stated in the New Zealand Transport Strategy (NZTS, 2002) as five objectives. They are

  1. assist economic development
  2. assist safety and personal security
  3. improve access and mobility
  4. protect and promote public health
  5. ensure environmental sustainability.

The NZTS makes it clear that "economic development, social cohesion and environmental improvements must be progressed in parallel" (NZTS, p4). It provides guidance by stating that "ensuring the long-term environmental sustainability of the transport sector will ultimately be a function of two broad approaches:

  • reduced negative impacts on land, air, water, communities and ecosystems.
  • more efficient use of resources, reduced use of non-renewable resources, and a shift over time to renewable resources. (NZTS, p43).

Since the publication of the NZTS, the Ministry of Transport, NZTA and other organisations have provided their interpretation of the objectives and begun contributing to the process of achieving them.

Interpreting the objective

Since the publication of the NZTS, the Ministry of Transport, NZTA and other organisations have provided their interpretation of the objectives and begun contributing to the process of achieving them.

Of particular importance to "ensuring environmental sustainability" are the following:

  1. 'Community Outcomes' are defined under the Local Government Act 2002. The Act requires a consultative process to ensure that the desired outcomes, including environmental sustainability outcomes, belong to the local community rather than the council.
  2. The principles and objectives for land transport are detailed in the NZ Transport Strategy (NZTS, 2002) and reiterated in the Land Transport Management Act (LTMA, 2003).
  3. Transport sector strategic directions (TSSD) are defined by the Ministry of Transport in the TSSD document (2005). The TSSD developed a set of directional statements to enable measurements of New Zealand's progress in moving towards an affordable, safe, responsive and sustainable transport system.
  4. The Government Policy Statement (GPS) expresses Government's priorities for land transport in New Zealand. The first GPS was produced in 2008; an update is currently being prepared.
  5. NZTA's approach to achieving the GPS is stated annually in its Statement of Intent (SOI). In its SOI 2007-2010, NZTA "identified a number of trends that need to be addressed for the sector to progress towards land transport sustainability and safer transport on land". The trend statements of particular relevance to "ensure environmental sustainability" are also the statements for "protecting and promoting public health". They are
    • development of towns and cities, design of networks, and operating rules provide a safe and convenient environment for walking, cycling and other personal travel options.
    • people drive in a way that uses less energy and is safe in the conditions.
    • people use private vehicles less at congested times.
    • the commercial and private motor fleets become more energy efficient, safer and have improved environmental performance.
    • commercial transport operators adopt management practices that promote safety, use less energy and reduce emissions, noise and vibration.

Achieving the objective

The NZTS (NZTS 2002, pages 42-44) acknowledged "in a sector of such complexity, forward planning of the transport system will need to be closely integrated with the need to ensure environmental sustainability goals are addressed". It introduced the means for doing that which include reorienting the Regional Land Transport Strategy (RLTS) process, the National Energy Strategy (NES), the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (NEECS) and the Environment Court.

Monitoring the outcome

NZTA and the Ministry of Transport have been assembling data and publishing it, to help track progress in dealing with the issues and to help decision makers with evidence-based planning wherever possible. Publications include: