Improving access and mobility

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

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 "access and mobility will be enhanced through education, investment and infrastructure" as well as "affordable and reliable transport services", "in order to enhance participation and independence and reduce social exclusion". (NZTS, p26).

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

Of particular importance to "improving access and mobility" 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 access and mobility 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 Zealands 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, the 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 improving "access and mobility" are
    • development patterns of towns and cities reduce the need for people to travel
    • more people choose active modes of transport
    • people use private vehicles less at congested times
    • traffic flows more efficiently with greater reliability on the road network
    • the availability and use of shared transport, passenger transport and services for the transport disadvantaged increases
    • the proportion of business and household expenditure on land transport reduces
    • a higher proportion of freight is carried on rail and coastal shipping.

Achieving the objective

The NZTS (NZTS 2002, pages 27-29) acknowledged that there are a wide variety of issues that will need to be addressed in order to improve access and mobility, as indicated by the following:

  • transport helps New Zealanders access a wide range of work, education, social and recreational activities
  • transport choice is important in allowing New Zealanders to take advantage of social and economic opportunities
  • Transport systems must meet these needs and allow people to exercise a full range of transport choices in a way that is affordable to users and communities
  • effective solutions can vary between communities and groups with society, and by location
  • improving the public transport system is a high priority
  • providing improved pedestrian facilities is an important factor in increasing access to services, especially to local services such as shops or medical centres
  • as transport infrastructure generally has a long life, achieving the right standards of access at the design stage is crucial. Designers, operators and managers will need to review issues such as vehicle design, availability of information and physical access to stations, stops and facilities if the barriers to accessibility are to be removed.

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: