ln New Zealand about 3% of the trips undertaken by taxpayers are on public transport. The current Government however plans to spend about 30% of the transport budget for the next 10 years on public transport. The Labour coalition do not like cars or suburbia and and are engaged in a massive social engineering effort to densify cities and get people to bike or walk to work.
This massive spending will not reduce congestion as cars are inherently cheaper and more flexible. Trains world wide are 90% subsidised and buses about 60%. Very few low income workers actually uses public transport as it is inflexible.
Public transport loses billions and will not be greener than the low emission and electric vehicles of the future. “Smart Growth” high density cities inflate house prices and create large amounts of greenhouse gases from cars stuck in traffic and air conditioned, concrete apartments.
At Quarter Acre we believe that expanding the city with better roading is the answer with lower traffic densities, higher safety rates and greener outcomes.