It seems like yesterday but next year marks 30 years since the Tauranga Harbour Bridge opened. As a seven-year-old on that rainy afternoon I marvelled at being able to walk from the Mount to Tauranga; we really were becoming one big town.
Fast-forward 15 years later, investment in transport hadn’t kept pace with growth. The bus system was basic and it could take up to an hour some days to drive from Papamoa to downtown Tauranga. What lesson can we take from this? I personally don’t want the city caught napping.
More frequent, smaller, electric-driverless buses
By 2048 our population will have grown from 130,000 to 175,000. The backbone of the public transport network will be more frequent, smaller, electric-driverless buses. Bethlehem, The Lakes, Welcome Bay, Mt Maunganui and Papamoa will all be served with express bus services from ‘park and ride’ hubs. However, there still won’t be a light rail system; the population being too small and spread out to support it.
Bad news for parking, good news for cyclists
Downtown parking will cost more and a future council will flog off its parking buildings to a willing buyer because of it. Happy are the city’s cyclists with a well-lit network of paved, off-road cycleways. For the fit and unfit alike, electric bikes will be the most cost-effective method of transportation into town and quick too.
Petrol will cost the same or less as it does today with the global uptake of electric vehicles and there will be more cars than ever. We can’t be distracted by a utopian vision, to prevent ‘carmageddon’ both Council and NZTA need to invest more in tarmac today.
By Cr. Steve Morris, Mount Maunganui-Papamoa Ward
I write for this magazine to provoke and encourage debate which is the essence of local democracy.
