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Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP |
We want the tolls gone from Route K, a full investigation into the future mobility of Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty, including light rail, trams, and improved bus services. We will also be holding this blue government accountable for its 2008 promises to widen 15th Ave/Turret Rd.
Transportation means more than just roads. We are now officially the 5th largest city in New Zealand and we need to move people and goods around the city, and to and from New Zealand's largest port.
A growing city needs generational planning, not short-term. We need to learn from the issues facing Auckland, when planning for the Tauranga of the near and distant future. Transportation is crucial. Building more roads has to be part of the planning, but we can't stop there. People need to be able to drive, ride and walk safely. We need to consider: trucks, cars, buses, bikes, trams and trains.
A toll-free Route K will take heavy traffic off Cameron and Cambridge Roads, which will reduce both wear and tear and congestion, as well as offering a more useable connection between the growing industrial and residential areas of Tauriko and the port, making the city and port more easily accessible.
This blue government, in 2008 and again in 2011, promised to upgrade 15th Ave/Turret Road, with double lanes each way, but now are trying to wash their hands of those promises, with the Welcome Bay Underpass a stop-gap fraction of their original promise. It's a shemozzle of stupidity and lunacy, because it's just going to move the bottle neck onto the Turret Road bridge.
New Zealand First puts transport as one of the biggest issues this city faces today. We have the solutions to this growing problem, and look forward to implementing them after the election.