Representative of the people? Or pretend transport expert?

The new coalition government released their draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport on Monday.

In my humble opinion, it’s a hot sticky mess. These documents are always confusing, but this one takes it to a whole new level of confusion.

For a start it seems to have been typed on a home computer. It uses the default Microsoft Word fonts rather than the standard Ministry of Transport template, there’s been no graphic design, it’s riddled with spelling mistakes and extra spaces and commas in places they don’t belong, and the language is imprecise and unusually emotive. It almost feels like Transport Minister Simeon Brown has hurriedly typed something up the night before it was due and published it himself without having time to get any advice from transport officials, or even just a good proofread.

And as you read the content, it doesn’t get any better. The document itself is full of contradictions that make it hard to know what it is he’s trying to say. Things like:

• He talks about wanting value for money, and says waka Kotahi are to build only the projects with the highest economic returns. But then he tells them he doesn’t want to see them building many cycleways, which typically have high economic returns, and instead they have to focus on building motorways, which typically have low economic returns.
• He says the government want the road toll to come down, and directs Waka Kotahi to focus investment on the safety interventions that will have the greatest impact on reducing it. But then he says they’re not allowed to reduce speeds, and in fact he wants them to increase speeds. But we know that reducing speeds is the thing that will have the greatest impact for the lowest cost.
• He talks a lot about improving reliability of trip times. But then tells Waka Kotahi they’re not allowed to build any bus lanes, cycleways or footpaths, and he reduces public transport budgets. Those things are the way to improve trip time reliability in urban centres.
• He says the government are committed to reducing emissions, but then directs Waka Kotahi to do a bunch of things that will increase transport emissions.

I foresee the transport industry spending the next three years arguing about how it is supposed to deliver on these. Improve value for money while simultaneously building the worst value-for-money projects. Reduce the road toll while increasing speeds which will increase the road toll. Improve trip reliability while doing all the things that will worsen trip reliability. Both increase and reduce emissions at the same time. Theologians argue that even an omnipotent God can’t do things that are logically impossible. Do we think the country’s transport industry can?

Having said all that, this is not a problem unique to Simeon Brown or National. Every GPS I’ve seen has had the same problem to some degree. The problem is with our transport funding system, not Simeon.

In my opinion we ask way too much technical expertise of our elected representatives. They are just that – elected representatives. They are not subject matter experts and should not be called upon to try and become experts in such a short space of time. Transport systems are complex. Incredibly complex. I’ve been studying them my entire life and am still learning. Writing a GPS to the level of detail that they get written these days requires a member of the public with no qualifications or work experience in the transport sector, to try and become a transport expert in a matter of months. It shouldn’t be a surprise when these documents don’t really make any sense.

So what’s the solution?

I think elected representatives should stick to telling the industry the views of the people who they represent: what they want and how much money they are willing to pay to get it. That’s it. Just leave it that, don’t then try to justify those ideas with wonky logic. The fact voters want these things is the only justification an elected member should need.

Life would be so much simpler for the industry if Simeon Brown just said to Waka Kotahi:

• Our voters want to be able to drive fast everywhere, so make it happen. They don’t care about the road toll.
• They want new motorways everywhere so hurry up and build them. They don’t care if they are good value for money or not.
• They don’t want cycleways so don’t build any. They don’t care about the economic case for them so don’t even bother calculating it.
• They don’t care about reducing transport emissions so stop taking that into account in your decision making.

If politicians were this honest, everything would get done a whole lot quicker. Everyone in the industry would be crystal-clear on what they are expected to do. Practitioners may not like it but that’s irrelevant, we live in a democracy and they would just need to get pulled into line.

When an elected member tries to justify the views of the voters with wonky reasoning that doesn’t make sense, it muddies the waters and puts doubt into practioners’ minds about what it is we are being asked to do. Is the government asking us to reduce the road toll or not? Depending on how you interpret the GPS, the answer might be yes or no. Do they want us to build the projects with the highest value for money (cycleways) or the lowest (motorways)? Again depending on how you interpret the GPS it may be either answer. Are we supposed to be thinking about transport emissions or ignoring them? I’m not sure.

Of course we all know the politicians would never say these statements or they’d be voted out in a heartbeat. As such, my money’s on another three years of arguments, reports, consultants, business cases, and hearings trying to figure out how we can possibly deliver what is logically impossible. And probably not a lot of action.