The Wellington Regional Council adopted its current Regional Land Transport Strategy in September 1999. This was the culmination of many years' work and provided the strategic framework for land transport infrastructure investment in the region for the short and medium term future. The strategy was developed with the objectives of improving travel accessibility and economic activity, travel safety, being affordable and economically efficient and making a positive environmental impact. The strategy had identified projects and measures in a broad sense and had enunciated some clear principles on how such projects and measures could be integrated into a coherent strategy. How is this strategic framework going to be translated into tangible projects and measures that contribute to these same objectives? This paper outlines an approach that expands the broad strategy into more detailed corridor plans. The corridor plans are multi-modal and include road pricing and land use measures. The corridor plans provide more detail to the projects both in terms of design and sequencing and integrate back up to a coherent strategy. The first of the corridor plans examined the possibility of bringing forward a tolled highway in the context of upgrading other parts of the road network and significantly upgrading a parallel rail service. This involved an interesting exercise of determining the community's willingness to pay for this highway and how the wider corridor plan contributed to the broader objectives of the Regional Land Transport Strategy. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E205861.
Abstract