Commuting to Uni? Good luck with that

There's a certain hypocrisy in government and council agencies pushing environmental responsibility onto the individual. Without taking their own measures for regulation, infrastructure, and accessibility, this Labour-led Government seems to want us all to be better. 

Transport wise, Pōneke Wellington and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland have been in shambles for decades. Instead of investing in the transport that would be long lasting sustainable infrastructure, we've seen Labour and National Governments do the bare minimum. They've mostly focused on highways. Sick. We need roads, but if all the funding is going into gas guzzling car transport, funding gets cut for more sustainable options. Last week the Government released some pretty extraordinary numbers. The NZ Transport Agency will overspend approximately $500,000,000 more on state highways than the Government said they could. The Ministry for Transport didn't really seem to mind, but that's a problem. It will likely mean that much less money is available for rapid transit, road safety, walking and cycling improvements. 

Massive did a quick FB poll of current Massey students. It wasn’t difficult to see why so many of choose to own our own cars, but what campus you go to makes all the difference. Petrol is somewhat cheaper than a weekly 5x commute on a bus in Wellington. Auckland students, I’m sorry your regional petrol tax is biting you in the arse, but at least your bus fares are a far lot cheaper than the sad artsy kids down here in Wellington. Oh, and you get free parking! I’m afraid the College of Creative Art (CoCA) students who’re paying a dollar an hour might go on strike once this piece goes to publish.  

Carpooling is one way that students are saving their prized dollars. Most Massive staff said they used a car to travel around their cities. Pitching in for gas money, without being the one responsible for the insurance, rego and WOF bills definitely makes transport easier.  

Most Wellington-based students said they usually walked to and from their campus, but walking distance is limited to Central City. For everywhere else, you need some form of transport. In Te Papaioea Palmerston North, buses are free for you lucky shits. Your campus is huge though, so I guess that makes up for it. 

If the Albany campus shuttle is gonna make you late, you’re left with one option – to leg it to your next class before the Auckland weather switches up on you yet again. Weather has an impact; no one likes turning up to tutorials soaked from the walk; that Welly wind stops for no one. E-scooters or buses are (sometimes) a more comfortable option, but then you have to accommodate for time, distance from bus stops/where a fresher last left a scooter, and cost. Personally, I’ve found that an Uber costs about as much as Jump scooter (per km). So why wouldn’t you just get someone else to drive you around? Protected from the weather but not the stench of chunny sunk into the seats; overall it’s a solid way to get to where you need to go.  

Plus, buses just aren’t available at the times most of us are starting and finishing work. Hospo shifts, in particular, run odd hours of the morning and night, so personal safety is definitively a deciding factor. There just aren’t that many safe and affordable ways to travel in major cities.  

Another thing that came up was that creative students in particular need access to their own vehicle. Massive spoke to one recent graduate of CoCA who has been looking for work, who said “in the gig economy, having a car and a license is basically a necessity”. They noted the need for space was a big one, “buses don’t let you carry big stuff”. Equipment for videography, photography, the visual arts, and even music creation is hefty.  

I don't have a lot of the answers, but I did some research and the Green Party probably had the most progressive plan this last election. Their Future for Transport policy would've made public transport a breeze. For all public transport, the Greens proposed half price for students and only for their first eight trips in a week. The rest would be free. Fuck me, that’s a bargain better than any meal deal for butter chicken after a night out. They also came up with one card for all public transport, and you’d get access to electric car share, e-bike subscriptions and e-scooters in all the main cities. Soz Palmy.  

These proposals would have gone a long way by making it easier and cheaper for people, and especially poor as shit students, to make the more sustainable choice. Sadly, for us all, Labour didn’t need the Greens to form a government so we lucked out on these changes. As the Greens' spokesperson for Transport, Julie Anne Genter made it clear how much of a difference there is between the way Greens' do things vs Labour. In a tweet, she noted: "Just the additional spending on motorway blowouts over three years is more than twice the entire budget for walking and cycling. It’s so unbalanced. The number of cars on these particular stretches of road is a tiny percentage of daily traffic." 

Where does that leave Aotearoa for actually making good on all our climate action promises? Weren’t we supposed to do a whole lot more to prevent climate change? Julie Anne Genter had some pretty bold transport plans as the Associate Minister for Transport in the last Government. Unfortunately, a lot of ‘em were curbed. The Greens did have a couple of wins in the pre-Covid times though, including largest ever investment in sustainable transport, with $4.2 billion to be invested across public transport, metro rail, and walking and cycling. The budget for this government seemed to cut down this investment drastically, with only a "$1.1 billion capital invested in improving transport across New Zealand, including replacing ageing ferries and locomotives".   

Councils and the Government aren’t funding or providing the infrastructure for us to undertake a sustainable course of action. The slow and inaccessible public buses, the expensive trains, the physical safety risk for pedestrians and cyclists, it all makes it pretty fucking difficult to not want a car. The people in power have pushed the responsibility onto the public instead. Need to drive? Here's exorbitant fuel costs and absolute gridlock traffic! Can't drive? Here's a bus that will always make you late for class. Live outside of the CBD? Here's a train that will cost a pretty penny. Wanna save money? Tough luck pal. At least we have more than enough bike racks, right guys? Thanks Massey.