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State of the Environment Environment New Zealand 2007 - Summary Online version Section two: Pressures on the environment
Section two: Pressures on the environment
Transport
New Zealanders value their mobility. We want to be able to get from A to B easily, and as quickly and safely as possible. We rely on transport daily to get to work, school, and to take part in leisure activities. In the holidays, we often travel for hundreds of kilometres to reach our destination.
Transport underpins New Zealand’s social and economic well-being by enabling the movement of people and goods, and providing connections to international markets.
New Zealand’s transport system has been shaped by our geography and demography: we have small pockets of population and occupy a large and elongated land area. Road transport – most of it by passenger cars – has become the central element of New Zealand’s transport system.
In recent years, New Zealanders have become increasingly reliant on road transport. At approximately 0.7 vehicles per person – the fifth-highest rate of vehicle ownership among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – we had three times as many vehicles in 2005as we did in the 1950s. Our vehicles (and their engines) have also been getting larger and older, and we are driving them further than we did in the past.
The extensive use of cars and trucks in New Zealand is putting pressure on the environment and human health. The use of fossil fuels creates exhaust emissions that affect air quality; run-off from roads affects water quality; greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of transport fuels contribute to climate change; and end-of-life oil, tyres and vehicles require careful disposal.
Travelling further
The total number of vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) on New Zealand roads is estimated to have more than doubled between 1980 and 2000, from 18.52 to 37.33 billion kilometres, indicating that New Zealanders are becoming increasingly mobile. In 2006, New Zealanders travelled over 39.2 billion vehicle kilometres.
The passenger car is the largest contributor to vehicle kilometres travelled, contributing 84 per cent of kilometres travelled in 2006. Together, light and heavy commercial vehicles, buses, and motorcycles accounted for the remaining 16 percent of kilometres travelled.
The number of vehicle kilometres travelled in New Zealand has long shown an uninterrupted increase, but this trend was broken in 2006, when a slight decrease in total vehicle kilometres travelled was recorded across all vehicle types.
An ageing fleet
On average, the vehicles on our roads are getting older. In particular, the age of a vehicle provides an indication of its overall efficiency and whether it is likely to have technology to control its exhaust emissions. Older vehicles are generally less fuel efficient – and therefore emit more greenhouse gases per kilometre travelled – and are more polluting (particularly with regard to small particles known as PM10 particulates) than newer vehicles. This issue is discussed further in the Air section.
The average age of the New Zealand light vehicle fleet has increased in recent years and, in 2006, stood at 12.4 years, compared with 11.9 years in 2000. In 2006, 61 per cent of New Zealand’s vehicle fleet was over 10 years old, up from 57 per cent in 2001.
Figure 2.2 shows that, in 2006, the average vehicle kilometres travelled per vehicle decreased as the age of the vehicle increased, that is, we drive our newer vehicles further than our older ones. Vehicles in the 0–4 year age class, which make up 17 per cent of the fleet (just over 530,000 vehicles), contributed the highest average vehicle kilometres travelled of 17,271 kilometres per vehicle. This is partly because of the rapid turnover of vehicles in business and rental fleets in this age bracket. Vehicles which were 20 years of older, travelled the lowest average kilometres of all vehicle classes, at 6,515 kilometres.
Figure 2.2: Average vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) per vehicle and total number of vehicles in each age class, 2006
See figure at its full size (including text description).Government action on transport
New Zealand Transport Strategy
The New Zealand Transport Strategy is the strategic framework for achieving the vision that ‘by 2010 New Zealand will have an affordable, integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable transport system’.
National Walking and Cycling Strategy
In February 2005, the Government launched a national strategy to encourage walking and cycling, Getting There – On Foot, By Cycle. To coincide with the strategy, an additional $1.15 million in funding was made available for walking and cycling initiatives.
Fuel $aver website
The Fuel $aver website (www.fuelsaver.govt.nz) was launched in 2006. The website provides up-to-date information about the fuel efficiency of vehicles sold in New Zealand. This information lets consumers assess different vehicles on the basis of fuel consumption.
Bigger engines and better fuel
The size of a vehicle’s engine influences the amount of fuel the vehicle uses. In general, the smaller the engine, the less fuel it uses. The average engine size of vehicles on New Zealand roads has increased since 1997, with the average engine size of light vehicles climbing from approximately 2 litres in 2000 to just over 2.2 litres six years later.
This change partly reflects the fact that New Zealand is a ‘technology taker’, which means we have to import our vehicles, and the engine size of the vehicles we import from overseas is getting larger. It also reflects lower vehicle prices: as the average price of vehicles has fallen, we have been able to afford larger vehicles.
The quality of New Zealand fuels has improved since 1997. Since 2001, there has been a 60-fold reduction in the sulphur content of diesel fuel, and further reductions are expected by 2009. The reduction in the sulphur content of diesel ensures the fuel is suitable for use in the newer, low-emission diesel vehicles that are being imported into New Zealand.
Changes to our fuels continue with the uptake of biofuels (see box ‘Biofuels Sales Obligation’) and increasing numbers of hybrid vehicles. In the future, electricity is likely to become a more significant transport fuel, as electric cars become a more common feature on our roads.
Biofuels Sales Obligation
A Biofuels Sales Obligation was announced in 2006. It requires companies that sell petrol or diesel in New Zealand to also sell biofuels. The amount of biofuels they will have to sell will be a percentage of their total combined petrol and diesel sales each year, measured in petajoules and based on the volumetric energy content of each fuel. The amount has been set at a minimum of 0.53 per cent for year 1 (2008) and will increase each subsequent year. By 2012, at least 3.4 per cent of all fuel that oil companies sell in New Zealand will have to be biofuels.
Taking buses and trains
Although public transport usage is generally low in New Zealand when compared with other modes of transport, the number of people choosing to use public transport is growing. Between 1999 and 2006, the number of passenger boardings on bus, rail, and ferry services increased by 68 per cent in Christchurch, 43 per cent in Auckland, and 23 per cent in Wellington. On average, passenger boardings increased across the country by 45 per cent. This increase in the use of public transport replaced an estimated 49 million car trips.
Transport planning by regional councils and central government has increasingly recognised the impact of transportation on the environment. More emphasis is being given to the role of public transport, encouraging people to walk or cycle, designing our urban spaces to minimise the need for motorised forms of transport, and encouraging people to buy and use more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Public transport offers benefits to the environment in the form of less air pollution, lower fuel consumption, and less traffic congestion compared with private transport.
Source: Ministry for the Environment.
Local action on sustainable transport
Walking school buses
Walking school buses have been established in communities throughout New Zealand to give children a safe and sustainable way to travel to school and back. Groups of families form a roster to take turns walking the families’ children to school. A walking school bus usually comprises several families, with one parent ‘driving’ up to eight children, either from the ‘driver’s’ house or by ‘picking up’ children on the way to school.
Cycle Safe Christchurch
Cycle Safe Christchurch is a cycle safety education programme targeting year 6 pupils in Christchurch primary schools. Land Transport New Zealand and the Christchurch City Council fund the programme. The programme aims to enable children to cycle more safely to and from school by increasing their competency and confidence levels, and to encourage parents to let their children cycle.
‘Park and ride’ bus stations
Poor accessibility to public transport can inhibit people’s use of public transport. To help overcome this, two ‘park and ride’ bus stations have been created in Auckland. People who commute by bus from North Shore City to Auckland City can drive to the ‘park and ride’ bus stations at Constellation and Albany, park their cars, and board an express bus to Auckland City. Parking is free, so people have an incentive to leave their car at the bus stop and take the bus, instead of driving across the Auckland Harbour Bridge and adding to traffic congestion.
Walking school buses are a safe and sustainable way to travel to and from school.
Source: Courtesy of Land Transport New Zealand.
The road ahead
The environmental impacts of our growing mobility (fossil fuel use, air pollution, congestion, noise, and greenhouse gas emissions) reinforce work underway to enhance the sustainability of New Zealand's transport system.
Global measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport – a major contributor to New Zealand’s emissions, and one of our fastest growing emissions sectors – are likely to give added momentum to initiatives to improve fuel efficiency and increase the use of biofuels and alternative means of powering vehicles (such as electricity).
Such measures alone, however, are unlikely to be enough if we continue to buy more and bigger vehicles and drive them further. Public transport and other measures, such as more sustainable urban planning, are likely to play a larger role in future.
Cycling is a sustainable mode of transport with benefits for health and fitness.
Source: Ministry for the Environment.
