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Auckland Council The Auckland Plan

Focus area 7: Develop a sustainable and resilient transport system

​Rohe arotahinga 7: Ki te whakawhanake i tētahi pūnaha ikiiki toitū, mārohirohi hoki

​To make our transport system more sustainable it needs to:
  • be more resilient to a broad range of local and global changes
  • minimise negative impacts on the climate and environment.

Building a resilient transport system delivers a wide range of benefits, such as:

  • improved public health
  • better air and water quality
  • a fairer and more equitable society
  • longer-term social and economic resilience
  • a significant contribution to reducing Auckland’s emissions.

Improving the resilience of our transport system in response to potential long or short-term disruption is also crucial. We face several challenges and opportunities in this regard, particularly from a changing climate and biodiversity loss. These include:

  • disruptions arising from accidents, damage or incidents on the network
  • short and long-term changing weather patterns with:
    • extreme weather
    • increased rainfall intensity
    • extreme heat events
    • sea-level rise
  • shock events like those caused by pandemics, energy, and fuel disruptions
  • continued social, cultural, political, economic and technological changes.

Decisions must be made in a way that reduces the risk of investments being 'caught out' by such changes which can be rapid and sudden.

How this can be done

Our transport system must:

  • rapidly decrease emissions by:
    • reducing the distance people need to travel
    • encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles and micro-mobility,
    • prioritising the use of more sustainable modes of transport, such as walking, cycling and public transport
  • identify parts of the transport network where disruption would have significant and widespread impacts
  • develop appropriate strategies to improve resilience of our transport network
  • reduce the harmful pollutants that enter our waterways and atmosphere
  • reduce the impact of non-permeable surfaces on run-off and the creation of urban heat islands.

To find out more, visit Te Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri: Auckland's Climate Plan and Auckland’s Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway (TERP).

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