It's great that the government has announced a reduction in public transport fares, given how critical mode shift is for addressing climate emissions, congestion & road safety.
While I suspect it was driven by pragmatic political factors, any action on transport poverty is welcomed.
Fuel taxes will be slashed by 25 cents a litre for the next three months at the cost of $350m. Public transport fares will be halved costing $25-40m.
I have questions about how this will happen practically and would like assurances that this will not negatively impact projects (funded by fuel taxes or not). I would like to think that the government will simply make more funds available, but so often the devil is in the detail.
It does raise the important question as to why it's taken so long for this to happen, especially given the relatively low cost. While price isn't the only factor, it does make a difference.
The bonus side effect of this is a wider understanding of how little it would actually cost to 100% fund public transport. The other side of this coin is the massive cost of continuing to over-subsidize private vehicle use. The fact that so many kiwis are hurting from rising fuel prices is a reflection of our poor transport options.
In the absence of a realistic alternative, people are forced to drive.
Reducing the cost of fuel is a relatively quick way to reduce pressure on household budgets and I expect most people will (understandably) welcome this. But unless we fix the underlying issues, it's still broken. I also worry how this will impact people when the cuts are removed and the prices go up again.
Also we must not lose sight of the bigger picture. This is only temporary - we still need to reform how we fund and manage public transport so that it can be affordable, accessible and reliable. The current model is clearly unfit for purpose and needs more than short term fixes.