So, I had a look at National's '$1.5b' expressway to Ashburton that they announced to universal yawns this week.
First off - they've got the costing way, way under....
So, how many vehicles are using this road? about 11,000 (total for both directions). that's not many...
At this traffic level, NZTA's ideal is a 2 lane road w frequent passing lanes.
It's a third less traffic than the currently planned expressways get...
This huge, mostly empty road carrying a few hundred vehicles an hour, would cost more than the govt spends in 3 years on all public transport, which is over 500 million trips...
That's what NZTA is actually planning and what the locals want...
plus, politically, you would actually win some voters. Over $2b on a road that only a few people in a of 35,000 that already votes heavily National care about? weird politics...
The enormous cost for relatively few vehicles just doesn't add up. A party claiming fiscal responsibility would never propose it.
But National's religious obsession with roads trumps commonsense.