Our delivery of regulatory services has stabilised since the 2018 regulatory failure, and our performance in 2022/23 shows we are becoming more consistent and effective in our approach. Building on the successes since our first regulatory strategy was released in 2020, we updated Tū Ake, Tū Māia in 2022/23. It has a more outward focus on what we can do across the system and will help us as we strengthen our role as a regulator that is firm, fair and focused on community safety.
To provide better experiences for our people, partners and customers, we’re modernising the way we do things by using technology more and in different ways. We have two major digital projects under way: one to transfer and expand the safety camera network and one to plan and implement the country’s first integrated public transport ticketing system. We’re also making it easier for customers to get what they need quickly and easily.
To help us progress Te Kāpehu, our strategic direction, we developed four new priorities. These will guide us as we prioritise our work and will help us leverage our organisation to deliver better outcomes for New Zealanders.
We are making it easier for customers and users of the land transport system to support the country’s decarbonisation goals. During 2022/23, this work included continuing to deliver the Clean Car Discount, introducing the Clean Car Standard and progressing the national ticketing solution. We worked with partners to make the public transport system more reliable and efficient by continuing to provide discounted public transport, improving pay and conditions for bus drivers, and preparing to implement the Community Connect programme from 1 July 2023.
The reality of a changing climate and environmental conditions is already being felt across the motu. The severe weather events during 2022/23 highlight how important adapting the land transport system is to avoid ongoing disruptions, the emotional cost to communities and costly emergency responses. We published Tiro Rangi, our first climate adaptation plan, in December 2022. Tiro Rangi sets the climate adaptation goal that, by 2050, our land transport system is resilient in a changing climate to enable a system that improves wellbeing and liveability.
As kaitiaki of the land transport system, it’s our role to ensure everything is integrated – the people, infrastructure, services and vehicles.
Over the last year, we changed how we work with our partners and stakeholders, taking a more collaborative approach and working to build the capability of our partners, the supply chain and those accountable to us. We are using an alliance model more, including in our infrastructure work and the response to severe weather events. The model has been successfully applied in Auckland for over a decade and used in the response to earlier emergency events.
The state highway network continues to grow and become more complex, and this larger network requires more repair and renewal. Increased freight, heavier vehicles and more intense weather events are also putting more pressure on the network. As a result, the condition of the network is worsening, which is affecting service levels, meaning the network is not as safe as it needs to be.
There has not been enough funding in maintenance and renewal over several years, at the same time as the scope of maintenance has increased. More complex infrastructure such as road safety barriers and new regulations to improve biodiversity and water quality outcomes mean existing funding is not at the level the network requires. Preventive maintenance, which helps limit the impact of emergency events, preserve pavements and minimise network disruption, is falling behind. We are also doing less road surfacing and pavement renewals than required to sustain the condition of the network.
We continued to work with The Treasury and Te Manatū Waka over the last year to understand the scale of investment required to support growth in sector capacity and increase the pace of our maintenance activities. Significant work and investment are required if we are to maintain the state highway network for a safer, resilient and more climate-friendly future.
The vision and targets set in Road to Zero are highly ambitious and require system-wide changes. Over the last year, these changes needed to be balanced with other system-wide challenges such as increasing resilience of the land transport system, improving the condition of the state highway network and responding to emergency events.
Deaths and serious injuries increased in 2022/23, showing we have a long way to go to reach Vision Zero. It is important we hold the course on Road to Zero. We have had some successes that resulted in improved road safety behaviour, including the implementation of safer speeds around schools and marae. We have also set up our regulatory function to support a Safe System, introduced bilingual kura signs, and continued to make infrastructure improvements to help prevent crashes or, if they do occur, to stop people from being killed or seriously injured.
