Transport in New Zealand consists of a variety of roads, sailing, buses, ferries, and railways, both light and heavy. Before Europeans arrived, Māori either walked or used watercraft on rivers and along the coasts. European shipping and railways revolutionised the transport of goods and people, before themselves being overtaken by road and air transport. Bulk freight still continues to be transported by coastal shipping and by rail.
Public transport is primarily a local government responsibility, while state highways are the responsibility of central government.
Road transport
The state highway network is the principal road infrastructure connecting New Zealand urban centres. It is administered by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi. The majority of smaller or urban roads are managed by city or district councils, although some fall under the control of other authorities, such as the New Zealand Department of Conservation or port and airport authorities.
New Zealand has left-hand traffic on its roads.
History Before Europeans arrived, Māori either walked or used watercraft on rivers or along the coasts. The road network of New Zealand has its origins in these tracks and paths used by Māori and later by Europeans in their early travels through New Zealand. Several major Māori tracks were known, such as the western coastal track was used along the whole length of the North Island, and the track on the East Coast, which left the coast near Castlepoint and rejoined it near Napier. In the South Island, another major track existed down the east coast with tributary tracks following streams up to the mountain passes to the West Coast. Mountains, swamp, and dense bush made inland routes tricky to traverse, and early settlers also made use of beaches as roads, for walking, riding horses, and herding sheep. Many farms had access via beaches only, and beaches were used as runways for planes. Some beaches are still used by planes, for example at Ōkārito and on the west coast of Stewart Island.
Initial roads, such as the Great South Road southwards from Auckland, were often built by the British Army to move troops, and were constructed to a comparatively high standard. Early sheep farming required few high-standard roads, but the strong increase in dairy farming in the late 19th century created a strong demand for better links on which the more perishable goods could be transported to market or towards ports for export. In many cases, later roads for motor vehicles follow paths used by bullock carts which followed tracks made for humans. These in turn in some cases became highways – with attendant problems all over New Zealand (but especially in the more mountainous regions), as the geography and contours of a slow-speed road laid out in the first half of the 20th century usually do not conform to safety and comfort criteria of modern motor vehicles.Road Engineering – Design of Highways (from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 1966 Edition. Retrieved 7 June 2008.)
Early road construction was both hindered and helped by rail transport during the first half century of European settlement. Authorities were reluctant to expend large amounts of capital on more difficult sections of a route where there was a hope that a railway might instead be built. However, where railways were constructed, roads often either preceded them for construction or quickly followed it when the newly accessible land started to be settled more closely.
Rail freight transport was protected by the government from road competition from 1931 to 1982 under the Transport Licensing Act 1931.
The New Zealand highway system was extended massively after World War II. The first motorway was built in the environs of Wellington and opened in 1950, between Takapu Road and Johnsonville. Following heavy investment in road construction from the 1950s onwards, public transport patronage fell nationwide. This has been described, in Auckland's case, as "one of the most spectacular declines in public transport patronage of any developed city in the world".Mees, P. and Dodson, J. (2001) The American heresy: half a century of transport planning in Auckland, in: P. Holland, F. Stephenson and A. Wearing (Eds) Geography: A Spatial Odyssey: Proceedings of the Third Joint Conference of the New Zealand Geographical Society and the Institute of Australian Geographers, pp. 279–287. Hamilton: Brebner Print.
State highway network
Speed limits
The default maximum speed limit on the open road is for cars and motorcycles, with the default limit in urban areas. Around of motorway and expressway in Waikato and the Bay of Plenty have a higher posted speed limit of . Speed limits of are also used in increments of , and the posted speed limit may be more than the allowed speed limit for a particular vehicle type. Speeds are often reduced to beside roadworks.
Private landowners may set their own speed limits, for example , although these are not enforced by police of road authorities.
The Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits (2017) allows road controlling authorities to set enforceable speed limits, including permanent speed limits, of less than 50 km/h on roads within their jurisdiction.
Road safety
Total road deaths in New Zealand are high by developed country standards. 2010 figures from the International Transport Forum placed New Zealand 25th out of 33 surveyed countries in terms of road deaths per capita, a rank that has changed little in 30 years. The fatality rate per capita is twice the level of Germany's, or that of the United Kingdom, Sweden or the Netherlands (2010 comparison). This is variously blamed on aggressive driving, insufficient driver training, old and unsafe cars, inferior road design and construction, and a lack of appreciation of the skill and responsibility required to safely operate a motor vehicle.
In 2010, 375 'road users' were killed in New Zealand, while 14,031 were injured, with 15- to 24-year-olds the group at highest risk. The three most common vehicle movements resulting in death or injury were "head-on collisions (while not overtaking)", "loss of control (on straight)" and "loss of control (while cornering)". In terms of deaths per 10,000 population, the most dangerous areas were the Waitomo District (121 deaths) and the Mackenzie District (110). Larger cities were comparatively safe, with Auckland City (28), Wellington (22) and Christchurch (28), while Dunedin had a higher rate of 43.
New Zealand has a large number of overseas drivers (tourists, business, students and new immigrants), as well as renting campervans/motorhomes/RV's during the New Zealand summer. Overseas licensed drivers are significantly more likely to be found at fault in a collision in which they are involved (66.9%), compared to fully licensed New Zealand drivers (51.9%), and only slightly less likely to be found at fault than restricted (novice) New Zealand drivers (68.9%).
Drink driving is a major issue in New Zealand, especially among young drivers. New Zealand has relatively low penalties for drink driving. In the late 2000s, reports indicated that the rate of drink driving by under 20s in Auckland had risen 77% in three years, with similar increases in the rest of the country. Many drunk drivers already had convictions for previous drink driving.
The road toll has decreased over the 5 years from 421 in 2007 to 284 in 2011
In the 'Safer Journeys' Strategy, intended to guide road safety developments between 2010 and 2020, the Ministry of Transport aims for a 'safe systems' approach, prioritised four areas, being "Increasing the safety of young drivers", "Reducing alcohol/drug impaired driving", "Safe roads and roadsides" and "Increasing the safety of motorcycling".
Funding
Historically, most roads in New Zealand were funded by local road authorities (often road boards) who derived their income from local rates. As the need for new roads was often most urgent in those parts of the country where little rate income could yet be collected, the funding was at least partly dependent on national-level subsidies, for which much lobbying was undertaken. Many acts and ordinances were passed in the first decades of the colony, but lack of funds and parochialism (the desire to spend locally raised money locally, rather than use it to link different provinces) hindered the growth of the road network. This lack of larger-scale planning eventually led to increased public works powers given to the Central Government.Roads – Administration (from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 1966 Edition. Retrieved 19 July 2008.)
All funding for state highways and around 50% of funding for local roads comes directly from road users through the National Land Transport Fund. Road user revenue directed to the fund includes all fuel excise duty on LPG and CNG, around 55% of revenue from fuel excise duty on petrol, all revenue from road user charges (a prepaid distance/weight licence that all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, and all non-petrol/LPG/CNG vehicles are liable to pay) and most non-ACC revenue from motor vehicle registration and licensing fees. In addition, in the last three years the government has increasingly allocated additional funds to land transport, to the extent that today the total expenditure by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi on land transport projects exceeds road tax revenue collected. The remainder of funding for local city and district roads primarily comes from local authority property rates.
, transport funding in New Zealand is still heavily biased towards road projects – the National government proposes to spend $21 billion on roading infrastructure after 2012, yet only $0.7 billion on other transport projects (public transport, walking and cycling). This has been criticised by opponents of the current government strategy as irresponsible, in light of increasing fuel prices and congestion. Government has claimed that their priority on roads is in line with New Zealanders' favoured travel modes, and as being the most promising in terms of economic benefits.
Vehicle fleet
One of the earliest counts/estimates of motor vehicles in New Zealand had them at 82,000 in 1925. This soon increased to 170,000 on the eve of World War II in 1939, continuing to 425,000 in 1953 and increasing to 1,000,000 in 1971.A Wheel on Each Corner, The History of the IPENZ Transportation Group 1956–2006 – Douglass, Malcolm; IPENZ Transportation Group, 2006 |page=12 In the first national vehicle registration of 1925, 99,233 plates were issued. In 1931 156,180 motor-vehicles were registered and those licensed were 298,586 in 1939 and 380,503 in 1950.
Just over half of the light passenger vehicles first registered in New Zealand are used imports. In 2013 new car registrations were up 7% on 2012 to 82,235 sold, with used vehicle sales up to 98,971.
At the 2013 New Zealand census, 92.1 percent of households reported owning at least one car; 37.6 percent reported owning one car, 38.4 percent reported as owning two cars, and 16.1 percent reported owing three or more cars. Car ownership was highest in the Tasman Region (95.9 percent) and lowest in the Wellington Region (88.3 percent).
In 2015, 3.018 million were light passenger vehicles, 507,000 were light commercial vehicles, 137,000 were heavy trucks, 10,000 were buses and 160,000 were motorcycles and mopeds. The mean age of a New Zealand car (as of end of 2015) was 14.2 years, with trucks at 17.6 years. 38% of light vehicles in 2017 were 15 years +, 171,000 being deregistered, but 334,000 added. yearall vehicleslight <3.5tbn. vehicle kilometres20194,403,6904,022,01948.720184,275,0263,907,48220174,154,8973,799,02348.2120163,977,9663,636,98545.4920153,810,8233,482,72243.4120143,674,7213,358,81641.8320133,545,6503,243,16640.7820103,414,0523,122,12140.5320012,757,1902,563,46736.61