The importance of protecting those driving for work
On any working day, 5% of people will drive to work in a work vehicle, and 33% will drive a private vehicle to work, which equals 38% (61,707) of Hamiltonians driving to work. This means that well over half of the people in Hamilton did not drive to work on a working day. There were 99,204 people not driving to work, out of a population of 160,911 (2018 census) people. Let’s say there are ~9,000* business vehicles moving around the city on a working day. Question: What would happen to business travel time if everyone not working in Hamilton also went for a drive on a working day?
*see last image of census data
The 2018 census asked how people travelled to education. This gives a more complete picture of Hamilton’s transport habits. Here, 5% of Hamilton’s traffic was driving to education (7,317 vehicles). Adding that to the 38 percent (61,707) driving to work bring us to 69,024 vehicles or 43% of people known to be driving on a work/ education day. We still have over half of Hamilton’s population not driving to work or education.
The greatest risk to trade, service and businesspeople who need to move around Hamilton on a working day comes from people championing the reduction of infrastructure that is designed to provide mode choice for people not needing their vehicle for work. The photo above and the trend line in the graph show what success looks like to people who believe that infrastructure making it safe and accessible for other modes (walking, biking, scooters, taking the bus) slows traffic down. The reality is that business traffic on Te Rapa straight is not just slowing; it is more and more at a standstill. The only traffic moving in the photo is the person on the scooter on the footpath. If we want people moving, we need to build infrastructure that makes it feel safe for the ~100,000 people not driving to work at the busiest time of the day.
Reference Posts - Te Rapa road bus stop patronage, Te Rapa Cycle Loop