Annual Regional Land Transport Plan Monitoring

Indicator: Number of public bus trips per capita increases year on year

• Passenger boarding per capita has been decreasing year on year for more than a decade.
• From 2020 spread of COVID has significantly discouraged bus usage.
• Rapid growth in population along with increased development in urban areas and slow public transport network development have led more reliance on private cars.

Source: Waikato Regional Council Commercial and Public Transport planning

Indicator: Increase public transport, walking and cycling travel to work mode share in Hamilton from 2018 levels

• There have been no updates on household travel survey mode share in Hamilton since 2018.
• A lower public transport mode share is expected due to the lower public transport patronage in the recent years. This is affected by COVID spread.
• Regional data is provided by household travel survey.

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Indicator: Increase walking and cycling counts in Hamilton and outer urban centres from 2018 levels

• The counts were affected by the COVID spread and lockdowns in the recent years.
• We cannot confirm increase in the counts. Longer monitoring is required to see changes in the counts.

Indicator: Increased proportion of electric vehicles in the region compared to 2021

• In January 2023, the total number of electric vehicles (EV) was nearly 4,000 and it's share was 0.79% of total fleet in Waikato.

Indicator: No statistically significant decline in ambient air quality (NO2, PM10 and benzene) at key traffic sites in urban centres from 2015 levels

• There has been a substantial reduction in the level of fine particles in the air in our urban areas compared to the mid-2000s.
• PM10 levels throughout the Waikato region are good or acceptable for most of the year. However, for a few days each year in some locations, typically on calm winter days, levels of fine particles in our air exceed the National Environmental Standard (NES) as well as the regional guidelines.

Source: Waikato Progress Indicators

• Increases in the number of exceedances from around 2019/20 may be attributed to the roll-out of new optical based monitors which measure a higher number of exceedances than the older monitors. Other regions have also identified increases in the number of exceedances due to the recent introduction of these new monitors. 

Indicator: Decrease in km of road and rail infrastructure susceptible to coastal inundation with sea level rise

Ministry of Transport has developed an indicator for coastal inundation, which has been described by possibility. You can view this tool on the Ministry of Transport website. A measurement tool is also underway, which will be viewable on our Coastal Inundation Tool.

Indicator: Reduced number of deaths and serious injury crashes for each mode and crash factor, compared to 2004-2008 five-year baseline

• From 2004-2008 to 2018-2022 total number of fatal crashes has reduced by 22% and serious crashes has increased by 14%
• Motorcycle and pedestrian death and serious crashes increased significantly.
• Drug and alcohol related deaths has been increasing significantly over decades.

Indicator: Reduced annual social cost of road crashes

• Over the last three years annual social cost of road crashes in total and per capita have been reducing.

Source: Waikato Progress Indicators

Indicator: Maintain travel time predictability on identified inter-regionally significant corridors and arterial corridors in Hamilton from 2019/20 levels

• Travel times were affected by the COVID spread and lockdowns in the recent years.
• We cannot confirm improvements in predictability. Longer monitoring is required to see changes in the counts.

Indicator: Reduction in the number and duration of road closures

• There is a data quality issue.