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Waitakere City Council supports Auckland HOVER TrialWaitakere City Council has pledged to support Trip Convergence's plans for a trial of HOVER in Auckland. |
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Waitakere City Council supports Auckland HOVER Trial
| Trial one step closer Waitakere City Council have confirmed a contribution of $30,000 towards a demonstration project to test the innovative HOVER system of 'instant facilitated carpooling', subject to Auckland City and Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) also being partners in the project and the participants having budgetary oversight. Trip Convergence Ltd has been seeking partners to add to a $20,000 grant from the Shell New Zealand Sustainability Fund, to carry out a demonstration project in Auckland. If Land Transport New Zealand matches the funds from Waitakere and Shell then 40% of the estimated $250,000 required for the demonstration project will have been raised. The Waitakere Council commitment is for the trial to be run in the 2007/08 financial year, however if Trip Convergence can complete the arrangements sooner the funds could be brought forward into 2007/08, according to Kevin Wright, Transportation Manager for the Council. The HOVER system could provide much needed relief to Auckland commuters. Auckland Regional Council modeling showed that as much as $220 million of the current $1 billion in congestion costs could be saved if 11,000 motorists would take up the carpooling concept. Recent calculations by Strategic Lift Ltd suggest that the payback on parking facilities for HOVER could be as short as 2.5 years on the savings by the TA's and commuters, without including the congestion savings in the calculation. Reducing traffic in those sort of quantities would relieve pressure on the existing infrastructure. Trip Convergence is in discussions with both ARTA and Auckland City Council as well as many other agencies to bring about their participation in the demonstration project. END |
