Spoke for Wellington

Cities are essential to human culture, and transport is essential to cities.
A city is, first and foremost, a hub. Without decent transport connections it is rubbish.
Transportation requires energy, in the form of liquid or gaseous fuels, or electricity, or anything else engineers can harness. My forthcoming book lays out a simple plan by which NZ can become totally self-sufficient in energy by 2040. The book does not try to predict the technological future of road transport. It surveys all the options, including batteries, hydrogen, advanced hybrids, ethanol, biodiesel, synthetic hydrocarbons ("renewable" petrol, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil), and even pneumatic vehicles.
The underlying message is very simple: Energy is not a constraint upon the New Zealand economy. It does not matter which technology, or which mix of technologies, we deploy in our road transport system. We can produce the energy from renewable indigenous resources. For all technologies except biodiesel we can do it without reducing our agricultural exports. For all except biodiesel, and perhaps ethanol, we can eliminate liquid-fuel-related greenhouse emissions.
Make no mistake: A time will come when global oil production will begin to fall, and when that happens, a major economy could fail. We also know that if we do not move away from fossil fuels very quickly, the sea will rise faster than it is already rising, and the climate will change in ways that will very likely cause serious problems.
However, New Zealand is well-endowed with renewable energy. There is absolutely no doubt we can continue to support current levels of road transport activity, unless our society is sabotaged by road-hating Luddites.
We cannot afford to squander energy. No-one can. That's why we need to expand and upgrade our rail network. We will not eliminate the need for a decent rail network by fixing Wellington's roading problems. If you think that's what this blog is all about, you are mistaken.
The point is that State Highway One between Wellington and Levin was already outclassed when I started driving, back in the 1970s. It really is a serious embarrassment. Wellington is our capital city. This is where foreign visitors come to see our weirdest and whackiest architecture and sculpture and art, and yet the city's main connection with the rest of the North Island is complete and utter rubbish.
We should have fixed it thirty years ago. The trouble is that the options we have been offered are awful. The exit from the Ngauranga Gorge into the harbour is breathtaking, but the approach to those magnificent flyovers is horrible. At the best of times it can barely handle the traffic, and in bad weather or at busy times it quickly becomes overloaded. By the time you get to the flyovers, you're so stressed out you can't enjoy the view.
Imagine the alternative. From Peka Peka the road veers southwest and climbs gently through a wide rural basin. After cresting the summit it crosses a wide pass, and then, almost two kilometers beyond the summit, it gently descends a forested gully and sweeps into a short, curved tunnel. Bursting out of the tunnel it meanders along a flat valley floor beneath forested hills. Emerging from the forest it follows the wild meandering River Hutt. As the road sweeps down the valley the river becomes ever more civilized, reflecting the nature of the settlements along its banks. At Melling the river swings east, leaving the road to spear its way between the sheer cliffs of the Western Hills and the sheer walls of Petone's warehouse district. But it saves the best till last. Emerging from under the Korokoro bridge, the six-lane motorway soars high above railway lines and cycleway. The southbound lanes drop to ground level between the cycleway and the railway, while the northbound lanes run along a ledge carved into the hillside, traffic screened from view behind a strip of native bush.
I once heard a hitchhiker gasp as I drove out of the Ngauranga Gorge onto the flyover onto the motorway. He thought it was spectacular. The Akatarawa Motorway will be even better.