The adoption of a congestion charge in Auckland has long been discussed, but today a major political party came out with a clear intent to implement one in the near term:

"[Political Party Leader] says "$300 million sitting in an account" can be a bridge for funding Auckland infrastructure projects once the regional fuel tax is removed, and before congestion charging comes into force."

Source 1:18pm in today's stuff live blog https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300981416/nz-election-2023-live-act-on-cusp-of-snatching-national-stronghold-tamaki-seat-poll-shows-mahuta-at-risk-of-losing-seat

As with the RUC thread, this thread is in the transport category, not politics, so is for the discussion of the policy and it's impact on transport only, not the politics of it.

Details are scant at this point, but given it is to replace the Auckland fuel tax, its scope is likely limited to Auckland.

Could be anything at this point, quite a handful of international examples's now Singapore, London, Milan, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

One thing to be wary of is that many of those schemes, focus on the CBD. In my experience, Auckland CBD is far from the most congested  part of the city, so if the purpose of the scheme is to reduce congestion (not simply raise revenue), the scope would need to cover other badly congested area's (East Tamaki industrial area for example) 

Generally I am in favor of congestion charges. Basically the only way to "solve" traffic congestion in a large city.

But we do need to be aware that by changing the way we allocate our oversubscribed roads from those willing to tolerate queues / travel delays, to those willing to part with $$ could have quite a social impact. Low value trips (and potentially the poor) will essentially get priced off the road.

Should be an economic boon, freeing up all that time wasted in traffic, but we do need to be mindful of the social impacts.