Philip Laird: Slow train coming

Only a genuine shift to rail will put NZ on track to reduce emissions

Both the Labour government and the opposition National Party have now released major transport polices that put the emphasis on maintaining and expanding roads.

The cost and priority of various projects will clearly be an election issue. But at the heart of the debate lies an inconvenient truth about climate change: encouraging road transport while needing to reduce carbon emissions simply does not add up.

Mike Hosking: We aren't giving up our cars, but the Government don't get that

The problem with Michael Wood is his arrogance - and his arrogance prevents him from seeing the simple truth.

None of his goals around getting us out of cars is going to get us out of cars.

He talks of giving us choices but fails to understand that if you are not going to use those choices, they are not really choices. Or even if you would use those choices, but they don’t exist, then that’s not really a choice either.

There is a war on cars and the war, as we found out yesterday, has a series of really dumb names.