Editing Transport in New Zealand (section)

===History===
Before Europeans arrived, [[Māori people|Māori]] either walked or used watercraft on rivers or along the coasts. The road network of New Zealand has its origins in these tracks and paths used by Māori and later by Europeans in their early travels through New Zealand. Several major Māori tracks were known, such as the western coastal track was used along the whole length of the North Island, and the track on the East Coast, which left the coast near [[Castlepoint]] and rejoined it near [[Napier, New Zealand|Napier]]. In the South Island, another major track existed down the east coast with tributary tracks following streams up to the mountain passes to the West Coast.<ref name="TEARAROADS">{{cite book |title=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand |orig-year=First published in 1966 |publisher=[[Ministry for Culture and Heritage|Ministry for Culture and Heritage / Te Manatū Taonga]] |url= http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/roads | editor-first=A. H. |editor-last=McLintock |editor-link=Alexander Hare McLintock |access-date= 3 January 2015 |chapter= Roads – Development |date= 23 April 2009}}</ref> Mountains, swamp, and dense bush made inland routes tricky to traverse, and early settlers also made use of beaches as roads, for walking, riding horses, and herding sheep.<ref name="Kiwis and the beach">{{cite news|last1=Kenny|first1=Katie|title=Kiwis and the beach|work=[[The Press]]|date=3 January 2015|page=A10}}</ref> Many farms had access via beaches only, and beaches were used as runways for planes.<ref name="Kiwis and the beach" /> Some beaches are still used by planes, for example at [[Ōkārito]] and on the west coast of [[Stewart Island / Rakiura]].

Initial roads, such as the [[Great South Road, New Zealand|Great South Road]] southwards from Auckland, were often built by the British Army to move troops, and were constructed to a comparatively high standard.<ref name="TEARAROADS"/> Early sheep farming required few high-standard roads, but the strong increase in dairy farming in the late 19th century created a strong demand for better links on which the more perishable goods could be transported to market or towards ports for export.<ref name="TEARAROADS"/> In many cases, later roads for motor vehicles follow paths used by [[bullock cart]]s<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.nzta.govt.nz/network/operating/faqs.html#choose | title=Frequently asked questions | work=[[NZ Transport Agency]] | date=8 August 2014 |access-date= 3 January 2015}}</ref> which followed tracks made for humans. These in turn in some cases became highways – with attendant problems all over New Zealand (but especially in the more mountainous regions), as the geography and contours of a slow-speed road laid out in the first half of the 20th century usually do not conform to safety and comfort criteria of modern motor vehicles.<ref name="DES">[http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/R/RoadEngineering/DesignOfHighways/en Road Engineering – Design of Highways] (from [[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]], 1966 Edition. Retrieved 7 June 2008.)</ref>

Early road construction was both hindered and helped by rail transport during the first half century of European settlement. Authorities were reluctant to expend large amounts of capital on more difficult sections of a route where there was a hope that a railway might instead be built. However, where railways were constructed, roads often either preceded them for construction or quickly followed it when the newly accessible land started to be settled more closely.<ref name="TEARAROADS"/>

The New Zealand highway system was extended massively after World War II. The first motorway was built in the environs of [[Wellington]] and opened in 1950, between Takapu Road and Johnsonville.<ref>[http://www.transit.govt.nz/about/faqs.jsp#8 When did New Zealand first have a motorway?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619023335/http://www.transit.govt.nz/about/faqs.jsp#8 |date=19 June 2008 }} (from the [[Transit New Zealand]] website)</ref> Following heavy investment in road construction from the 1950s onwards, public transport patronage fell nationwide. This has been described, in Auckland's case, as "one of the most spectacular declines in public transport patronage of any developed city in the world".<ref>Mees, P. and Dodson, J. (2001) The American heresy: half a century of transport planning in Auckland, in: P. Holland, F. Stephenson and A. Wearing (Eds) Geography: A Spatial Odyssey: Proceedings of the Third Joint Conference of the New Zealand Geographical Society and the Institute of Australian Geographers, pp. 279–287. Hamilton: Brebner Print.</ref>