Decisions about Auckland's roads are now split, with councillors overseeing busy arterial routes and local boards taking calls on quieter streets, as AT steps back from roading in new changes.
Auckland Council is officially now the region's road controlling authority.
Auckland Transport, keeping its branding as AT, will remain a council-controlled organisation but will now be much smaller and tasked only with running public transport.
The changes follow the Local Government Amendment Act 2026, which passed its third reading in April.
The Government agreed last year to change the law to give elected officials more direct control over transport decisions.
The change, which has previously been hinted at, was labelled by Mayor Wayne Brown as a "major victory". (Source: 1News)
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the reforms delivered on the Government's commitment to "restore democratic accountability" in Auckland.
"For 16 years, Auckland Transport has performed transport functions that local councils manage elsewhere in New Zealand. That has meant Auckland Council hasn't had the say it needs to set the direction for Auckland's transport system," he said.
"These changes mean elected members will once again be directly responsible for the decisions that shape Auckland's transport system."
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said getting control of transport back to elected members was "what I was elected to do".
"For years Aucklanders expected elected members to fix transport problems, with limited ability to influence decision-making. That's changing," Brown said.
The council said a six-month transition between AT and Auckland Council had been completed a month ahead of the legislated deadline, and Aucklanders "should experience little to no disruption with changes happening behind the scenes".
Here's how we got here and what will actually change from today.
How we got here
AT had been Auckland's road controlling authority since 2010, when it was set up as a council-controlled organisation as part of the amalgamation that created the Super City.
The governance model, implemented under John Key's National government, was intended to keep day-to-day transport decisions at arm's length from politics.
In practice, the council always held significant levers over AT, including approving funding and the legal power to direct it to act in accordance with council policy.
But local politicians have argued for years that this arrangement left them answering to voters for decisions they did not make. This especially came from hot-button issues such as cycleways, raised pedestrian crossings, speed limits and on-street parking.
Under the previous model, AT carried out strategies endorsed by elected members, but often also absorbed the public backlash when those policies reached individual streets.
Bishop said yesterday that under the new model Aucklanders would have "a clearer line of sight" between transport decisions and the elected representatives responsible.
Which roads go where
From today, councillors will be generally responsible for Auckland's transport decisions, including crucially all arterial roads.
The region's 21 local boards will be tasked with making smaller street-level decisions, including on local and collector roads, road names, parking and traffic controls. These also include setting speed limits and closing roads for events.
The split is set out in a new Auckland Roading Classification Framework, which the law required the council to draw up.
It sorts every road in Auckland, except state highways, into six categories: arterial, collector, local, city centre, Eden Park precinct and residual.
A road is classed as arterial if it carries, or is intended to carry, at least 5000 vehicles a day in urban areas or 3000 in rural areas, and sits on the strategic road network. Roads carrying 48 or more buses a day in the busiest direction are arterial as well.
Those roads are the ones controlled at a regional level by elected councillors.
Cool, but what actually changes today?
For most Aucklanders, getting around should look much the same in the short term. Almost all services that operated yesterday will continue to operate the same today.
Buses, trains and ferries continue to be run by AT, HOP cards work as before, and the region's motorways and state highways stay with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA).
But the legal handover of roading is complete, and AT no longer has the official power to make decisions on Auckland's roads.
Meanwhile, the internal move is still underway, with work continuing behind the scenes to shift staff, planners, systems and services from AT to the council.
Chief executive Phil Wilson said: “In the future, Aucklanders will see changes in traffic management practices, how transport projects in our region are designed and delivered, and how much closer we are able to bring citizens to the decision-making process around transport priorities in their own neighbourhood”
The most visible day-to-day change people will see first is likely to be parking, with AT's parking app, parking buildings and parking officers moving to council branding.
The AT Park app will become AC Parking today as council takes over parking services.
"Parking in our on-street and covered parking spaces stays as easy as always. Your account, vehicles and login details stay the same. The app will update automatically or prompt you to update," an Auckland Council spokesperson said.
In addition to maintaining parks and community facilities, Auckland Council will now manage requests to fix things like road surfaces, footpaths and street lighting.
Customer service will also shift over the coming months, with parking and transport inquiries later available through libraries, and information moving to the council's site.
In the medium term, the other noticeable differences will be where decisions are made.
Proposals for things like a new pedestrian crossing or a clearway, which AT staff previously consulted on within the council's strategies and budgets, will now go before local board business meetings or council committees.
Those meetings are held in public, and the decisions are voted on by elected members.
The minister who’s pledged to reverse the slow down has called the award “woke”. (Source: 1News)
That applies to local projects already in the pipeline as well as new ones. Though how quickly plans that were partway through AT's processes come before elected members is likely to depend on how fast the transfer of functions is completed.
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