Auckland road speed reductions delayed by large public response

Friday, 7 June 2019

Speed limits are too high on the majority of New Zealand roads, the NZ Transport Agency says. (Video first published in June 2019)

Planned speed reductions on many Auckland roads are being delayed by several months due to a record public response.

Auckland Transport had hoped to cut speed limits in August as a safety measure, but consultation has brought 11,000 submissions which need assessing.

Mayoral contender John Tamihere believes the delay is to shift a contentious idea, until after October's local body election.

The council agency said it was simply the volume and complexity of working through the submissions.

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Auckland Transport is proposing the reductions in the CBD, but otherwise mostly on rural roads, to reduce deaths which have risen 78 per cent in three years, and serious injuries.

The proposed speed reductions affect 700km of roads - about 10 per cent of the city's network.

Public submissions closed at the end of April, and the agency said the 11,000 responses were nearly double the previous record, and it had to examine them before finalising decisions.

'Our road safety engineering team has to look at every suggestion for every road, and some submissions have multiple pieces of feedback,' said an AT spokesperson.

Among the submissions was a petition to include an extra road in the bylaw, signed by 102 people, and a group submission asking for a number of additional roads to be included, AT said.

Auckland's mayor Phil Goff backed the initiative providing decisions were supported by evidence.

One of his challengers in October's election, John Tamihere, believed the delay was calculated to minimise public opposition to the council agency, and minimise political embarrassment for Goff.

'Apparently the road safety priorities that were so urgent for Auckland Transport three months ago can now be postponed so that public opposition to the changes don't feature in the election campaign,' he said.

The Automobile Association has opposed the extent of the proposed changes and said it hoped the delay showed the public was being heard.

'Our survey results point to a lot of public scepticism – people aren't at all comfortable with a blanket 30km/h speed limit in the CBD, especially when it comes to the big arterials like Hobson, Nelson and Fanshawe Sts, and what's proposed on many of the rural roads is also seen as a step too far,' said Barney Irvine, AA's principal advisor.

Auckland Transport expects the analysis of submissions and recommended changes will go before its board in a few months.