Brakes go on road safety without good leadership
Lockdown gave us an example of what it’s like to feel safe on the streets
Drive through a local neighbourhood road, and you’ll often see residents’ signs — “please slow down” or “keep our children safe”. Parents know, sometimes from experience, that speed kills children. It also curtails family life — no unaccompanied walks to the dairy, no scooter or bike to school.
Auckland Transport (AT) is making people safer with lower speed limits, in force since July. We are now less likely to die or be seriously hurt on the 700km of key roads with the reduced limits.
Slowing traffic by even 10km will give us a greater chance of walking away from an accident. And of course lower speeds will prevent crashes in the first place.
Many in the health sector applaud AT’s move to save lives through its safety programme. It put wellbeing and health above adding a few minutes to a car trip.
The pain and the cost of road injuries and deaths are felt disproportionately by Ma¯ori, compared with non-Ma¯ori. People in poorer neighbourhoods, older people, children, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are also more likely to be seriously hurt or killed on our streets.
It’s important that funding decisions and safety improvements prioritise those who experience the most harm to ensure a safe transport system for all. Last year we made progress on reducing harm, but deaths and serious injuries in Auckland are still well above where they were 10 years ago.
Lower speeds will reduce the toll, the mounting injury-related treatment and rehabilitation costs, and prevent the agony of affected families.
Parents are more willing to let children walk or bike locally if fewer motorists are speeding through rural outskirts, school zones or town centres.
The new speed signs mark an important milestone for AT’s Vision Zero programme but relying on people to slow down is only half the safety programme, even backed up with more red-light cameras and greater enforcement.
We need to improve the streets as well, making them structurally safer. About 87 per cent of New Zealand roads have a speed limit higher than the quality of the road can support, so it’s no surprise we have a history of carnage in the region.
People make mistakes going fast, but they also make mistakes at intersections, pedestrian crossings and on local streets.
The design of our streets can make human error less lethal and prevent serious injuries for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and motorists.
We need rumble strips, wider road shoulders, raised table crossings, and better intersection design, with safe speeds. Our children should have safe places to cross, cyclists should be physically distanced from cars and heavy traffic bypassed away from town centres.
That’s why it is so disheartening to see Auckland Council’s emergency budget pull funds from the infrastructure projects that are crucial to ensuring safe streets.
This is a backward step. Funding for safety improvements is now less than 60 per cent of the original budget, at $63 million. Deferring the work will result in scores of preventable serious injuries and deaths in the next 10 years.
That the council is in a tight squeeze is unquestioned, but shelving safety work is also out of step with regional and national priorities. Safety is a key focus in the mayor’s letter of expectation.
Yet as the Road Safety Programme Business case states: “insufficient leadership and priority for road safety in policy and decision-making has prevented the full delivery of a safe system”.
Road safety needs leadership, commitment and credibility. The AT financial team should not revert to the old roading blueprint due to a
Our children should have safe places to
cross, cyclists should be physically distanced from cars and heavy traffic
bypassed away from town centres.
funding gap.
Aucklanders got out and experienced safe and healthy streets during the coronavirus lockdown. Families walking and riding bikes revealed the power of safety to transform how we get around.
It is essential we move forward, keeping this vision.
We can develop a transport system that is sustainable, carbon neutral and that enables physical activity and social connection — one with health and wellbeing placed at the centre.
Dr Michael Hale people coming back into New Zealand.
Ems Hamilton:
Maddison Frisby u said about this today. OMG Sad that this has occurred. Good to see swift action being taken as planned for. Hope that Health officials successfully track down the source of the outbreak.
Margaret Hodgson: Murray Thomson: