Please ‘stop tooting in the tunnel’

A Wellington City councillor is writing to the NZ Transport Agency, in a bid to rid the blasting of horns in the Mt Victoria tunnel.

The tradition of a beep and toot whilst driving through the tunnel in central Wellington has been recorded in archives and letters to the editor in newspapers since 1961.

Although an iconic custom in the capital, councillor Chris CalviFreeman said it was “annoying” to people who walk through the tunnel.

Calvi-Freeman, who holds the transport portfolio, said it was time for a notice at the ends of the tunnel persuading people not to toot.

“Most people don’t realise when they are driving through that it is not really one of these victimless things

. . . what you are doing is creating a great level of annoyance for people walking through the tunnel.”

He said he would be writing to NZTA, who maintains State Highway 1 and the tunnel, asking for signage that’s “persuasive rather than dictatorial” suggesting people do not sound horns while driving through.

“Anything that we can do to help people to endure that short walk through there is to be supported.”

There is some debate as to how the tooting began, with theories such as a tribute to a murdered teenager and rebelling against a “please don’t toot sign” common myths.

Gabor Torte, Wellington City Libraries local history specialist, said the story of Phyllis Symons is an interesting theory.

Symons was a teenager murdered in 1931 by her boyfriend George Coates, when the tunnel was being built.