AT: Justify your case

One of the best-read articles on Driven.co.nz this week was an opinion piece by Auckland councillor Mike Lee, questioning why Auckland Transport is being evasive about its plans to lower speed limits across the city.

The veteran local politician has repeatedly asked AT for information about crash data that justifies its proposals to lower speed limits. He says AT has failed to supply it despite three requests, and now Lee is taking the organisation to the Ombudsman.

Like most of us, Lee has no issue with speed limits being dropped in some circumstances, in suburban streets for example, where vehicles are mixing with large numbers of pedestrians.

But like Driven, Lee cannot see the sense in reducing major traffic routes to a crawl without producing strong evidence supporting the move.

Lee is an elected local politician,

and rightly takes exception to unelected bureaucrats running an agenda without justifying their stance.

AT has produced cute video clips showing the impact on speed on pedestrians, but Lee points out that only about 15 per cent of fatal accidents occur above the speed limit. It would be ludicrous if 40km/ h limits were imposed on main arterial routes such as Hobson and Nelson Streets, without good evidence they would reduce the road toll.

Is this the same organisation that has just blocked-off part of a second lane on Nelson St, adding to the congestion that already blights the inner-city? AT should forget about a blanket reduction of speed limits.