- By Simeon Brown, MP for Pakuranga
Auckland Transport’s proposal to install a speed bump on Pakuranga Road has been met with overwhelming opposition from the local community, with many turning up to a public meeting I hosted last week to voice their concern.
There really is no better word to describe this idea: crazy. Pakuranga Road is one of the busiest roads in New Zealand carrying 40,000 vehicles every single day – installing a speed bump here is akin to putting one on the motorway.
The reality is that this proposal is totally unnecessary. There are already signalised crossings only a couple of hundred metres away from the existing bus stop, and the number of people who would even use a crossing in this location is very few.
Pakuranga Road is already heavily congested, with long travel times that have frustrated local commuters for decades.
It has taken years of battling with AT to get projects like the Eastern Busway and Reeves Road Flyover funded and finally underway to improve things, and the last thing we need right now is something that will only slow it all back down.
What’s more is that this proposal is estimated to cost close to half a million dollars, an inordinate amount of money for something that will benefit no-one and instead make things worse for all commuters.
The message to Auckland Transport at my recent public meeting was clear – cancel this proposal before it’s too late.
We have already seen examples in Pakuranga of failed experiments like this which only serve to cause headaches for locals just trying to get around their community.
They also cost ratepayers a lot of money, both to install and then remove once it’s clear it isn’t actually helping anyone.
I will continue to fight AT on this ridiculous proposal in the hope that they see some sense and focus their energy on projects that will make life easier for east Aucklanders, not harder.
