Can [Pakuranga MP and Transport Minister] Simeon Brown please explain exactly how increasing the speed limit on Pakuranga Road decreases congestion.
If he’s right we all look forward to the morning and afternoon commute being so much quicker by this time next year. Pakuranga Road is 6km from Panmure Bridge to Ridge Road.
Simple maths says that if you could travel the entire length at 60km/h this will take six minutes, and at 50km/h it will take 7.2 minutes.
There are about a dozen sets of traffic lights along the highway so it isn’t quite this simple and actual time savings will be less than 72 seconds.
He could ask a traffic engineer in his ministry to do the analysis for us. Oh wait, that’s not a front-line role so they have probably been made redundant.
I look forward to seeing the evidence that this pronouncement is based on. I must have missed the consultation with “local road users and communities”.
John Tait
Pakuranga Heights
