A petition has been launched calling for speed limits on three of east Auckland’s busiest roads to be raised.
Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown created the petition, which he’ll eventually deliver to Auckland Transport (AT).
The agency announced last year it was reducing the speed limits on 1600 roads around the city as part of an effort to save lives and prevent serious injuries resulting from crashes.
“Evidence shows speed is a factor in more than 70 per cent of injury crashes in New Zealand,” AT said.
“We need to do everything we can to create safe school neighbourhoods so parents feel confident their children can walk, bike, or scooter to school.”
Brown’s petition asks AT to reinstate the previous, higher speed limits on Pakuranga Road, Ti Rakau Drive, and Te Irirangi Drive, all of which have had their limits reduced.
“These roads are the critical main arterials for east Auckland and they’re incredibly important to moving tens of thousands of people in and out of the area on a daily basis,” Brown told the Times.
“It’s important they’re operating as efficiently as possible and that’s why the speed limits should be reinstated.
“Most of them have gone from 60kmh to 50kmh. Te Irirangi Drive has gone from 80kmh to 60kmh.”
As the Times has previously reported, the Howick Local Board voted earlier this year to ask AT to reinstate the higher speed limits on the three roads as “there’s been no satisfactory justification provided for the reduction”.
During a discussion at the board’s monthly business meeting in April, member Adele White said the council used to be more of a “reactive organisation”, responding to the needs of the community.
“But now they’ve got this blanket approach, like ‘we’re going to lower the speed limit on 47 roads just because we can’.
“I feel that a traffic engineer should be looking seriously at every single road and the implications.”
Brown says statistics relating to safety on key local arterial roads “doesn’t necessarily translate to improvements with the lower speed limits”.
“We’ve tragically had a number of serious crashes this year.
“We need to make sure if there are people speeding, there’s enforcement.
“At the same time these are roads that carry tens of thousands of vehicles and we need to ensure they’re operating efficiently for people moving in and out of east Auckland.”
He says the reduced speed limits are probably the biggest issue raised with him this year.
“And the fact people don’t feel like they’ve been listened to as part of this process.
“It’s important this issue is considered as part of the upcoming Auckland Speed Management Plan AT will release in late July.
“This petition is to give the community the opportunity to express their views ahead of that plan being released.”
Brown says the Labour Government has effectively mandated local councils and road-controlling authorities across New Zealand to introduce blanket speed limit reductions on the roads.
“The National Party’s view is we need better and safer roads, not slower roads.
“We need to make sure we’re putting the investment in, not just reducing speed limits, which is effectively a Band-Aid solution to a much more complex problem.”
People can sign the petition online at https://simeonbrown.national.org.nz/60kmpetition.
