Council and AT attempt to justify these outrageous “improvements” in the name of “safety”
I have under the OIA been able to access data from NZTA and Auckland Transport (AT). The purpose was to establish the relationship between the risks of mortal or injury accidents in the entire Ponsonby News area versus the costs of AT plans for “improvement”. The results so far are astounding:
In 10 years, there have been just TWO bad / fatal accidents (i.e. one every five years on average).
Serious crashes occur on average 12 ½ times per year – but do NOT necessarily include injury to the population. Average: Just over one per month.
Minor Crashes – occur on average 60 times per year or just over 1 per week.
Non-injury accidents occur on average 184 times per year – or 1 accident per every two days.
Your readers will be well aware of all the new:
· Mini-traffic islands
· Speed bumps
· Speed calming measures everywhere
· Extended curbing into side streets
· Side road tables
· Bus stops being built out INTO the main roadways (College Hill!)
· Rarely used cycle ways
· Deliberate non synchronisation of traffic lights
· 30 kmph speed limits
· Residents-only parking regimes (that achieve nothing except even more revenue for AT)
· Parking meters – once free parking for locals
· New traffic lights systems at pedestrian crossings (even though it is compulsory to stop at pedestrian crossings)
· AT are seemingly intent on installing traffic lights every 200 metres – all in the name of “safety”
· Hideously over-engineered pedestrian crossings, speed bumps, compression road markings and vertical traffic control displays AND speed calming measures outside schools
Let’s be very clear here, NO-ONE is arguing against protecting school children on crossings. Remembering that these crossings are used just twice a day, for 30 minutes, on weekdays only generally.
To display the relevance of these statistics above, compare these “enhancements” against the proposed costs of AT’s new plans to ruin Great North Road. This is just for the distance between Ponsonby Road and Crummer Road (NOT to Western Springs).
This bizarre plan, to include bus lanes in each direction, cycleways in each direction, a single lane for cars in each direction, central traffic islands, closed access to roads such as Grosvenor Street (which services just the local Grey Lynn and Ponsonby residents’ traffic) and restricted entrances into the other residential side roads is optimistically budgeted to cost $26,933,000 (for just 1.55 kilometres of road). That is $17.5 MILLION rate payer dollars per kilometre.
Second example: Point Chevalier to Westmere “Improvements” Project.
These works will include:
· The “re-arrangement” of Pt Chevalier Road, to incorporate an Off-Road Uni-directional cycle lane on BOTH SIDES of the road
· A southbound bus priority lane
· TWO signalised pedestrian crossings (why signalised?)
· A new roundabout (single lane) at Meola Road
· A Bi-directional cycleway (1.6km) on Meola Road
· Signalised roundabout at Garnet Road – (NB: The existing roundabout has worked perfectly for 100 years and needs no “enhancement”)
· New raised crossings (totally unnecessary)
· Side road “tables”
· New bus facilities – Not sure what that means
· New 1.6km of pavement in Meola Road
· No mention of the restrictions to parking proposed to stop dog walkers and sports supporters from parking anywhere near Meola Reef or Sports grounds
· Undergrounding of Vector and Chorus Lines
The proposed budgeted cost of these works for just 2.4 km’s total is a mind blowing $44,800,000 of rate payers money. $49 MILLION dollars for 2.4km of road.
We ALL love “safety” but AT’s zealots, this term’s councillors and senior council staff have lost the ability to put this sort of expenditure into context as it relates to ratepayers ability to pay.
These outrageous and unnecessary over-engineered and poorly developed plans are an indictment on AT and Council.
The current crop of unrealistic councillors have spent our hard-earned rates money like drunken sailors (with someone else’s credit card).
Interest alone is costing Auckland Ratepayers over $1,200,000 per day!
Both these projects are a new “West Lynn disaster” staring us all in the face.
Council and AT attempt to justify these outrageous “improvements” in the name of “safety”. However, as my statistics prove, there are no issues of safety that can sustain an argument to spend $76,000,000 dollars in this small area to improve the next ten years statistics.
It is time to say, “ENOUGH – STOP!”
Roger Hawkins, Herne Bay