\nAuthorities must raise local speed limits within three weeks but are juggling more speed, more haste and masterpieces of inflexible rule making<\/em>
\nby Tim Murphy<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
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Public complaints about the legibility for drivers of new school zone speed signs prompted a review by Auckland Transport. Photo: Greater Auckland<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n A blanket increase in speed limits on local roads, including near schools outside peak hours, is set to have unintended costs for ratepayers and taxpayers.<\/p>\n A Government edict reversing speed limit reductions to 30km\/h brought in by Labour says councils must lift speeds to 50km\/h by July 1.<\/p>\n An exemption is possible if protection of schools and children was not used as a reason for lowering speeds when communities were consulted.<\/p>\n While cities like Dunedin and Hamilton have been able to show they did not, in many instances, stipulate school safety when taking speeds down, Auckland has been caught by its own photos and words, and must cut limits in 1400<\/p>\n A briefing to Auckland Council\u2019s transport committee has heard of an epic bureaucratic tangle as officials move to alert motorists about continuing lower peak hour speeds \u2013 but simultaneously move to lift speeds outside peak hours by schools and on other roads this month.<\/p>\n Here are some of the knots from the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits Rule 2024 that have left Auckland Transport and local boards with no option even if local communities want lower speeds retained:<\/p>\n Councillors have been astounded by the inflexible parameters, risks to children and others\u2019 safety, and the potential extra costs of consultation and physical safety enhancements.<\/p>\n Gavin Scott, AT\u2019s general counsel, said the reversal rule required a simple factual assessment and Auckland\u2019s review found the 1400 roads with lowered limits needed to be lifted.<\/p>\n \u201cOther councils have taken a different view. We\u2019ve discussed this with NZ Transport Agency, the Ministry of Transport and Hamilton City.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy they are different is their factual assessment is different from us. They\u2019ve formed a factual assessment that a school in the area was not a reason why speed went down to 30 km\/h.\u201d<\/p>\n Auckland\u2019s consultation material had included photos of children on bikes, and AT general manager of safety Teresa Burnett concedes schools were at the heart of its consultation for cutting speeds.<\/p>\n Some of the new signs being erected to show the new speed times near schools were being reassessed after public complaints.<\/p>\n AT\u2019s chief executive Dean Kimpton told councillors: \u201cSome of them are not particular legible and we will change those, either streamlined or we will swap out the more detailed times.\u201d<\/p>\n But there could be up to 20 sites where electronic signage would need to be installed to get over the problem. \u201cIt is relatively small but it\u2019s irritating and we will fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n Councillor Richard Hills asked what would happen if Auckland simply declined to run the risks to children and did not increase speeds on roads as demanded by the government rule. \u201cSomeone is [going to be] responsible for all these deaths and injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n Kimpton told him that would be acting illegally under a valid rule change.<\/p>\n But he explained speed limits were just one factor AT used in assessing the safety of its roading system.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel an obligation to keep people safe. We are looking at safety as a system. Speed is one element.<\/p>\n \u201cOne outcome of this law is that we have more safety infrastructure on our roads, we end up spending more on capital and innovations with our road system. That\u2019s a realistic outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n When the coalition Government had directed less funding for road safety last year, the Auckland Council had chosen to hold the \u201clocal share\u201d despite Wellington\u2019s share reducing.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have the option to maintain or grow your 100 percent share in safer system outcomes,\u201d Kimpton said.<\/p>\n Councillor Chris Darby, who also serves as a director of Auckland Transport, said he had been asking if there was any \u201cwriggle room in this \u2013 is there space to check for opportunity?\u201d.<\/p>\n The simple mention of a school in consultation materials had meant such roads had to be adjusted. \u201cDid we ask for a nuanced response?\u201d<\/p>\n But Scott said the new rule forcing speeds up applied to those roads where schools were even listed as \u2018a\u2019 factor, not necessarily \u2018the\u2019 factor for the lowered speed regime.<\/p>\n Burnett said Auckland also took a wider area around schools than some roading authorities around the country, on the belief children cycled and walked to school from some distance away.<\/p>\n Auckland Transport will now assess which of the 1400 roads with raised speeds from July 1 might best be subject to new consultation for another lowering.<\/p>\n Kimpton said it did not want to take a blanket, local board, ward, or town centre approach but would seek to engage with communities in a targeted way.<\/p>\n Councillor Julie Fairey even raised the prospect of another of the central government\u2019s bugbears, orange road cones, being deployed in greater numbers to some of the now higher speed roads to assist with traffic management.<\/p>\n Kimpton: \u201cIt could do. It\u2019s a function of many other things, but that\u2019s one.\u201d<\/p>\n Darby said the speed increases appeared to be more favoured by former transport minister Simeon Brown than by his successor Chris Bishop, who had indicated if communities supported lower speeds they could be kept in place.<\/p>\n Yet the rule was not being changed. \u201cThose advocating for doing it the Dunedin way or Hamilton way. All those stones have been unturned. It\u2019s not the outcome I want but it\u2019s following the law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe appropriate place to wave a banner is before the Government.\u201d<\/p>\n Some roads that had been able to be exempted, Kimpton said, were where the land use adjoining those roads had changed. He had been to one, in the Howick ward, (coincidentally near Simeon Brown\u2019s electorate) that had not had its speed raised back to 50km\/h.<\/p>\n Councillor Shane Henderson condemned the rule change \u201cimposed from above on us in local government from central government\u201d.<\/p>\n Consultation with communities from last year could not be used to re-assess speeds now. \u201cThat goes straight into the bin. That\u2019s hopeless. I don\u2019t know what quite to tell west Auckland primary school communities that are saying \u2018our kids are unsafe and we have to have lower speeds\u2019, but I have to tell them they can\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n \u201cCommunities are not going to get the lower speed limits that they want. They will contact all of us and say \u2018can you put some pressure on?\u2019 and we\u2019ll have to say \u2018Sorry, mate, can\u2019t\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Bishop told Parliament last week the Government had taken a common-sense approach, supported by most New Zealanders, to bring in variable lower speed limits for critical school traffic hours and higher speeds beyond that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not complicated. At 4am or 6am, you shouldn\u2019t have to artificially have to reduce your speed.\u201d<\/p>\n Local road authorities could set speed limits in accordance with the new rules, requiring them to consider safety impacts.<\/p>\n Asked by Green transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter if he would take responsibility for any deaths resulting from the automatic lifting of local road speeds, Bishop said. \u201cNo. I think the balance we have struck is the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yet another case of Big Brother Government in Wellington telling local councils what to do with huge costs associated and no funding – yet more of the multi-million dollar rip off that Wellington bureaucrats throw at ratepayers, who they clearly see as a bottomless ATM “Councillors have been astounded by the inflexible parameters, risks to children and others\u2019 safety, and the potential extra costs of consultation and physical safety enhancements. Auckland Council and Auckland Transport both opposed the Government\u2019s automatic raising of speeds back to 50 km\/h but the rule came into force anyway. AT already estimated publicly the road and sign changes could cost it $25m, which the Govt refused to subsidise.” . . . → Read More: Untangling the hidden costs of driving faster past schools<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7410,"featured_media":491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Yet another case of Big Brother Government in Wellington telling local councils what to do with huge costs associated and no funding - yet more of the multi-million dollar rip off that Wellington bureaucrats throw at ratepayers, who they clearly see as a bottomless ATM\n\n\"Councillors have been astounded by the inflexible parameters, risks to children and others\u2019 safety, and the potential extra costs of consultation and physical safety enhancements. Auckland Council and Auckland Transport both opposed the Government\u2019s automatic raising of speeds back to 50 km\/h but the rule came into force anyway. AT already estimated publicly the road and sign changes could cost it $25m, which the Govt refused to subsidise.\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[120],"tags":[136],"series":[124],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-25","tag-whakatane-v-wellington","series-dave-for-council","odd"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/nostalgia_drags_0204_25.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?feed=podcast&podcast_series=dave-for-council","embedCode":"\n
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<\/p>\nUntangling the hidden costs of driving faster past schools<\/a><\/blockquote>