Goff backs 30 kmh speed limit in Auckland city only if it cuts death and injury

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

Congestion would reduce with lower speed limits says campaigner

Auckland's mayor Phil Goff backs a possible reduction of the city's speed limits, only if evidence shows fewer deaths and injury will result.

The council's transport agency will start public consultation in November on proposals including lowering the 50kmh limit to 30kmh in much of central Auckland.

Auckland Transport is floating the plan as part of wider-ranging safety initiatives to curb death and injury rates which have jumped about 70 per cent between 2014 and 2017.

'AT would need to have evidence that it would lead to fewer deaths and injuries on that road,' Goff told Stuff on Wednesday.

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'They would need to focus on those areas where a likely reduction could be shown,' said Goff.

However reducing death and injury was just the 'tip of the iceberg' in the case to lower speed limits, according to a new lobby group.

'The iceberg is that we are so car-dependent because it is so unsafe to do anything else,' said transport planner Bevan Woodward of Movement, whose slogan is Safer Journeys for active Kiwis.

Movement wants 30kmh speed limits on all residential streets and no more than 80kmh on rural roads.

Woodward said the group had sought a meeting with Goff to discuss the issue.

'Traffic engineers have ignored this for a long time - the most vulnerable modes of transport, walking and cycling, are the most neglected,' said Woodward.

'We don't let our children cycle or walk to school anymore, lowering speeds is really cost effective and can make huge change.'

Stuff first reported Auckland Transport's proposals in June, and Randhir Karma, Group Manager Network Management and Safety said the extent of a possible 30kmh zone was still being worked on.

'Generally, the zone under consideration is within the motorway boundaries for the city centre,' he said.

Of the 64 people killed on Auckland's roads in 2017, 29 people were killed in car crashes where speed was a major contributor, Karma said.

Of the 749 commuters seriously injured that year, 186 were hurt in collisions where speed played a major role, he added.

AT was also looking at slower speeds in town centres and some arterials such as Great South Road and Hibiscus Highway.

The agency would need to introduce a by-law giving it more ability to change speed limits, and public consultation would be part of that process.