Auckland road safety campaigner: I spray-painted penises around highway potholes

Wednesday, 24 February 2021

Auckland’s State Highway 16 has had some work done to it – in the shape of two bright green penises to highlight potholes.

The artwork appeared overnight on Monday, about 700 metres from the Brigham Creek roundabout at the end of the northwestern motorway.

Road safety campaigner and Kaukapakapa resident Geoff Upson confirmed he had painted the drawings on the road, which has a speed limit of 80kmh.

Upson said it wasn’t the first time he had done this, saying he had drawn around potholes “certainly more times than I can count or remember”.

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He had drawn a giant penis on Kahikatea Flat Road near Kaukapakapa in 2019 and said he spent up to $400 a year on green spray paint.

Upson said he decided to spray paint around the potholes on the road because complaining to the relevant authorities didn’t get any action.

“This way, it seems to draw attention to the issue, and sometimes it gets resolved.”

Upson said the potholes that he pointed out this week had been there for a “long time”.

The roundabout is part of the motorway and should have an “extremely high level of workmanship”.

Many people had contacted him and asked him to mark them out, he said.

Drawing a penis around potholes or dangerous parts of roads had become a “signature move”, Upson said.

“Over in the UK there was a guy who kept doing it … so that was in the back of my mind the first time I did it.”

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency Auckland system manager Andrea Williamson said the potholes would be filled in when a maintenance team could be scheduled to do the work.

“The person responsible has placed [himself] at risk, as well as potentially causing a safety risk and a distraction for other drivers,” Williamson said.

“Waka Kotahi may seek to recover the costs of removing the paint from the individual responsible.”

Williamson said the agency has one report from February 22 about a pothole on SH16 in the Brigham Creek area.

She said there had been a further 14 complaints of potholes in the area since October 2020 and all had been repaired.

However, Stuff was sent a complaint about the potholes that were spray-painted that was sent to Waka Kotahi on December 16 – and the complaint was never followed up.

Williamson said inspections on the highway had found a further nine areas that required work, mainly north of Kumeu.

The work would begin this week but some are in “geologically challenging sections”.

In 2019, at least 10 penis drawings popped up on Piha Rd in Piha to highlight the “collapsing road”.

It amused locals, but Auckland Transport said it was clearly the work of someone who has “too much time on their hands”.