Rat run route putting Wellington school kids in danger, locals say

Monday, 1 July 2024

Locals are calling on Wellington City Council to lower speed limits outside an Island Bay primary school as motorists use the street as a “rat run” to save time, potentially putting kids’ lives at risk.

Island Bay School principal Deborah Fenton said there had been a noticeable increase in traffic travelling at higher speeds since roadworks on the Parade — which runs parallel to Clyde St — began.

“There’s lots of cars anyway, but definitely there’s been a change in the way traffic is coming down the road … and that’s raised concerns about safely getting kids to school,” Fenton said.

The issue came to a head recently when a car drove through the zebra crossing on Clyde St, ignoring students on traffic patrol.

A local resident, Chris Haughey, said drivers “gapped it” along the road, often veering over the centre line.

He had seen an influx of cars going well over the speed limit in an attempt to avoid the Parade and save time, putting pedestrians — and especially school children — at risk.

And as parking spaces were removed along the main road, more people were parking along Clyde St.

“I have seen two very near accidents recently; one [where] a door was nearly taken off while unloading a car, and two almost head on.”

He was so concerned — “sooner or later one of those kids is going to get collected” — he had approached police and the council about getting something done.

Noting his concerns, the council’s traffic management team said it had ordered new speed counts on Clyde St to determine whether there were any issues as a previous count had indicated that wasn’t the case. It would take up to four months to complete.

“It’s important to note that the decisions regarding traffic calming measures are based on various factors, including road classification, traffic flow, speed, crashes, safety considerations and community feedback,” the council team said.

“In response to your specific concerns about speeding on Clyde Street, data from a speed count conducted in March 2021 indicated that the majority of vehicles are travelling at or below the posted speed limit, with an 85th percentile speed of 46km/hr and the average daily traffic (ADT) of this road is 1720 as per the July 2023 count.

“While instances of excessive speeding are concerning, it’s reassuring to note that accident data from Waka Kotahi’s Crash Analysis System (CAS) showed zero reported crashes in the past five years (2019-2024) near the Island Bay school.”

Haughey had taken it on himself to look into the cost of a speed hump from Astrolift which supplies councils throughout New Zealand. However, while the actual fixture was cheap — about $2800 — there was a lengthy and expensive process council had to go through before any work could start.

He and Fenton had met with Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon to discuss various traffic “calming” measures including lowering speed limits, raising the pedestrian crossing, and judder bars.

“I made her [Foon] aware of the cost of a speed hump – at $8 per child – for safety and pointed out that Wellington City Council is spending three times [that] every day on the current village works. It just doesn’t cut it.”

The pair are hoping a meeting organised with an engineer from the council’s transport and infrastructure team on July 9 will see some immediate action.

“We’re concerned that without some support from the council in this space it could be an issue for the kids,” Fenton said. “We want to pre-empt that.”

Foon said the council should have the ability to put temporary measures in place for a situation where the traffic patterns had changed quickly, and the safety of school children should be paramount.

“This is a classic situation where sometimes our systems don't serve us,” she said.

“While we work toward mandatory reduced speeds around schools, I will be working alongside the community and WCC to do what we can to quickly reduce speed in the area.”