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Sometimes good news is no news. As our last issue was speeding to completion, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) confirmed that the speed limit on a busy section of local road will not be cut from 80 to 60 kilometres per hour.
An NZTA statement confirming the fact reads:
“While a lower speed limit would support the upgraded intersection at SH22/Jesmond Road, and upgrades to come as part of the SH22 Drury upgrade project, current conditions do not yet support a change.”
“Most submitters did not support the proposal. [Public] feedback was considered alongside technical assessments, safety and cost estimates and land use information and we decided not to proceed with lowering the speed limit as a result.”
So, people power roadblocked the move, in part, putting the brakes on intentions to slow the traffic.
It turns out that lodging submissions isn’t just a case of giving crayons to the kids to keep us busy and out of the road, so to speak.
But what difference does it really make? The section of road in question used to be (more or less) a rural road winding through the countryside and connecting to a couple of out-of-the-way towns.
But it hasn’t been that for quite some time and, considering the steroidal rate at which growth is occurring across the motorway in Drury, it’s never going to be a little bit country anymore.
At peak times (is there any other?), it’s a slow crawl along this part of Karaka Road. With the possible exception of during the middle of the night, it would be unlikely that even professional boy racer Liam Lawson – please call home, by the way! – could reach the limit, whether it’s 80 or 60km/h.
While speed limits matter, speed being limited should (I think) be a greater concern. Congestion costs us all, every day and it’s especially so in Auckland.
In that sense, this is not the end of the story nor the beginning and we can only hope that when these epic roadworks in and around Drury have, at last, been completed that they will help traffic move rather than stand still.
“They say the universe is expanding. That should help with the traffic.”
I think Steven Wright is wrong in this case.
Jon Rawlinson
