My Account
Fears that deaths and serious injuries will increase with new government speed changes were raised at an Auckland Transport (AT) board meeting on March 26.
Under discussion was how AT’s targets would need to be updated to reflect the government’s draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024, which includes investment in infrastructure to reverse recent speed limit reductions.
Board chair Richard Leggat said there was a lack of realism from government over what could be delivered, given the lack of funding.
“Central government is taking a view that is not necessarily reflective of the community in regard to speed management,” Leggat said.
“The GPS and how that funding operates makes it incredibly difficult for AT to deliver on the ambitions that we, and our community, have.”
The monthly report showed that AT met the target to reduce deaths and serious injuries (DSI) over the last year. However, Leggat said that with the new policy direction from government, it would be ambitious to try to keep them low.
He said that although deaths and serious injuries had declined, he feared that the speed management tools that were being talked about would mean that this might not be maintained.
Board member Raveen Jaduram said it needed to be clear that the funding was not available to meet the number of plans and policies AT had approved.
“It will be seen as a failure by AT for not meeting its own objective and goals, when the other side of the equation is we don’t have the funding,” Jaduram said.
Cr Chris Darby said the GPS was virtually silent on climate.
“Being shackled by a lack of funding is quite significant. It won’t affect just our response to climate, but public transport, infrastructure, services and safety will all be affected,” Darby said.
