Red-light Runners and Police Excuse systematic of our Transport Planning Failures
Auckland Council and Auckland Transport; we have a serious problem we need to have a wee chat about. You see in the Auckland Plan, and the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan there is this overarching goal that sits at the top to which both documents are meant to confirm to. That being ‘The World’s Most Liveable City.’ So why are we seeing stories like this: Red light runners around school worrying and plans like this: Mill Road and Regional Development (We Are Not Achieving The World’s Most Liveable City) while I see things like this (although Central Government can take the flak for this one):
It is only a matter of time before a child is killed at a dangerous Auckland intersection where up to 14 drivers a morning run red lights, concerned parents say.
There are four schools and a preschool near the four-way intersection at Millwater Parkway and Bankside Road, and near misses are a daily occurrence, the mums and dads say.
Silverdale School parents are so worried they have been doing surveys of the intersection, counting up to 14 red light runners a morning.
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The situation came to a head in the week before the school holidays when two cars crashed in the middle of the intersection, coordinator Penny Howard says.
“It was at 8.20 am when one car obviously ran a red and hit an oncoming car. Shrapnel was sent flying across the road. Thankfully a pedestrian wasn’t hit by it.”
Every day parents walking their kids to school approach the group with their own horror stories of near misses, she says.
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Police visited the intersection as part of their Back to School Campaign after receiving complaints.
“We have tasked staff to have a look, apprehend those jumping red lights and make sure it is safe there,” Waitemata District Road Policing Co-ordinator Acting Senior Sergeant Brett Campbell-Howard says.
Campbell-Howard urges people to call *555 to report unsafe driving, or if urgent to dial 111.
Auckland Transport has also sent an engineer to the intersection to check light phasing.
It has increased the duration of the ‘green man’ and ‘red arrow’ pedestrian protection as a result.
Howard says parents also need to take some responsibility in teaching their children to only cross when the walk man is green, not flashing red. A number of older students are also jaywalking.
Nearby cafe owner Colin Roberts supports the group by donating high visibility jackets and giving volunteers free coffee after their morning shifts.
Howard has spoken with all surrounding schools but has had little help.
“No one really wants to take ownership of the situation. A lot of people come and give us advice or tell us their opinion, but we don’t want just talking – we need people to come and help.”
The crash, the need for hi-vis vests, the orange flags, and the police excuse are all signs the planning in that particular area is nothing short of an utter failure. When will Auckland Council and Auckland Transport learn that people come first not cars and de-facto motorways in any given urban area (including heavy industrial areas – although another matter entirely).
The police excuse given about parental responsibility gets on my goat the most. It shows the police who are meant to protect people do not understand how a City is meant to be equitable. It shows the same callous disregard as I picked up on here: A City That Is Equitable to All our Citizens. In fact I am going to but the entire post into here as a reminder:
The accident involving three children and a car was that – an accident and most likely a freak one at that. I feel for both the parents of the children hit AND the driver of the car who was well below the 50km/h speed limit and all eyes out watching the road space.
But for the police to make a stupid comment about children and supervision in relation to the accident was just that – stupid.
My old Geography lecturer (well one of a few I had) from the University of Auckland outlines a few things:
Robin Kearns: Child-friendly city would let us ease up on cotton wool
5:00 AM Tuesday Feb 17, 2015
Last week a driver – a parent herself – sadly missed seeing three children step out to cross the road. Their subsequent injuries were unquestionably tragic. I feel for them, their families and the driver.
But an additional sadness is revealed by the comment by one of the police officers responding to the crash. They said it was “unacceptable” for young children to be walking to school without adult supervision.
My question is: unacceptable to whom? Was this a personal opinion or that of the police? Regardless, this view adds to an informal policing of parents at large; an urging to chaperone children at all times.
But whose city is this? Does Auckland belong only to adults and motorists? Perhaps we all need to slow down and reconsider our priorities.
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A more child-friendly city is a slower city that promotes walking and public transport. A child-friendly city benefits everyone. In our research, children persistently say they want a city with less traffic. Children are natural walkers until it is driven out of them by parental paranoia. Being chauffeured may alleviate parental anxieties and prevent relatively rare and tragic accidents. But persistent chauffeuring interferes with children’s environmental learning, reduces physical activity and robs them of independence.
Children may not yet be taxpayers but they are citizens. It is time to listen to their views before deeming their independent travel “unacceptable”.
Robin Kearns is professor of geography at the University of Auckland.
Being taxied round to and from school actually adds to the danger everyone else faces including pedestrians young and old.
The larger point being is that our planning has been far too long focused on the elites driving four-wheeled metal boxes and treat is “right” rather than privilege.
The difference being “Right” treats the environment as ME and damn everyone else while “Privilege” treats the environment as sharing with everyone else equally – on the road space.
Planning needs to get back to a pro people city where all people are treated equally while getting around whether by car, walking, cycle or public transport. It does not mean you access to the car nor travelling by car is going to be taken away. But it does mean car users do not have sole unfettered right nor use of our road corridors either.
Again we have a very long way to go before Auckland is ever equitable thus The World’s Most Liveable City. And the way things are going with Mill Road (as of current), Millwater, and Flatbush we are no nearer to that equitable and most liveable city. In fact we are just going full reverse back to the 1960’s. Probably not the finest legacy for outgoing Chief Planning Officer Dr Roger Blakeley: http://www.propbd.co.nz/blakeley-determined-to-stay-on-the-treadmill-as-exit-beckons/
Talking Southern Auckland 