Traffic

Enjoy!

The new year is ushered in by the death of a stupid person. The media calls them a pedestrian but as well know there is no such thing as a pedestrian on a motorway:

A pedestrian has been run over and killed on an Auckland motorway this morning.

Counties Manukau police have closed the Mangere-airport motorway to all south-bound traffic, northern communications Inspector Lou Alofa said.

All traffic heading south was being directed off the Walmsley Rd off-ramp. North-bound traffic was not affected.

“Motorists travelling south are advised to take the Mahunga Dr turn off if possible to relieve the backlog on Walmsley Rd, particularly those heading for the airport,” Alofa said.

The serious crash unit was investigating the collision.

NZTA has released its list of top 15 killer intersections:

New Zealand’s most dangerous intersections have been revealed for the first time.

The New Zealand Transport Agency disclosed the 15 intersections that have claimed the most injuries and deaths – showing the number of injury crashes had increased 25 per cent in the past year.

There were seven injury or fatal crashes on the corner of Auckland’s Great South Rd and Main Highway, Ellerslie, and the same number on the corner of Customs St West and Albert St in the city.

There were 60 injury crashes on the worst 15 intersections – up from 48 the previous year.

The Customs Street West, Albert Street Intersection is confusing with two sets of one way roads converging.

Killer Intersection - Customs Street West and Albert Street

Main Highway intersecting with Great South Road is likewise a confusing mess.

Killer Intersection: Main Hwy and Great South Road, Ellerslie

There is nothing more annoying than when you travel on the motorway and discover some halfwit is going at 70, or on state highway one and there is moron travelling at 80, with a huge tail back being caused by one driver’s selfish decision to drive below the speed limit.

Slow drivers on open roads cause crashes. They force people that just want to travel at the speed limit to take tough decisions about passing, and some of these cause accidents.

So the Whaleoil transport policy is that there will be minimum speed limits on motorways and main roads. If you drive more than 10 km under limit when there is no good reason too (being old, dopey or useless is not a good reason) you should be fined for holding up traffic and creating anger among fellow tax payers who expect you to drive at the speed limit.

Given that the ratepayers of Albany Ward overwhelming favour using their cars for transport this is a sensible policy for them to support.

Responsibilities come with along with rights. If you want the right to drive on the main road, you have the responsibility to ensure you travel at a speed that allows traffic to flow.

Under Whaleoil’s transport policy people whinging about a minimum speed limit are classed as other people, and will be forced to become mandatory users of public transport.

And the impact of slow drivers on productivity is huge, so we need to stop slow drivers from wrecking the driving experience for the rest of us, as well as costing the economy.

John Banks has come out and said that the Bus Lane Nazi’s aren’t revenue collecting.

Auckland City Mayor John Banks says pinging motorists for driving in bus lanes is not a money grab, but he is prepared to look at signposting areas where bus lane cameras may be operating.

“We have got to maintain the integrity of the bus lanes. Many people being caught in the bus lanes are using them to circumvent big lanes of traffic on the inside lane and then coming out at the intersection to force their way back into traffic,” he said yesterday.

I’m sorry Banksie, but you are wrong on this one. I am not in the habit of driving in bus lanes, yet just the other day one of these “tax notices” arrived in the mail. the worst thing about this is that I genuinely can’t remember even driving up the bus lane. I just don’t do it and yet here is “the tax notice”, with no ability to challenge it I might add.

As I said, I don’t fly up the bus lanes, but I must say I have often thought about it as the traffic is at a standstill and the lanes are emptier than an alchie’s bottle. the place I got pinged is on was Symonds Street at the top end near the intersection with Mt Eden Road. Anyone who drives up there knows that the bus lanes appear and disappear with regular abandon, it is actually hard to know if you are in a bus lane or not. There are green parts and non-green parts and at 50km/h it isn’t at all clear.

What is clear though is that this street is very busy so a perfect street for bus lane nazis to snap unsuspecting motorists just trying to get somewhere and stray a few metres into the wrong lane. I actually don’t think that the lanes need policing, from my observations during peak hour and other times is that motorists actually obey them. The bus lane nazis are being over vigorous with their tax collecting.