Dawn Picken: The answer to the Bay's traffic woes? Not another study

We are pushing congestion elsewhere rather than finding a solution that fits, writes Dawn Picken. Photo / NZME

OPINION

It's another wet, dreary day as I write. The kind that makes you want to hop on the first flight to somewhere warm and sunny.

Instead, most of us are stuck in a winter routine, squished like soggy socks between dark mornings and dim afternoons. We feast on sunlight when it makes its cameo, like hedgehogs emerging after hibernation.

And we're commuting. Despite extortionate petrol prices worldwide, we're still hopping in our cars and mostly driving alone.

Around the Bay and beyond, we've become numb to the omnipresence of road works. Orange cones and concrete barriers are as much a part of our landscape as ponga trees and pohutukawa.

Tauranga's two flyovers, part of the Baypark to Bayfair Link project, are scheduled for completion at the end of next year, while the next stage of upgrades to Rotorua's Te Ngae Road is set to finish in about two years. After that, more projects will take their place, because the only certainties in life are death, taxes and roadworks.

There's not much we can do except allow more time to commute and wind through the construction maze. Or work from home.

Yet the answer to one traffic bugbear remains within our grasp. We could fix it tomorrow if those in power say "go".

Re-open Links Avenue. A second trial closure that started in late March has seen the secondary arterial open mainly to buses. This follows an earlier trial where the road closed from mid-November to mid-December last year.

The trial's purpose is noble: safety. Parents of school children have repeatedly called Links Avenue unsafe after Tauranga City reconfigured the road to include a bus lane. Today, unauthorised drivers get stung with $150 fines.

Findings from the first trial showed the number of cars on the road decreased significantly and people's perception of safety improved. I think the appropriate response to this groundbreaking fact is, "No sh*t." If you close a road, cars will not travel that road. If you close your business, people will not use it.

The rationale behind a second test to see if closing a road would cause people to avoid it was partly because the council needed a longer trial to test and observe road user behaviour.

Again, if you close a road and fine people for using that road, the vast majority will not use the road. My head hurts while writing this.

It's like when I tried to explain to my 18-year-old daughter that a new day begins after the stroke of midnight. We had a 20-minute conversation about this concept, which she had trouble grasping. It was painful. Much like the Links Ave traffic trial. Painful.

Just days ago, we learned there's no end in sight for this blasted experiment that was initially scheduled to last a minimum of four months. The creation of a community panel to find safer roading solutions in June heralded the prolonging of our collective commuting nightmare.

If you want to drag out any process at work, home or especially in government, create a panel. Study the issue ad infinitum. It's an effective way to postpone action.

A Tauranga football club recently launched a petition demanding the council funnel some of the money issued in tickets from Links Ave back to the community. In the first two months, nearly 17,000 fines were issued, equating to around $2.5 million in revenue.

The football club's president also wanted to return access to the street, saying the road closure had resulted in decreased income and increased expenses due to security upgrades following thefts and vandalism.

A previous petition to have all the fines refunded gathered more than 5000 signatures, but the city rejected the idea.

I don't understand why Links Ave is closed during the school holidays. The council could easily re-open the road for these two weeks.

I have yet to hear a good explanation for why we can't restrict the road during school hours and open it early mornings, nights and weekends. Why do we make these things so hard?

Links is quiet, but surrounding arterials including Oceanbeach and Maunganui Roads are busier. We are pushing congestion elsewhere rather than finding a solution that fits.

We don't close every street around a school in the name of safety. We install speed humps, signs, and reduce speed limits. We try to safeguard our children while ensuring the city still moves.

We don't need another trial or study. We need to re-open the road.

Express your views about the Links Ave trial here: https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/exploring/transportation-and-roads/transportation-projects/links-avenue-cul-de-sac-trial

Dawn Picken has written for NZME since 2014 after a career in television news and marketing in the United States. Picken teaches in the business department of Toi Ohomai, where she shares stories of leadership and change.