Former engineer Clive Squire says he has changed his route home to avoid newly installed speed bumps in Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor
Former engineer Clive Squire says he has changed his route home to avoid newly installed speed bumps in Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor
A former Napier City Council engineer has a message for his old employer after a speed humps splash-out in his go-to driving route to town: "Please stop".
Six sets of bumps have been installed on the seaward side of Shakespeare Rd in Napier, while five have been installed in thepast week between the intersection with Battery Rd and the intersection with Coote Rd and Thompson Rd.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency refers to the need for "traffic calming" and calls the humps "speed cushions".
All six, slowing traffic both downhill and uphill, are on a route former engineer Clive Squire uses daily from his home in Seapoint Rd, Bluff Hill, into the CBD.
But he now talks past-tense, saying he "used to" use Shakespeare Rd, adding the humps are "unforgiving" and rather than take the risk of damage to the car or take the sudden jolt while at the wheel, he's not going over the hill any more.
"It is my go-to route to town," he said. "I'm now going down Marine Parade. It hasn't got any humps – yet."
Squire said if the aim is to reduce speeding, "the cure is worse than the affliction".
"The way these humps are constructed makes driving unpleasant and because they are easy to install - they are put in at short intervals," he said. "I suggest councillors take a drive on the seaward side of Shakespeare Rd to feel the full effect."
Squire, a former engineer, is a critic of the seasonal speed humps debate. Photo / Paul Taylor
He was city engineer (a role now known as Director of Infrastructure) for 12 years before retiring about 20 years ago and is among those who believe councils put the humps in because they can, needing to spend Government-sourced subsidies for cycle lanes and related safety measures.
"Where you introduce a subsidy you introduce a problem," he said. "Where there are winners there are losers."
"Please stop building these monstrosities and come up with better solutions to speeding motorists."
Councillor Greg Mawson said Napier City Council receives over 100 complaints per year relating to speed on local roads.
Mawson said council takes road safety seriously for all road users, particularly vulnerable users, and undertakes investigations into the complaints.
"These investigations demonstrate excessive speeds, sometimes in excess of 130km/h in 50km/h zones," he said.
"Speed cushions and humps are considered essential to avoid serious injury or loss of life. As a result, a number of local roads are determined to require physical intervention to manage poor driver behaviour with respect to speed."
Humps have been appearing on city streets for about 20 years, at a growth-rate driven by availability of commercially manufactured pads and blocks which can be fixed to the road surface.
NZTA says humps and cushions are rarely used individually but tend to form a series on a street or across as an area-wide treatment to maintain uniform speeds. Cushions are particularly good at offering traffic calming benefits without significant adverse effects on bus or emergency service access.
In Hawke's Bay, many have been placed on roads near schools, while in Napier there has been extensive humping and cushioning of residential streets in Maraenui following request from community organisation Tu Tangata Maraenui.
The Napier City Council's transport team says speed cushions are being installed in Shakespeare Rd and a raised courtesy crossing will be installed on Milton Road as part of the Innovating Streets project to make the area safer for students to use "active modes of transport to go to school".
Last year NZTA awarded the council just over $400,000 for safe routes to schools and the measures are part of the project.
It said the council has been working with three hill schools to increase the number of students travelling to school using "active transport by empowering the students to take ownership of the initiative, and we've had a tremendous response from them".
