Coincidently the Automobile Association (AA), which regularly surveys its 1.9 million members, develops a list of priorities in respect to land transport and road safety for potential politicians to consider as they approach their general election campaigns.
The AA’s top two priorities are for significantly-enhanced road maintenance and greater road network resilience. It seems that no matter who holds the purse strings for the next three years, the Government’s and the AA’s top priorities are well aligned.
Weather events and an abnormal annual rainfall have highlighted that our roads have not been getting the maintenance they need to stay safe and fit for purpose for a very long time, so increasing essential maintenance by at least $1.2 billion over the next three years is the number one AA call. The proposed GPS is pretty close to that as its first priority, which is great to see.
The phenomenon of our highways, local roads, bridges and tunnels being out of action for long periods because of extreme weather events means that our network needs to be more resilient. It can’t be understated just how important the Brynderwyns are to the Northland economy, and that well-maintained alternative routes are an essential part of our network resilience.
The Government Policy Statement includes a range of other strategic priorities such as reducing emissions, having sustainable urban and regional development, and an integrated freight system, all of which are difficult to tie down. It also identifies a range of strategic roading and rail projects throughout the country.
Northland’s particular interest is the State Highway 1 corridor, which includes Warkworth to Wellsford, Te Hana to the Brynderwyns, and Whangārei to the Brynderwyns. These are identified in the plan as opportunities for transformational change but are non-specific beyond that, and, it seems, do not tackle the Brynderwyns issue itself.
My special focus is how the GPS identifies with road safety. The Road to Zero strategy appears to have morphed from an activity class of its own to “being delivered across the state highway and local road improvements and safety activity classes”.
The Government appears to have almost given up on the Road to Zero goal. The safety focus has changed from: “A safe transport system free of death and serious injury” in 2018 to “develop a transport system where no one is killed or seriously injured” in 2021, to now “transport is made substantially safer for all”- whatever that means - in 2024.
Funding the increased land transport infrastructure and strategy spend will involve a two cents per litre increase in excise and equivalent road user charges every six months for the next three years - a total of 12 cents per litre increase over that time. A real source of gratification for the AA is the intention for the full commitment of traffic infringement revenue to road safety investments, which the AA has advocated for for years. The money from traffic fines currently goes to the Crown, and now it will come back to safer roads - and therein lies an opportunity.
The fines and penalty regime for traffic infringements has not been revised for more than 20 years and is internationally way out of line.
The fine for not wearing a seatbelt or using a cellphone while driving is $150 in New Zealand, compared to around $1100 in Australia. There is the potential for the $100 million, as the current infringement revenue, to become over $500m, as the lawbreakers contribute to the roading environment that they abuse.
