Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown calls for law change to fix ‘nonsensical’ road cone, traffic management

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is calling for the end of “road cone mania” after a new report found temporary traffic management contractors have little incentive to work cheaper and faster.

The Ernst & Young Global Limited (EY) report found existing rules and regulations incentivised contractors to cause maximum disruption to maximise profits.

It also showed legislative change is needed to change this behaviour and minimise disruption and that virtually every other comparable jurisdiction charges more, enforces more vigorously, and charges for time and disruption.

Today Brown said the “nonsensical” use of temporary traffic management was hugely frustrating for people.

“Temporary traffic management has gone beyond necessity, which doesn’t make worksites any safer. The loss in productivity to Auckland businesses and households is taking a massive toll on our city financially, but it also causes undue stress.

“It’s embarrassing, and not what you’d expect from a world-class city.”

He questioned the “disturbing lack of understanding of commercial drivers” displayed by NZTA and the Ministry of Transport.

“Only by addressing the commercial drivers can we finally begin to reverse the loss in productivity road cone mania has caused.”

Brown told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that the safety culture was everywhere in New Zealand and these industries were exploiting it.

“I have given direction to Auckland Transport (AT) to start reducing it and they have made some efforts and saved some money,” he said.

Traffic congestion due to road works on Quay St, downtown Auckland.

The EY report showed, under the direction of Brown, AT has reduced its temporary traffic management spend by $1.27 million since February.

However, Brown said some rules and regulations prevented the acceleration of that process.

“It’s another case of Wellington passing rules and regulations without understanding the economic impact.”

When asked whether the central government needed to change the rules surrounding road cones, the mayor said if he were to raise the issue, “they will commission a report and several years later, something will happen”.

“I’ve commissioned a report, it shows quite clearly what needs to happen and given it to the Government [and said] just do this.

“It’s not just a waste of money, it’s not saving any lives, it’s annoying everybody and it forces people to behave badly anyway.”

The EY report found AT has reduced its temporary traffic management spend by $1.27 million since February.

Early this month, Transport Minister Simeon Brown said road cone use and temporary traffic management was “out of control”.

“Excessive use of road cones and temporary speed limit reductions - sometimes left in place when work is complete - simply increases cost, forces people to slow down, and frustrates drivers,” Brown said.

“In fact, the NZ Transport Agency [NZTA] conducted a review of TTM at 800 maintenance worksites on the state highway network across the country in February and found that 145 of these sites were not needed, showing how out of control the use of road cones and temporary traffic management has become.”

Mayor Brown said the Transport Minister was picking up on many things he was doing.

“If he wants to fix this and become popular, that’s fine with me, but it’s a thing I have been on since I got in the door.”

Auckland Council spends a reported $145 million a year on road cones and temporary traffic management.