Henri Labuschagne has to navigate 22 speed humps when he drives home each day through his newly built suburb north of Auckland city, over a distance of only 1.8km.
That equates to one speed hump about every 80m, which has left Labuschagne stumped.
“It’s just too much.”
And he’s not alone in experiencing a bumpy ride and vehicle wear in Milldale, billed by the developer as a gently undulating valley drenched in sun.
Labuschagne estimates about 100 speed humps had been installed in the greenfield development north of Auckland near Silverdale, with more expected as plans progress to triple the current population of 5000 residents.
“I’ve tried taking different routes, but speed humps appear everywhere. You just can’t seem to escape them.
“While I understand the importance of traffic calming, the number of speed humps is over the top. I’m lucky I can work two days a week at home, but my wife has to go to work every day, and she’s over it,” he said.
Another resident, who did not want to be named, said: “Catch a bus here from the Silverdale Park and Ride and you’ll experience all the speed bumps you need to put a curve in your spine.”
Wendy Sandifer, principal of Ahutoetoe Primary School, which opened at Milldale in February 2023 and currently has 300 learners, said the traffic calming measures were great, but agreed there were too many speed humps, which she described as “very raised”.
Auckland Transport’s design and standards manager, Chris Beasley, said Labuschagne’s home was located at the northernmost end of Milldale, requiring vehicles to travel through the entire development over a lot of raised speed tables until future stages offer a more direct connection to Wainui Rd.
Beasley said the transport agency, Auckland Council, and developer Fulton Hogan had agreed to a 30km/h low-speed environment for the new suburb.
He noted that AT had specifically requested raised platforms at pedestrian and cycle crossings, but not for the majority of raised speed tables that Fulton Hogan installed.
Under current speed management standards, developers may select from a range of traffic-calming measures, Beasley said, as long as they complied with resource consent conditions and engineering requirements. In this case, Fulton Hogan chose to implement raised speed tables.
A Milldale fact sheet states that Fulton Hogan is financing the road works. One key intersection is being delivered through a bulk infrastructure funding model, which accelerated the development, and is being repaid by residents over 30 years.
When asked for comment on the proliferation of speed humps at Milldale, Fulton Hogan’s corporate communications boss, Sarah Duncan, said “no comment from us”.
Fulton Hogan is one of New Zealand’s largest road construction and maintenance firms, and operates a land development arm. A 2021 Herald investigation into Auckland Council’s top contractors found the company had received $1.54 billion since the Super City’s inception in 2010, second only to Downer, which collected $1.6b.
Automobile Association policy director Martin Glynn said it sounded like there were a lot of speed humps at Milldale, saying Manurewa, Te Atatū and Rosehill were other suburbs where many speed humps had been installed.
The AA’s view was that speed humps had a valuable role in environments where lower vehicle speeds were essential, particularly in areas with high pedestrian activity, such as town centres and residential areas, he said.
The appropriate number of speed humps for any location depended on site-specific factors, and community views should be considered when making that determination, said Glynn.
Labuschagne, who has been living with his wife in their new home since January, said he enjoyed being part of what is a young community with a new school and shopping centre under construction.
It’s a beautiful area,” said Laubuschange, who has just one wish: “Remove some of the speed humps. It’s just too much.”
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