Brian Rudman: Horse sense sadly lacking in our road managers

Do you sometimes get the feeling the lunatics have taken over the asylum? Late last week, Auckland City Council gave permission for an advertising agency to block off central city Albert St on Saturday to film a commercial.

Saturday morning shoppers were to be replaced by a herd of horses - that's right, horses - galloping up the busy thoroughfare.

Businesses were leafleted to assure them that the beasts would be carefully corralled during the shoot, which was very consoling I'm sure. The city council, for its part, was to receive just $700 for the inconvenience.

Now I admit, after the V8 car race fiasco, we should thank our lucky stars it was only an adman who'd come knocking at the Town Hall door and not some budding entrepreneur with a vision of Auckland as the Pamplona of the south. "You want to run bulls through city streets for a week? Certainly sir, that will be, shall we say, $500 a day, and don't worry about the manure, well use it on our flower beds."

As it turned out, the warning leaflets about the stampede had hardly dropped on retailers' doorsteps when the protests came flooding back to city hall pointing out that Saturday was a major trading day for retailers. It was also pointed out to city officials that the shopkeepers were already facing months of disruption as a result of the council's $100 million street upgrade programme and didn't welcome further annoyances.

After a day of flurry, sanity eventually prevailed and the planned horse business was cancelled. (As far as Albert St was concerned anyway, but I did see a public notice closing off the Hopetoun Street Bridge ... )

Talking bridges, Saturday's nightmare chaos on Mangere Bridge suggests that national road operator Transit New Zealand is no better than local road managers when it comes to ensuring that the road-user is the most important factor in its business.

This is particularly so in Auckland, where years of under-funding of both local and national networks means that a small blockage in one part of the system can rapidly lead to a heart attack, crippling the whole city for hours at a time.

Just a week ago I was suggesting that while we waited for the billions of dollars of transport projects the Government has promised for Auckland, it would be smart to better manage what we already had.

Now, in quick succession, two further examples. Saturday's blocking off the main route to the airport and the major route from the west to the south for six weekends in a row, with inadequate advance notice and hopeless detour instructions, is just unacceptable.

That taxis and Crown limousines - Trade Minister Phil Goff was one of those trapped for two hours in the snarl-up - got caught up is a pointer to the poor advance publicity. With adequate warning, and detour signage, at least people would have been able to make alternative arrangements - or stayed at home.

It's hard also, to believe the traffic planners couldn't envisage what was going to happen.

We all know that Auckland's road network is like a fat man's circulatory system - one blockage and it's good night nurse. Sure, bridges need maintenance. But how about in the quiet New Year period, when most people are on holiday?

Meanwhile, the Vector cableworks that I wrote about this time last week continue to delay traffic along Victoria St West out of the city.

I was assured that by the time of last Monday's column, the work would be over. As of last Friday, they were still snailing along towards College Hill, reducing outbound traffic to one lane. The most infuriating aspect is to finally get alongside the blockage to see no work going on at all, just a couple of diggers sitting there, all tucked for a good night's rest.

As for the five-hour closure of State Highway 1 north of Wellsford in mid-January after a fatal crash, there's still no explanation forthcoming.

Back in November 2002, the emergency services and Transit agreed to an "open roads" philosophy, committing themselves to make reopening the highways after a major accident a prime focus.

There was a recommitment to this in mid-July 2004, after a major crash closed Fanshawe St links to the harbour bridge for 3 1/2 hours.

Saturday's Mangere Bridge fiasco wasn't even an accident. Except as a euphemism for what was a totally self-inflicted injury.

It's time "open roads" was the policy of every road operator.