Mayor backs off red-light confession

Bob Harvey

Auckland's transport politicians are backing a $750,000 pilot project to stop motorists running red lights, though Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey doubts even public executions would end the practice.

"It's in the psyche now - I do it myself, I wish I didn't, but now it's caught on," he told the Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee yesterday.

"I think if you pulled people out of their cars and had public executions, it would still happen.

"When I was growing up, we always went towards the lights and slowed down, but now you speed up - I'm not condoning it, by the way."

Mr Harvey later watered down his confession, telling the transport committee he ran through only orange lights, not red.

After the meeting, he told the Herald he had never driven through a red light, but had been hit twice from behind by other vehicles after stopping on amber.

Despite his pessimism about the mindset of local drivers, those born here and what he called a "new generation" of immigrants from Asia and India, the committee pledged its support for an intersection safety pilot programme as a joint project of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, Auckland City Council and the police.

The authority has applied to Land Transport NZ for half of an estimated cost of $406,800 to set up the three-year project, which will involve rotating at least two digital cameras around 11 of central Auckland's most dangerous intersections.

The project comes after the Herald revealed the extent of red-light running in Auckland, with dozens of vehicles driving through red lights at busy city intersections every hour.

Authority sustainable transport manager Anna Percy said the programme was as much about education as enforcement and was also supported by the Accident Compensation Corporation and the Automobile Association.

That means various parties will share an estimated marketing bill of $69,700 on top of the establishment budget, the city council will spend $27,400 on maintaining equipment, and the police will cover operating costs of $246,200 over the three years.

The project's total cost is estimated at just over $750,000 but the transport authority expects it to reduce crashes at the intersections by 25 per cent, meaning a social benefit of $1.73 million over three years.

Transport committee chairman Joel Cayford rejected Mr Harvey's analysis, saying consistent fines of $200 had been all it took to change the behaviour of motorists who had driven illegally in the bus and high-occupancy lane along Onewa Rd through Birkenhead and Northcote.