At the Auckland Transport Board meeting in February 2024 was the finalisation of Katoa, Ka Ora: Auckland’s speed management plan 2024 – 2027. This follows earlier mahi, over 2020 to 2023, which introduced safe and appropriate speed limits to approximately 39 percent of the network. Data collected over a two year period confirmed a reduction in road deaths of 30 percent and serious injuries of 21 percent on roads with safer speeds, compared with a nine percent increase on roads where speed limits were not changed.
Katoa Ka Ora was the next step towards creating a safer region, by adjusting speeds across 24% of the network. As seems to be the case with projects that are not about building roads, the consultation for Katoa, Ka Ora was extensive. Two years of it, in fact, with 8,000 submissions considered. The final draft had been revised to include only areas where the local board supported the relevant speed changes. The programme received unanimous support from the Auckland Council Transport and Infrastructure Committee in December 2023. Following this, it came to the Auckland Transport Board this week for endorsement.
So what did the board meeting reveal? Disappointingly, it looks as if the Board has watered the plan down. After discussion (which referenced Transport Minister MP Simeon Brown’s direction) the Board chose to endorse half of the plan; addressing speeds around schools and marae (and Karioitahi beach) only. The other parts of the plan (through some town centres and residential streets) are being reassessed over the next month and are expected to be discussed at the March board meeting. We don’t currently have visibility of which roads are in the endorsed part of the plan and which are subject to this reassessment.
So a plan with broad support across the region, the backing of Auckland Council, and proven results, mysteriously gets diluted. It’s no great surprise, because we’ve seen excellent projects get walked back time and time again. In this case, the poverty of ambition the AT Board is displaying ignores the feedback of the communities and local boards it so painstakingly consulted with. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland deserves better. We deserve follow through.
We encourage you to write to the Auckland Transport Board to express that Katoa Ka Ora has strong support from the community and elected representatives alike, and that we deserve them to follow through on the full plan. We’ll be at the next AT Board meeting on 26 March to show our support for safer speeds across our region, and we encourage you to join us if you can.
