Living Streets Aotearoa strongly supports Auckland Transport’s move to make the city a better place to live by introducing safer speeds.

The recent announcement that Auckland Transport would be implementing safer and more appropriate speed limits in the city centre, in town centres and in other parts of the city recognise that we can’t outrun physics. Even at 30 km hour it takes 32 metres to stop a car, that’s the length of a swimming pool.

Living Streets’ Safer Speeds spokesperson Dr. Chris Teo-Sherrell says, “Auckland wants to be a world class city and is moving to do it in world class ways. Achieving safer speeds through lowering speed limits, safer street designs, education, technology to assist drivers keep speeds safe, and more enforcement are what is needed.”

“These sorts of measures have been or are being implemented in cities around the world. London is introducing 20mph speed limits. New York has already decreased speeds. Many European cities have had them for years, and it shows in their lower road crash statistics.”

Safer speeds have lots of pay-offs and encourage more people to walk. This means livelier streets with more people spending time and money along them. Slower speeds lead to smoother traffic flow with less noise and fewer crashes where people are killed or seriously injured.

Auckland has grown fast with more people using streets and this makes 50km/h unsuitable for many streets. People of all ages should be able to get about and use the streets safely. The proposal by Auckland Transport is an important step to make this a reality.

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