New road safety improvements are coming to west Auckland, with plans to make Glen Eden town centre safer for people walking, change speed limits in some areas, improve signage on rural roads, and make intersections safer for all road users.
Other improvements include work to improve footpaths and a focus on speed management in the Waitākere Ranges.
Waitākere Ward Councillor Linda Cooper says the changes will make a real difference to improve road safety.
“There were 80 death and serious injury crashes in the Waitākere Ward alone last year, and two of these resulted in people dying.
“This needs to be reduced. We are committed to making our roads safer and that will mean changes to our network.
“We are working closely with Auckland Transport to make our rural roads and town centres safer, and investing $5.4 million this year alone in improvements,” she says.
Fellow ward Councillor Penny Hulse agrees.
“It’s really important for our residents to be able to travel through our town centres and suburbs to our beautiful beaches without their lives being at risk.”
“The cost of not investing in road safety is too high. We need to prioritise making our roads safer to make sure people get home safely to their whanau.”
Auckland Transport’s Group Manager Network Management and Safety, Randhir Karma, says road safety is the number one priority for the organisation.
“We are gearing up to deliver a number of projects in the Waitākere area in the next year to bring down the death and serious injury rate. We need to make our roads safer for all road users.
“Across the region, we are investing approximately $700 million, which is partly funded by the Regional Fuel Tax, to make our roads safer. We are committed to reducing death and serious injuries on our roads by 60 per cent in the next ten years.”
Click here for a full list of Waitākere road safety improvements slated for 2018-19.
