It’s going to be much safer to walk and cycle to school in Henderson North thanks to a $1.1 million fund from Henderson-Massey Local Board.
The funding will establish west Auckland’s first Home and School Zone. This means traffic calming measures such as traffic islands, crossings and cycling paths to make it safer to walk and cycle to school.
Local schools
The area includes Pomaria Primary, Henderson Intermediate, Waitakere, Liston and St Dominic’s Colleges. Residents have demanded action for a long time due to a long straight road, with cars travelling at dangerous speeds around schools.
Lowering speeds through road design is the quickest and most effective way of reducing accidents and this is particularly important for children who walk or bike to school.
Safety concerns
Henderson-Massey Local Board Chair Shane Henderson says that this will go a long way to addressing some longstanding safety concerns that the community and board have.
“With so many schools so close together, it is really important that we can make travelling to and from school safer.
“It’s not just simply reducing speed limits, but actually putting physical deterrents to slow traffic down and making it easier to walk or cycle to school.
“This has been led by the local MP Phil Twyford and passionate school communities. This project is a great example of local and central Government working with communities to improve lives and help people stay safe.
“Not only will it make a real difference to the area, but it will provide much better connections for people travelling to and from the schools there.”