Auckland City Council
Media release

6 August 2009

Plans for a safer Ponsonby Road

Auckland City Council’s Transport Committee has today endorsed a proposal to reduce Ponsonby Road’s current 50km/h speed limit to 40km/h. The proposal is expected to be in place by September 2009.

The council consulted 3500 affected residents, property owners, businesses and stakeholders over a four-week period in June, to get their feedback on the proposed speed limit change.

Of the nearly 1000 responses that were received, almost 80 per cent were in favour of the change.

Ponsonby Road is one of Auckland’s busiest, and has a poor safety record with 253 crashes – 13 of these involving injuries to pedestrians – from 2004 to 2008.

Deputy chairperson of the Transport Committee, Councillor John Lister, says that reducing the speed limit will help to improve safety and reduce the high number of serious injuries.

“While crashes may still happen, if they occur at lower vehicle speeds, vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists have a much better chance of walking away unharmed,” he says.

The changes have the full support of the New Zealand Police, who will enforce the new speed limit once it has been implemented.

ENDS

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