Road arrows and red light cameras on agenda

Whangarei District Council needs red-light cameras and more arrows painted on roads to reduce car accidents according to Whangarei District Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee Chairman Councillor Greg Martin.

Councillor Martin wants Council to consider these measures itself and to pressure the New Zealand Transport Authority to paint more direction arrows state highways and for rental car companies to carry “keep left” signs on their dashboards.

“In February I want to see an agenda item go before the committee to outline what we already have and what we can afford to do ourselves and how we can work with other agencies to deal with these issues,” he said.

“We all know that people’s ingrained habits kick in when driving, especially in challenging situations. People used to driving on the right hand side of the road, can swing into the path of on-coming traffic without thinking. More reminder arrows will help keep the left side rule top of mind for visitors. This is particularly important in a District with a huge increase in tourism traffic in summer. We already have a number of locations with keep left arrows on them, but I believe we could do with more, and I think there need to be more on state highways,” Cr Martin said.

“We have also seen an increase in the number of people running red lights. At busy intersections that is a sure recipe for tragedy. Red-light cameras will drive the point home to people who habitually run lights.”

WDC Roading Manager Jeff Devine said a report would be coming back to Council.

“In the meantime we have been addressing the issues that cause increases in red-light running. That behaviour is often driven by frustration by people who feel they will have to wait too long at a set of lights.

“Sensors under the roads have been failing in some areas because of water getting into joints in the system and causing faults. We have identified a new piece of hardware and will be progressively replacing the joints. The faults around the Bank Street signals should be fixed before Christmas.

“We are also monitoring the number of red runners through our computer system and are working with the NZ Police to identify times and sites for them to target when they have resources.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media