Auckland Transport called for submissions on their proposed speed limit bylaw in February. Following is GLRA’s submission…
12 March 2019
Re: Proposed new Speed Limits Bylaw 2019
Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission.
The Grey Lynn Residents Association (GLRA) is an incorporated society, formed in 2013. Its goals are to provide a unified voice for the residents of Grey Lynn, to promote and protect the interests and welfare of the residents of Grey Lynn, and to work to make Grey Lynn the most liveable suburb in the world. GLRA’s views are informed by a needs assessment of 516 locals, available on its website. The GLRA Facebook page is followed by over 400 people.
We support the overall purpose of this proposal, to achieve safer speeds, and the concept of Vision Zero. We expect the speed reductions will lead to safer and more liveable streets with better amenity values.
Our Grey Lynn needs assessment found that traffic was a major concern for residents. Residents felt that many streets were unsafe because of traffic, especially for children and walking and cycling. Traffic speed was a commonly reported issue.
We support lowered speeds around schools and in town centres. In particular, we support the lowered speeds to 30 km/h in the West Lynn town centre and much of the CBD, and we support speed reductions around Richmond Road School and St Paul’s College, Grey Lynn School, Western Springs College and other schools in the area.
We believe that a more coherent and less piecemeal approach could be applied to speed reductions. Compliance with 30 km/h zones is likely to improve if these are more consistently implemented, as there would be fewer speed limit changes for people driving to negotiate. More consistent application of 30 km/h zones across urban Auckland, as well as across streets within each suburb, would help people driving recognise and understand the speed at which they are expected to drive, and would help drive a culture change towards safer speeds.
Yours sincerely
