This government’s legacy for transport in Auckland

A must read article from Connor Sharp, writing for Greater Auckland:

...this government is funnelling millions of dollars to consultants to design frankly unaffordable billion-dollar mega-motorways. Meanwhile, a struggling construction sector faces the ongoing collapse of the pipeline of smaller, smarter projects.

This is due largely to one person: Simeon Brown.

Simeon Brown's transport legacy has screwed our future finances with mega highways that are eye-wateringly unaffordable. Alongside that, he's decided to believe that any transport which isn't a four lane highway is woke and horrible.

He has a clear ideological fervour to speed cars up and dismantle anything that seems "woke" – like bike paths or walking. His driving above al what attitude is most clear when you see his choice to intentionally increase speed limits around schools.

In June, Councillor Shane Henderson quizzed an AT lawyer on the logic, or lack thereof, of Brown’s new Speed Rule. Let me get this straight, Henderson asked. “If we lowered speeds to protect children, it gets captured [by the rule] and the speeds [must be] raised. If we didn’t lower speeds to protect children, the safer speeds can stay. Is that correct?” AT’s lawyer agreed: “That’s how the rule is drafted.”

When a kid is hit by a car at 30km/h, there's a 90% chance of survival. At 50km/h, the risk of kids dying goes up hugely. If they're hit by a car at 60km/h, children are almost guaranteed to die.

All this risk that children will be killed by cars saves, no joke, just 15 seconds of travel time to a 20 minute car trip. 15 seconds.

The Minister of Transport made that trade off – an exponentially higher risk of dead kids to shave seconds of driving for an average journey around a school.

After making this choice, this man was promoted to Minister of Health.