Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

And a free badge for you sanctimonious highway menaces!

The guvmint has announced even more funding for the region's roads this week, on top of large dollops of dosh already committed to the new northern route and other
big road spends.

The latest revelations total up to more than I can ever remember a government spending on our local highways, which is great news. For too long this region has been short changed for road funding. For decades the BOP was standing behind the door when the cheques were handed out. That, combined with previous governments with "other" spending priorities, meant slim pickings for road improvements. That's all changing.

The latest improvements include safety upgrades will include a combination of side barriers, rumble strips, wide centre line treatments and median barriers.

In some areas corners will be softened to improve visibility and road marking and signage highlighting the road environment will be upgraded, according to the Transport Minister.

However amidst all this unprecedented and well overdue road improvements, there seems to two words ominously absent in all this: Passing lanes.

Lanes removed

We all agree that traffic travels at different speeds. Obviously it's all determined by the type of vehicle, age of the vehicle, size, the ability of the driver, density of traffic, weather, visibility and a whole range of factors.

Also some people like to drive slow, others prefer (and are capable) of safely driving up to the speed limit, all things permitting; including the conditions. So surely it's reasonable that good roads should allow for some vehicles to safely travel faster than others?

Not so, the roads north of Tauranga and many other arterials. Passing lanes have actually been removed from the Tauranga-Waihi route in recent years. To the point that if you get stuck behind a slow vehicle such as a laden truck or a dawdling camper that never pulls aside, you have maybe two opportunities to pass on double lanes for the entire stretch of highway from the city to Waihi.

And despite massive road reconstruction north of Apata, the work hasn't produced another lane, even though it seemed to the layman a perfectly good opportunity.

This means that all traffic travelling north of Tauranga in either direction is restricted to travel at the pace of the lowest common denominator: the SLOWEST.

Not only is this inefficient, but unsafe. Slowing traffic and raising frustration levels is a recipe for trouble. Yet it could be so easily solved, with more passing lanes and better driver education.

The government seems unwilling to push for either. We've asked Minister Bridges and look forward to his reply.

Last resorts

Rumble strips, cheese cutters, barriers and paraphernalia aren't going to cut it. In fact rumble strips deter slow vehicles from pulling aside and doing the right thing.

Barriers and medians are last resorts, they are built to contain vehicles going out of control and to minimise carnage. Why not also work to keeping the traffic flowing smoother and more efficiently – and yes, sometimes that means faster – in order to improve safety?

Our geography and budget will never allow the sort of vast freeway systems of other nations, such as France, but those expressways with unlimited speeds show that speed is not necessarily the killer.

And after all the safety talk, let's not forget that we should have the right to travel at whatever speed the driver deems acceptable, up to the limit... not at a speed determined by the driver in front, on a 40 km stretch of single lane highway with no passing opportunities.

There's probably a hundred good engineering reasons and cost-benefit calculations that rule out a lot of passing lane potential, but to this driver and no doubt many of you unqualified armchair experts (the ones using and paying for the roads daily) why not provide more overtaking opportunities? And that may not mean high speed passing lanes necessarily. How about more of the ‘slow vehicle bays' such as on the ‘Tron side of the Kaimai road. And compulsory ‘pullover' laws for slow vehicles holding up others? It works in other countries. If slow drivers can't or won't be educated to be good citizens, perhaps the law should hammer it into them, by enforcing them to act with some basic common courtesy.

And if you're one of the indignant slow-pokes reading this and getting your gearshift in a grind about impatient drivers behind… ask yourself, how often do I pull aside to let them go? Or are you one of the dipsticks who have taken it upon yourselves to single-handedly enforce your own version of a safe speed on the dozens of vehicles backed up on your bumper?

In your own sad little head you're a sort of self-aggrandised road safety superhero.

Here's your badge, cut it out, pin to your cardie and wear it with pride.

Parting shots

Even the most spectacular road safety initiatives won't save us from ignorance and sheer ineptness.

Here's a couple of local cases I photographed this week.

Classy footpath parking skills on display at kids' rugby. That's ironic… encourage sport for fitness, but can't be bothered finding a proper park and walking an extra hundred metres.

Parking wardens would cream it on a Saturday morning at Blake Park.

And please return your trundler here.. MORE CAREFULLY.

Was this trolley trauma or car carnage? Either way, some people just shouldn't be allowed in charge of anything with wheels. Spotted in the Bureta supermarket carpark, evidence of either an aisle-rage issue with shoppers there, or Bureta drivers are more out of control than we thought. (I love the token cone)

Be careful out there… they drive among us. Send us your pictures.

brian@thesun.co.nz

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