Symonds Street Speeding Petition Update: Overwhelming Support from UOA Community

Our campaign is still on-going, if you haven't signed yet, please consider it! If you haven't signed it yet or would like to share the link, here is the link to our petition: https://chng.it/kx6g2D8Nms

Campagin Progress Update:

Last week, we started a petition calling for Auckland Council and Auckland Transport to do more to enforce the 30 km/hr speed limit around the University of Auckland and AUT, with a specific focus on Symonds Street.

In just a week, we have received an outpouring of support online for the petition. The petition has been signed by 574 people as of the writing of this post and shared 275 times. A special thank you to the generous donors who donated $49 to support our campaign.

Many UOA student organisations have also lent their support and endorsement to the petition, too, including AUSA, Vroom UoA, the Auckland University Women in Science (AUWS), the Eastern Students Association (ESA), Te Mana Pakihi, the University of Auckland Volleyball Club and Princes Street Labour. We'd like to give a special shout-out to Civil & Structural Engineering Students Association (CESA) and Students of Urban Planning & Architecture Association (SUPA), who have been consulting with us about our upcoming draft speed reduction methods proposal. We have also had the support of some UOA staff members, who have advised us on the direction of the petition.

Crucially, we have gained the support of our local ward councillor, Mike Lee, who agrees more could be done to reduce speeding on Symonds Street.

We have also had the endorsement of local Labour MP Shanan Halbert. We are beginning to get some mainstream media attention as Newstalk ZB interviewed me on Friday about the petition.

Let's keep the momentum going! Together, we can crack 1000 signatures!

Since our first post last week, I have done additional research into road safety on Symonds Street, and I thought I'd share my findings here for your interest.

First of all, to be clear, the current speed limit on Symonds Street is 30 km/hr. Some people online have misinterpreted our campaign as being about reducing the speed limit, but this is not the case. The 30 km/hr speed limit on Symonds Street will also not be affected by the Coalition Government's new Speed Limit Reversal laws either.

Between 2014 and 2018, 48 people died in car crashes along the whole Anzac Avenue-Symonds Street-New North Road route. As such, Auckland Council have classified Symonds Street as a high-risk crash area as early as 2021. In fact, they planned on re-designing the whole Anzac Avenue-Symonds Street-New North Road route in 2023-24 to make it safer after community feedback placed pedestrian safety on Symonds Street as the top concern.

But this safety upgrade was paused following the 2022 local body elections and hasn't restarted since. The proposed re-design was ambitious and would have transformed the whole route into something a bit like how Queen Street and Karangahape Road are today.

However, it is important to note that lower Symonds Street intersecting the "learning quarter" (the official name for the general UOA/AUT area) was not included in this re-design plan, although it was consulted. Perhaps this might be the reason why the road area around the universities has minimal speed reduction measures in place. Because it was left out of a plan that never came to fruition and has been lost in limbo for the last few years.

More on the speed reduction methods we are calling for

Since our initial post, we have considered the feedback we have received online from the UOA community on what could be done about speeding on Symonds Street to increase the safety of pedestrians.

Better and more visible signs

Smart signs like these, which show drivers their speed limit and signal to them whether they need to slow down, could be an effective addition to the existing signage on Symonds Street. We believe the culture of casual speeding on Symonds Street is partially driven by ignorance: many drivers simply don't realise it is a 30 km zone. It is a street that looks like a 50 km zone with minimal signage to suggest otherwise. Installing more signs to remind drivers to slow down could be a non-invasive, cost-effective way to improve pedestrian safety around our unis.

Bollards

Although they were not featured in our initial post, many students online have recommended the installation of Bollards to protect pedestrians all along footpaths around UOA and AUT and to prevent cars that lose control from mounting the footpath. We think this is a brilliant and non-invasive option to recommend to Auckland Transport, and as such, we have now incorporated Bollards as one of the possible safety measures that our petition calls for.

Speed Cameras

Or Safety Cameras, as NZTA calls them, who recently took control of them from the NZ Police. These could be used to fine drivers who exceed the 30 km/hr speed limit on a section of Symonds Street.

However, they're somehow borderline prohibitively expensive to operate. The total cost of installing and operating just one camera can be as much as $6 million, and that's when you're doing it in bulk, too. Crazy right? According to some student feedback we have received, they also give off bad surveillance state vibes, although there are already CCTV cameras pretty much everywhere in the CBD anyway. Safety Cameras are also not foolproof. Yes, they will get drivers to slow down, but only for as long as their vehicle is in the camera's sightline.

Speed bumps/raised pedestrian crossing

We are also aware many students want to see speed bumps and raised pedestrian crossings installed, particularly at the crossing next to the crash site, between Hiwa and the engineering building. While this would be ideal, we have also had advice from UOA staff that it might not be possible to have these installed due to the freight that uses the route. We will have to wait to see what Auckland Transport says.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for the petition's proposed safety measures, please email us at managingeditor@craccum.co.nz

On behalf of everyone at Craccum, we want to say a massive thank you to our readers and contributors alongside the 500+ members of the UOA community, staff, students, clubs, alumni, friends, whanau, supporters and generally awesome people who have signed our petition so far.

If you haven't signed it yet or would like to share the link, here is the link to our petition: https://chng.it/kx6g2D8Nms