Evidence-based recommendations to save lives on Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s roads

Auckland Transport is the largest road controlling authority in New Zealand. Historically, around one in every five of New Zealand’s road deaths and serious injuries occur on Auckland Transport roads.  So, when a significant spike in deaths and serious injuries was identified in 2017 - deaths and serious injuries had risen over 70%  in three years (Figure 1) - the Board of Auckland Transport became concerned and commissioned an urgent Business Improvement Review (BIR) which was published in 2018.  

The BIR was undertaken by internationally renowned road safety expert Eric Howard.  Eric developed 45 road safety recommendations for Auckland Transport to pursue to improve road safety outcomes in Auckland.

Earlier this year, Eric returned to assess progress against that plan. The resulting report covers some 170 pages and looks at progress against the 74 actions that underpin the 45 recommendations made in the 2018 BIR. 

The headline is that Auckland Transport has made good progress in implementing the recommendations of the 2018 BIR.  In all:

• 28 of the 75 recommended actions have been substantially or completely implemented
• satisfactory progress has been made on a further 28
• 18 recommended actions have shown unsatisfactory progress
• one has not been progressed.

Unfortunately, the 45 actions that relied on central government agencies are not progressing well.  Only:

• five actions are substantially completed and for another
• 12 the progress is satisfactory
• 21 are underway but progress is not satisfactory
• seven have not been started.

These actions have the potential to reduce New Zealand’s deaths and serious injuries, not just Auckland’s. The report makes several comparisons, such as those shown in Figure 2, to identify just how far New Zealand as a whole has to go when it comes to road safety.

You can see all 75 recommendations and progress against them here.

It is worth noting the great progress made by Auckland Transport on embedding the safe system and vision zero within the organisation, the review of speed limits and the investment in infrastructure.  As Eric Howard points out AT has achieved highly-positive results to date for its community and this achievement cannot be underappreciated.

While I agree with Eric, there is still a way to go. Unfortunately, the data for 2021 is showing something of a return to 2018’s level.  Auckland Transport and its partners should focus on the following top 10 initiatives to work to address this going forward:

1. Substantially improve deterrence of drink driving
2. Substantially improve deterrence of speeding
3. Pursue significant road safety regulatory reform at a national level
4. Deliver improved pedestrian (and other people outside vehicles) safety across the arterials and other roads in the network
5. Advocate for and advise on policy reform at a national level
6. Lower travel speeds across higher-risk sections of the Auckland network
7. Expand safer urban infrastructure treatment programmes, in association with safer speed limit introductions, to continue to lower death and serious injury (DSI) across the road network
8. Auckland Transport to substantially ramp up investment in/resourcing of capabilities for informed road safety partnership activities with local Auckland partners, plus other stakeholders and national partners
9. With Auckland Transport Board and chief executive leadership, Auckland Transport to continue to work to genuinely embed the Vision Zero and Safe System principles in all they do to achieve a 65 per cent reduction in DSI by 2030 and zero DSI by 2050 for their community
10. Ensure health and safety responsibilities cover transport network operating risks.

The first five of these are essentially national initiatives where Auckland Transport is advocating or supporting broader road safety objectives.  While progress on these initiatives is essential, not just for Auckland Transport but for the whole of New Zealand, Auckland Transport cannot simply sit on its hands waiting for others.  It must also look to the things that only Auckland Transport can control. To do so, there must be high level ownership to embed Vision Zero and Safety Systems thinking (9) and to focus on speed management (6) and infrastructure improvements (7).

While this 2021 review at times makes confronting reading, Auckland and arguably New Zealand should be grateful that Auckland Transport has recognised a problem exists, developed an action plan, worked to implement that plan, and are monitoring progress.  This evidence-based approach is, in my opinion, essential for the systematic improvement of road safety outcomes in Auckland and further afield.

With the more recent upswing in deaths and serious injury within Auckland, I believe it is important that Auckland Transport’s partners also step up, particularly with respect to behavioural change initiatives around drink and drugged driving and inappropriate speed.

Bio

Dr Fergus Tate is Technical Director - Transport. He is widely acknowledged to be a leading expert in road safety in New Zealand and has applied his expertise to some of the most innovative road safety projects in New Zealand. These include the introduction of the New Zealand Road Assessment Programmes KiwiRAP and road Infrastructure Risk Rating (IRR), as well as Rural Intersection Active Warning Systems (RIAWS) and out of context curves.