The use of red light cameras are very much a case of using a stick to try and get the right behaviour out of motorists. I think it is generally accepted that more of them are needed, however they only have a limited application as they are restricted to light controlled intersections. There are a lot of areas around the city where we may want to improve driver behaviour – especially in some of our residential areas where some of the biggest issues come from speeding drivers.
We here at the blog are very supportive of suggestions to lower speed limits in residential areas and in town centres to improve safety. We have seen this happen already along Ponsonby Rd where the speed limit was reduced to 40km per hour and in Queen St where the limit is 30km per hour. It would be great to see this concept expanded out to more areas however changing a sign doesn’t always change behaviour judging by the speed I still see some cars doing down Ponsonby Rd. While more enforcement might help, it may not be practical to do on a regular ongoing basis. In some of these cases, perhaps instead of using a stick we should also consider using a carrot approach. One such place where a carrot idea is an idea being tried in where else but the Netherlands.
The method being used seems quite simple and appeals to people to work together as a community. It works by using a fixed sign to monitor the speed of vehicles passing by it and how those speeds compare to the speed limit (in this case 30kph). This is similar to signs we already have here but there is a catch. At the bottom of the sign is a counter and for every vehicle that is travelling under the speed limit, €0.03 is paid into a fund for improving the local neighbourhood. For every vehicle that travels faster than the limit the same amount is deducted.
All up it seems like a very neat and unique way to encourage people to drive slower. I can imagine they would be great for quite a few neighbourhoods around Auckland – although even just lowering speed limits in residential areas would be a nice start. Are there any other carrot type ideas that you have seen out there?
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Young baseball players standing under the sign and each time someone goes too fast past them they throw carrots at the speeding car.
The good old Lemon & Apple. Sorry, was translated by google, but i think it’s readable.
http://translate.google.co.nz/translate?hl=de&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.auva.at%2Fportal27%2Fportal%2Fauvaportal%2Fchannel_content%2FcmsWindow%3Fp_pubid%3D658011%26action%3D2%26p_menuid%3D73426%26p_tabid%3D2&sandbox=1
A cool (similar) idea that VW experimented with in Sweden as part of their “Fun Theory” project, a speed camera lottery. If you speed you still get a ticket, but money from the fine goes into a jackpot and all the people that did obey the speed limit get photographed as well and get an entry into the lottery. While there might be some privacy concerns, it’s a cool idea! Would work very well on Ponsonby Road.
Speeding traffic in, and “rat-running” through, residential streets are major issues across much of suburbia. But installing local area traffic management (LATM) infrastructure is expensive and not always very effective. As a member of the Albert Eden Local Board I have been able to initiate a trial of the “Home Zone” approach (based on the British model) which is more about the “carrots” of education and modifying driver behavior than “sticks” to try forcing them to comply. On average at least 60% of traffic in residential (non-arterial) roads is generated by the residents of those streets so they play a key role in the pattern of behavior in their own streets. If the residents slow down then the problem is halved and they then provide a role model (the prevailing speed) for outsiders.
Our board has two areas about to be given the Home Zone treatment – each just over half a square kilometre in extent. A key feature will be the installation of threshold treatments at all side road entrances to the “Home Zone” from the surrounding arterials (we are using red textured bands across the roads and small roadside signs). These will announce the transition from a high volume traffic environment to a low traffic volume quiet neighbourhood and serve as a “request” for drivers to respect the change of environment and drive accordingly. From a previous exercise in Point Chevalier (which I was also involved with) this can cut the 85th percentile speed by about 10%.
Inside the Home Zone the thresholds will be supplemented with some speed slowing devices (gentle speed tables) on the longer straight sections of road. We are also experimenting with the David Enqwicht “Mental Speed-Bumps” approach in one of the two Home Zone areas so we can compare the efficacy of his alternative traffic calming techniques with driver behaviour in the other one. The Board is funding this work but Auckland Transport is designing and delivering it and treating the whole exercise as a trial to see if the Home Zone model is a cost-effective technique for traffic calming. If the results are positive it may be rolled out across many other suburbs.
I hear that some want to move to a lower posted speed limit in residential streets (35kmph?, 25kmph?) but feel that this cannot be done on a spot basis (isolated suburbs). In order to resolve issues of certainty and consistency and public acceptance such a move would need to be done across large tracts of suburbia (all of metro Auckland?) to be workable and enforceable. Perhaps the Home Zone approach could be a precursor to such a radical move.
Hi Graeme, is Auckland Transport trialling sign age down Halesowen Ave in Sandringham? There are about 10 new signs down the road, they look pretty clunky. But I did notice them and they did make me think and slow down a bit.
Unfortunately Halesowen Ave is a real rat run, and people do it at speed and get caught out on the uneven surface as Arabi St intersects with Halesowen. I would like to see a permanent 35kph speed limit for all side streets in the Sandringham, St lukes and Balmoral Areas.
I have taken some shots and will email them to Matt L.
Yeah I was wondering about those signs. TBH they’re pretty ugly & its a weird place to put them (the arterial roads are worse for speeding).
BTW a much worse rat-run street (though there really is no alternative for many) is Lambeth St. Some simple improvements on that road (painting a white line in the middle) would be nice.
It’s very important not to get the ‘home zone’ concept (know as Woornerf in the Netherlands) mixed up with ‘low speed zones’. The 2 examples are very different in many ways. The ‘home zone’ designs I’ve seen are very much like the Woonerf and rely on cul-de-sacs, narrow streets, paving treatments etc. The intended road speed is walking pace or 5km/h. A thorough street can not be a ‘home zone’. It doesn’t meet the criteria.
Low speed zones, as per Dutch examples, are traffic calmed areas with a speed limit (generally) of 30 km/h, utilise narrowed roads, speed bumps etc and are proven to work (even if David doesn’t like them).
‘Home zones’ can be built as extensions off ‘low speed zones’. The Dutch have done lots of research on this. The Brits basically copied what the Dutch had been doing for 20 years. Start with the originators.
More info on Woonerf can be found here:
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2011/11/retrofitting-sanity-to-residential.html
Some good examples off low speed zones can be found here:
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2012/08/solving-problem-of-pavement-car-parking.html
There is a campaign in Europe (UK and EU) to establish 3o km/h (or 20 mph) as a consistent low speed limit. NZ would do well to follow the same speed rather than a mix of others (25, 35, 40 etc).
I completeley agree we should do this, 30 should be the normal speed, and a road going to 40, 50, or 60 should need to be investigated the way lowering is now.
As of now, 50 is the norm and there has be an investigation to apply a 30kmh limit. Ass backwards if you ask me. 30 should be the base point and then higher limits placed as required.
I don’t think that carrots would help, bit of a novelty idea that wouldn’t work in reality.
I’m all in favour of this, but we need to start a bit bigger. How about giving people gift vouchers once a fortnight for not robbing liquor stores? Or making a charitable donation on behalf of anyone who decides not to set up a P lab in their house?
In all seriousness, there’s plenty of evidence that both enforcement and engineering can improve road safety, and “education” does nothing. Is there any evidence about how effective rewards for road safety are, one way or the other?
I don’t know of any studies looking at offering positive incentives for road safety.
But here’s a synopsis I wrote about the Dutch experience with the application of positive incentives to manage congestion, which they refer to as “spitsmijden”: http://www.vtpi.org/spitsmijden.pdf
I don’t like subsidies. They are a costly reality distortion and essentially another hidden tax. Awarding good behavior is almost as bad as not punishing bad behavior. It only encourages behavior change as long as the incentive is there. Subsidies can become a long term issue. Hence why the trucking industry should pay the full cost of the damage they do to roads and compete on an equal footing with rail. I don’t mind capital expenses of a new motorway or rail line, but if it can’t compete, then we shouldnt be using public money to subsidise it.