By Geoff Kreegher (Hamilton Ratepayer)
[Excerpt from Geoff Kreegher’s Submission for the Wairere Drive consultation. Full submission can be viewed here]
Wairere Drive is one of Hamilton’s main transport corridors, half of Hamiltonians use Wairere Drive regularly. Flagstaff and Rototuna residents who work in Te Rapa or central Hamilton, it is a twice-daily route. The road was designed by engineers as a commuter ring-road to ease congestion and allow traffic to travel safely at 80 km/h.
Currently from Pukete Road to Te Rapa Road it has four lanes, two for through traffic, the left hand lane with a short slip lane and two right turn lanes. At times traffic, particularly southwest bound traffic can be backed up from the lights at Te Rapa Road intersection for most of its length to the Pukete Road intersection, 410 metres.
City Councillor Andrew Bydder states that Council traffic staff has a declared goal of reducing vehicle kilometres travelled. Council has an anti-car agenda intended to frustrate commuters out of cars and into public transport. The fact that public transport does not service the vast majority of road trips because the central business district is just one of many destinations, most of which are not on bus routes. Nor is public transport suitable for the purpose of the vast majority of road trips, such as tradesmen taking tools to construction sites.
The same goal is not appropriate for customers shopping at a supermarket where a motor vehicle is the most appropriate transport for the customer and the goods being transported.
The imposition of the Wairere Drive – Karewa Place intersection will create congestion by eliminating most of the right-hand lane and slow down travel times that Council states already travel at an average of 66 km/h on this portion of the city’s most important arterial route. The intersection change involves a right turn lane, which require traffic lights and a speed reduction to achieve safety measures, also Council requires (under Council’s own rules), speed bumps, on Wairere Drive alleging they are required by the resource consent. The safety measures are solely the result of the right turn. This undermines the traffic network.
Simply removing the right turn eliminates the safety issues. However, this is not part of the consultation. It is within the remit of the council to seek a variation or an amendment to the resource consent to remove the right turn intersection in the best interest of the community.
This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a series of road projects designed to cause problems, such as Rifle Range Road cycleway creating an increased risk for children using a major sports park.
[Continue reading full submission: Wairere Dr Speed Reduction FINAL]
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Further reading on this issue
Consultation Closes 7 March 2025: Lowering Speed Limit on Wairere Drive, Hamilton
Opposing the planned raised platform on Wairere Drive at the Karewa Place turnoff
