The traffic light intersection at Cameron Rd and 11th Ave is ranked as the worst local road intersection with 20 crashes in the past five years. Photo/John Borren
The traffic light intersection at Cameron Rd and 11th Ave is ranked as the worst local road intersection with 20 crashes in the past five years. Photo/John Borren
Half of the serious crashes at inner-city intersections in the past five years were at traffic lights, figures from the city council have revealed.
The traffic light intersection at Cameron Rd and 11th Ave was ranked as the worst local road intersection with 20 crashes in the past five years - one serious, seven minor and 12 non-injury.
That was closely followed by the intersection of Waihi Rd and Otumoetai Rd, also with 20 crashes - four minor and 16 non-injury.
Other serious crashes happened at the intersection of Cameron Rd and Elizabeth St (traffic lights), Cameron Rd and Chadwick Rd (roundabout) and Eleventh Ave and St. John St (T-intersection).
People were making the same mistakes in faster speed areas but the consequences were a lot more serious, or fatal.
At roundabouts and T-intersections, drivers needed to assess the speed of the oncoming cars and pick a safe gap, he said.
Police were attending a lot of nose-to-tail crashes on city roads.
"It's simply people not concentrating on what they're doing," he said, with close following distances not giving drivers enough time to react.
Tauranga's worst intersections
Tauranga City Council transportation manager Martin Parkes agreed the issues with traffic lights were risk-taking and close following distances.
"Neither traffic lights or roundabouts will solve the crash problems," he said.
"With traffic lights, people will take chances. We've all seen it, when people run a red light.
"The other thing with traffic lights is there's a lot of nose-to-tails," he said, when people were "not paying attention or distracted".
The council had been monitoring crash statistics every six months, using the findings to plan road works.
Ranked as the sixth worst local intersection for crashes, the roundabout at Cameron Rd and 9th Ave had already been signed off to be turned into traffic lights.
"It's got to the point we want to intervene and do some work there," he said.
The worst, Cameron Rd and 11th Ave, had major works done about three years ago and the five-year statistics may have been bumped up by the number of crashes prior to the works, Mr Parkes said.
... We have significantly reduced our fatal crash records.
"It used to have a very poor record ... It used to be in the 30s."
The number of fatal crashes on city roads had also been significantly reduced, he said.
"Going back 10 years we were getting seven to 10 fatal crashes in the city, a year.
"Now we're getting between zero and two a year, which is still too many but we have significantly reduced our fatal crash records."
Traffic lights had been proposed for the third-worst intersection - Cameron Rd and Chadwick Rd roundabout - but had been the subject of a public backlash.
The council had confirmed funding for the project in the Long Term Plan but there was a lot of public consultation that had to be done before it went ahead, Mr Parkes said.
"It's an intersection that needs attention.
"It's a site that'll always cause problems, especially for vulnerable road users like cyclists, pedestrians and people on mobility scooters."
The number of crashes at the roundabout at Waihi Rd and Otumoetai Rd, ranked second, had just recently increased.
"That intersection was not on our radar a couple of years ago," Mr Parkes said.
