Editorial: Roads under pressure as traffic builds

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

The news is full of how congested Auckland roads are and the fact there are 40,000 more cars on their roads than this time last year.

One could say they are in a right jam.

The rest of the country, including Hawke's Bay, needs to take note. I've written before about how busy our roads are becoming, and since school went back I can honestly say our roads are just crazy at peak times.

Certainly they are not as bad as Auckland and Wellington but with more and more people deciding they want to get out of the rat race and enjoy our beautiful region, if we are not careful we will become another rat race.

I trust our councils have set aside money to maintain our roads for the heavy loads they will have to bear in coming years.

There seem to be roadworks everywhere at the moment and with the construction of a new Hastings-to-Havelock North water main beginning next week it's only going to get worse.

The Hastings District Council will be setting up traffic management ahead of the work expected to start on Monday.

Of course, the other thing that happens when the roads get busy is that drivers get impatient.

Twice this week I've had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting cars with drivers who were going too fast to give way at roundabouts.

Take it easy out there, people. Leave five minutes earlier if you have to. I'm sure your boss would rather have you arrive late than have you put yourself and others on the road at risk.