Yes, every car should have a warrant of fitness, for the protection of those who travel in them as much as anyone else, but is there really any potential to reduce the Far North's admittedly horrific road toll by sooling the parking warden on to those who can't afford one? There is much, much more that can and should be done to make roads safer, not least in the Far North, than hunting down non-compliant cars.
Genter, while she was in a position to make a real contribution to road safety, didn't. Her undertaking to install hundreds if not thousands of kilometres of median barriers on state highways throughout the country turned out to be just another empty promises from a government that specialised in empty promises.
Now we're hearing people who know Northland's roads better than most say they are the worst in the country. And what is Waka Kotahi NZTA doing about that? It's proposing to lower speed limits. What's that if it's not an admission that it's given up on making those highways fit for purpose? We keep hearing that Northland's topography makes road-building challenging, but it isn't topography that makes tar seal lift. That's a lack of maintenance, or perhaps poor construction in the first place.
Claiming that the ground in this region is not conducive to building decent roads doesn't wash any more. There are some specific locations, like the hill on SH1 south of Umawera, that have long been problematic, but the real issue is a lack of maintenance. And it's going to get worse. The Northland councils' government funding for maintenance has effectively been cut by the same government that has taken $760 million out of the kitty, almost precisely the proposed cost of a cycleway over Auckland's Waitematā Harbour.
There is no need for lower speed limits, at least for those who drive to the conditions - they won't make any difference to those who don't - although it has to be said that some of our highways are of a very high standard. If physical improvements are needed, in many cases that would involve getting rid of corners rather than improving the surface.
Surely, though, the big problem, here and elsewhere, has nothing to do with warrants and regos and everything to do with the way we drive. Speed, beyond the ability of the driver to control the car, driver impairment, whether that be down to drugs, alcohol, tiredness or inattention, are what kills people. The council can't do much about that, even with an army of parking wardens.
Meanwhile, we might well return to the days when people used to turn up in court in their droves for non-payment of fines, often amounting to thousands of dollars, accrued as the result of driving a car without a warrant or rego. Many of them lived far outside town, and were totally dependent upon having a vehicle. They would drive to town out of sheer necessity, to buy groceries, seek medical attention or whatever, and would be pinged almost every time.
They couldn't pay the fines, so they eventually found themselves in court, where they would usually be sentenced to community service. They would then start collecting fines again. And that is fundamentally unfair.
To its credit, the council isn't relying on fines to make our roads safer. It is also reviewing speed limits - at the behest of the government - installing safety devices such as rumble strips and roadside barriers, and working with communities on road layout changes, supposedly to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. We will never know if any of those save a single life, but none will have any impact on our standard of driving.
Meanwhile, targeting vehicles without warrants of fitness and/or registration will be akin to shooting fish in a barrel. A recent council survey of parked cars reportedly found that one in six were non-compliant, so this exercise, which has nothing to do with raising revenue, will be a tidy little earner. And it will make life even harder for those who would comply if they could afford to.
The good news is that the council currently employs just one parking warden, and doesn't appear to have any plans to appoint more. That might well change though.
It seems that the warden's main hunting ground will be towns with 'parking issues,' including Kerikeri and Paihia. Kaitaia and Doubtless Bay can expect the occasional visit, but Kaikohe might be spared. If that's the case it will give some small credence to the claim that this isn't about revenue, but will weaken the argument that it's promoting road safety. Without casting aspersions on the good people of the Hokianga, one might expect more non-compliant vehicles to be found in Kaikohe than in Kerikeri.
Whatever happens, anyone whose vehicle doesn't come up to scratch would be advised to avoid using the Kerikeri Post Office carpark, which has a reputation as a happy hunting ground.
