Motorway manners campaign extended

By JASON COLLIE transport reporter

A two-month campaign promoting safer motorway driving is being extended because Auckland's motorists have been responding in kind.

Transit New Zealand has decided to keep the motorway manners campaign, centred around four safety slogans posted at on-ramps and on four electronic message boards, going through July to reinforce the need for better driving in the winter conditions.

Senior Sergeant Warwick Peterson, the officer in charge of Auckland police's motorway operations, said motorists' driving had improved since the campaign began in May, although he did not have any statistics to show any decrease in accidents.

The four slogans are "merge like a zip," "indicate before changing lanes," "keep a safe following distance" and "let indicating drivers in."

"This is a bad time of the year and we have had a lot of rain, but the overhead electronic signs tend to make drivers a bit calmer," he said.

"Generally when we stop a lot of people for not indicating or unsafe lane changing, a lot of it is ignorance [of what they have done]. It's automatic and that's why I think the signs are having that little bit of an effect on it."

Transit's project manager Warwick Murray added: "People who have had their licences for several years get complacent and this campaign has been a reminder to them.

"People are adjusting their speeds to suit the conditions and behaving more courteously."

Police had wanted to increase the number of tickets by 50 per cent to 50 a day during the campaign, but Senior Sergeant Peterson said it had only risen by about 10 per cent.

The Land Transport Safety Authority and the Auckland Regional Council are also involved in the campaign.

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