School road safety lagging in south

Since the formation of the Super City, Auckland Transport teams have worked to fast-track school safety improvements in the urban and rural south. Photo / Benjamin Heather

Report shows traffic measures near schools were lacking before Super City but upgrades now urgent priority.

School children in the most deprived areas of Auckland have been losing out over traffic controls to keep them safe on the roads.

Research published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal shows children in the old Auckland City area have more measures such as road humps and raised platforms compared with South Auckland.

The survey, carried out in 2009 and 2010, found a similar imbalance between children from schools considered most deprived and those considered better off, but changes have been made since the Super City was created.

Auckland Transport said the former Manukau City Council was reluctant to join a region-wide transport safety programme a decade ago, and says improvements have been made since its disestablishment.

The survey by four researchers took in 40 schools in the old Auckland City and the same number in South Auckland, altogether making up half of all schools in the Auckland area.

It found that schools in the old Auckland City area had nearly double the amount of traffic calming measures than those in the south, and schools considered the most deprived also had less protection for their pupils than those who were at the other end of the socio-economic scale.

Study co-author Dr Teuila Percival, whose own children attend school in central Auckland where she lives, noticed the difference while driving to work in South Auckland.

"We know that many kids get hit walking to and from school, or close to school, and what concerned us is the areas most in need had less traffic calming."

Road traffic injuries account for 22 per cent of all injury deaths among children younger than 15, many of them injured on the road within an hour before or after school.

"Maori and Pacific children, and those from low income families, were over-represented in statistics.

"The best way to prevent injuries in pedestrians and kids - which is a really big problem for us in New Zealand - is traffic calming," Dr Percival said.

"So all the education in the world is not particularly effective - slowing traffic is the way to do it."

In Auckland, previous research suggested newly installed roundabouts brought significant reductions in mean and 85th per centile speeds on roads, resulting in speeds of less than 30km/h in adjacent streets.

Since the formation of the Super City, Auckland Transport teams have worked to fast-track school safety improvements in the urban and rural south.

There were now 93 schools on the programme in the south, and most were receiving safety engineering improvements.