Road Safety Week: New signs and fresh lines to make rural Auckland safer

Auckland Transport (AT) is gearing up to paint some fresh white lines and add new black and yellow signs to some of Auckland’s most dangerous rural locations – making them safer for everyone.

This month, AT starts the programme across 64 kilometres of rural roads in the Hibiscus and Bays, Rodney and Franklin local board areas – where 67 crashes happened that resulted in 19 deaths or serious injuries (between 2015 and 2019).

The new signs or markings will be placed according to the needs of each individual stretch of road, but will include things like reflectorized white solid centre lines, chevron curve indicator signs, and arrow signs to mark curves in the road.

They will help drivers negotiate various road dangers – as many crashes in the selected areas were due to vehicles losing control at bends.

In the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board area there were 54 reported injury crashes from 2015 to 2019 and approximately 43 per cent of them were due to loss of control.  

In the Rodney Local Board area there were three reported injury crashes from 2015 to 2019 and approximately 67 per cent of them were due to loss of control.  

In the Franklin Local Board area there were 10 reported injured crashes from 2015 to 2019 and approximately 90 per cent of them were due to loss of control.

Auckland Transport’s Executive General Manager of Safety, Bryan Sherritt, says the programme – called the Rural Delineation Programme (RDP) -  is one of AT’s many safety programmes to reduce the risk of death or serious injury across Auckland roads.

“AT started the programme in 2017 and has already improved 850 km of roading. The programme aims to provide a clearer and more consistent advance warning message to drivers when approaching hazards - such as bends - so they can negotiate them in a safer manner.

“This is another way we are working towards our Vision Zero goal of no deaths or serious injuries on our transport system by 2050.”

The programme is partly funded by the Regional Fuel Tax.

See more about the programme at: Rural delineation programme.