I was at work the other day and on the table at lunch was a copy of the Bay of Plenty Times, the local newspaper for Tauranga. A couple of stories caught my eye. The first related to this piece of 'construction' (sorry can't find the link to the actual story). Anyway, if you drive or cycle this way you will see that $3.6 million is being spent demolishing a large hill to fill a valley to straighten a section of road that, according to NZTA, RDC and the Bay of Plenty Times is 'an accident blackspot'.
Great work you would think? Well possibly not. Turn over the page in the paper and there was another story highlighting there were 1400 serious crashes in the WBOP region last year, but guess what, less than 140 were caused by the conditions, the quality of the road or a defective vehicle.
So $3.6 million (and I bet it goes over that) to make a small section of road faster, which will in turn mean that the bendy sections after this new part, will become the new accident blackspots - so money well spent? The logging trucks will get to Tauranga a minute quicker?
Maybe the $3.6 million could be spent on measures to decrease motor vehicle usage, public transport, cycle lanes, etc - not whilst the car is still king!
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