Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

One frustrating part of my job as a Councillor is I often have to miss a meeting because it clashes with another higher priority meeting.

Take the Joint Road Safety Committee meeting in Tauranga, which I missed recently because of a conflicting Regional Council workshop. Attended by representatives of Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, NZ Police and NZTA, the Joint Road Safety Committee oversees the annual road safety programme in the Western Bay. The agenda looked really interesting.

It looked at how the councils could work together more efficiently and effectively through consolidation of programmes and joint service delivery to provide the desired road safety outcomes while coping with expected national funding restrictions. This is the way forward for many local government activities in the future, so I applaud this initiative.

The agenda also reported the various campaigns and projects underway to increase safety on our roads. The programmes are all linked to the national strategy for Safer Journeys - our over-arching road safety strategy. What this aims to achieve includes: a reduction in the number of speed-related fatal and serious crashes; changed attitudes regarding speeding; fewer drivers exceeding speed limits; a reduction in mean vehicle speeds; and a reduction in fatal and serious crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists.

Examples of programmes undertaken in the Western Bay of Plenty include various safety campaigns around speed - for example, the S29 Winter Enforcement Plan for the Kaimai Ranges which aimed to reduce speed related crashes by 10% - but achieved a 62% crash reduction. Other examples include working with schools on School Travel Plans and Kids on Feet programmes to support children walking to school; Bikewise Month and programmes on safe cycling; and presentations on road rules - particularly the changes to the give way rules.

There really is a lot happening in this space, but we still face some very scary statistics on road safety. The risk of a motorcyclist being killed or seriously injured on NZ roads is 18-20 times higher than for a car driver. An average of one teenager has been killed every week on our roads over the past few years. If all our cars had a five star safety rating, it is estimated that our road toll could be cut by one third.

And it often comes down to the nut behind the wheel. So let's be careful out there!

If you have any views on this or any other issue, please contact me on [email protected] or ring me on 07 579 5150. Or you can check out my website at www.janenees.co.nz