Nick Mills: Wellingtonians should be thrilled with massive cuts to cycle lane and speed bump budgets

Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills

OPINION

Yesterday on her show, Heather Du Plessis Allan revealed that transport and local government minister Simeon brown has a new name.

He’s now being called 'Golden Balls' by his caucus.

It's a reference to David Beckham, a name he got for always delivering and because everything he touched turned to gold.

There’s clearly a lot of faith in Simeon Brown.

Well, yesterday he was definitely spreading gold; $33 billion worth in his transport plan for 2024 to 2027.

There’s actually not much new in this plan. For Wellington, the roads in the plan have previously been announced. This just tells us what's being funded and gives us some timeframes.

And what’s been funded for Wellington is undoubtedly good. We still get the second Mt Victoria tunnel, and we get the Petone to Grenada link road.

And there's also good news in the pothole prevention fund which gets $5.5 billion over 3 years, and there’s been a boost in funding for local council road maintenance budgets too.

But there’s two big things that stuck out to me in the plan. Have a guess what they are.

Cycleways and speed bumps.

Brown announced yesterday the government is slashing the fund that helps local councils to build cycleways and walkways.

And the cut is big; the fund has been halved from $910 million to $460 million.

It's certainly welcome news to Wellington motorists like you and I.

Brown said New Zealanders were sick and tired of seeing how much money is going into cycleways in recent years, and he’s bang on.

There's no better example than Wellington.

Not only that, but he wants an end to the constant construction of speed bumps.

They have, in his words, been "infesting our streets while potholes were not being filled".

And here comes another big cut; not a single cent from this $33 billion budget will be spent on speed bumps.

If they want them built, councils will have to pay for it themselves.

Have you driven anywhere lately without going over a speed hump or getting bumped around by potholes?

Does Thorndon Quay ring a bell?

This is a ballsy move from Simeon. A golden ballsy move.

But I know damn well that people in the Wellington region will agree with reducing the spend on cycleways, walkways and speed humps that have been plaguing our city for so long.

I feel like it's one of the biggest gripes people in Wellington have.

If only I had a dollar for every text that comes in during the show moaning about cycleways or speed bumps, I’d be retiring tomorrow.

In fairness, walkways I agree with. You should be able to walk anywhere, anytime. But how much of that budget was being spent on walkways?

The constant spend on cycleways and speed humps lately has driven me nuts.

And from now on, Wellington City Council won't be able to just call on NZTA to pay for speed humps or cycleways.

Let’s just hope the council doesn't rack up more debt for ratepayers by paying for them fully themselves.

Surely they’re not that dumb.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.