Symonds Street Safety Petition Update: Welcome AUTSA!
Update: AUTSA joins the Symonds Street Campaign. We will be presenting the petition together to Auckland Transport on 24 June!
Our campaign to asking Auckland Transport to make Symonds Street safer for students and staff is still on-going, if you haven't signed yet, please consider it! https://chng.it/kx6g2D8Nms
Campaign Progress Overview:
It's been nearly a month since our last update on the Symonds Street Safety Petition, but a lot has happened. We passed the 1,000 signatures milestone and are now approaching 1,100! We were also interviewed by Luke Fisher from Te Waha Nui of Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
However, the biggest development has been that AUT's Student Association, AUTSA, has officially joined the campaign!
After a recent Student Representative Council meeting, AUTSA's President, Alicia Lemmer, reached out to us to confirm their endorsement on Monday morning. From now on, we will be including AUTSA representatives in our campaign meetings, and they will join us when we present the petition to Auckland Transport, which now has a locked-in date one month from now at their upcoming board meeting on 24 June at 10.00 am.
As the voice of their students, AUTSA's support demonstrates that AUT students agree that vehicles speeding on Symonds Street pose a danger to both our city campuses and something needs to be done to address it.
Our petition's specific proposals have also taken clearer focus following a meeting we had with Auckland Transport on the 8th of May, where they listened to our concerns. In attendance was AUSA's Senior Leadership Team, alongside representatives from the Civil & Structural Engineering Students Association (CESA) and Students of Urban Planning & Architecture Association (SUPA).
The main safety measure we are calling for Auckland Transport to implement on the 900m section of Symonds Street running from Wakefield Street to ANZAC Avenue is Speed Bumps and Raised Redestrian Crossings.
If installed, these anti-speeding measures would physically force drivers to slow down and maintain the 30 km/hr speed limit while driving past the AUT and UOA City Campuses.
We will still include the other measures, such as signage and bollards, in the proposal. However, we don't think these will be as effective as physically altering the landscape of the road.
Because we would need to separately ask NZTA for the installation of Safety (Speed) Cameras, and Auckland Council to approve turning Symonds Street into a transit corridor, we have decided to focus on speed bumps and raised crossings, which AT has the power on its own to install on Symonds Street. If you think we should advocate for the other safety measures, please let us know at managingeditor@craccum.co.nz.
Let's keep the momentum going!
Could we reach 1500 signatures by 24 June?
