Kate Hawkesby: Wayne Brown's war on cones - It is time to claim our streets back

The battle of Wayne Brown versus the road cones is one I want a front-row seat for. I am here for it and I love it so far.  I don’t think it’ll be an easy fix. The cones have taken over our streets like some kind of cancer and they seem hell-bent on staying, but now that Auckland’s Mayor’s waged war on them, and Vector’s joined in, I have hope of eradication. The first shock was the cost – although we should've known, shouldn’t we? But $145 million a year on temporary traffic management is a joke. As Wayne says, it's ‘unjustifiable’. It’s absolute BS that this much money is flushed on making Auckland less productive by stopping everyone in their tracks – when half the time it’s not even necessary. The next part which makes an Auckland commuter’s heart sing is that Wayne’s putting his money where his mouth is and taking action.  Potentially, he’ll ‘fine contractors who take up too much road space,’ he said. He says they’re ‘a costly and annoying imposition on the daily lives of Aucklanders,’ and that’s an understatement. It’s a giant slowdown in an already congested city that we just don’t need. But the other shock around this war being waged, was the news that much of the space roading contractors take up is not even for actual roadworks but for ‘contractors own parking, material storage and lunchrooms’. They’re coning off our streets to make way for their lunchrooms? Can you believe that? A lunchroom is taking up valuable road space? Wayne, you cannot move fast enough on this stuff. This is a vote winner for every single Aucklander whose ever been stuck in traffic due to coned off roads, and that’s every single Aucklander, let’s be honest. This is Wayne’s time. He has to clean this up. We’re watching. It’s not going to be easy though, even though Vector has joined the chorus.. thank goodness.  Vector says ‘traffic management is costing it $30 million a year..’ they want it streamlined too, they support him.  But here’s the rub. It’s the paperwork that’s in the way, not the actual roadworkers, their trucks and cones. It’s what happens behind the scenes. The traffic management plans need to be better tailored to suit the jobs and areas, city vs. rural for example, they need to target risk better in terms of the job they’re actually looking at.  Wayne’s plan includes streamlining all of that, as well as ‘looking at incentivising contractors to reduce the road space through a system of financial charges and penalties.’ So that’s where fines come in. Bring it on Wayne. The sooner, the better.  We want to see progress, we want to see cones vanishing one by one, we want disruption improved, streets opened back up, closure times reduced, and we want to wave those cones goodbye. It is time for some balance and to claim our streets back. So now that you’ve lit the fire Wayne, keep fanning the flames, keep the heat on AT, keep it going, drive this thing all the way back to some semblance of normality on our roads. Do that, and you’ll win the heart of every Aucklander stuck in every coned off street. Which is, as I said, most of us.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.