Road safety is taking a backseat to cycleways, according to ACT transport spokesperson Simon Court.

“There needs to be a big shift in priorities for road safety. Labour has spent $219,974,284 on cycleways over the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years. Imagine if they invested in better roads with the same enthusiasm,” he said.

“ACT previously revealed the most ‘successful’ implementation of road safety measures was in ‘speed limit management’. The Government might have dumped the policy but they’d already managed to surpass their target of 10,000km by 2030. In the same time period they only added 67km of median barriers.

“ACT supports moves to lower the road toll – but that comes from better roading infrastructure, not slowing people down, causing frustration and putting further restrictions on businesses who have quite frankly put up with enough under this Government.”

Court said increasing the level of private sector funding will inject “much-needed discipline” into decision-making while allowing the Government to maintain prudent levels of public debt.

“Between 2007 and 2017, more than NZ$300 billion was raised by funds globally to invest in infrastructure. Most of that capital was raised from insurance companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds (including our own New Zealand Super Fund) looking for long-term investments with reasonable returns,” he said.

“ACT is ambitious for New Zealand and realises that slowing people down and making society less productive is not the answer for safer roads. Investing in modern infrastructure and improving the roads that Kiwis drive on is.”