Poor design and failure to consider alternatives can mean median barriers end up being more of a liability than a safety improvement, Mark Hooper says.
The Federated Farmers transport spokesperson backs comments by Rural Contractors NZ (RCNZ) that median barriers and other roading developments which don’t allow motorists to pass slow-moving vehicles can end up creating new safety hazards.
RCNZ chief executive Andrew Olsen says that near where he lives south of Masterton, there are several kilometres of median barriers on SH2, accompanied by poor capacity for agricultural machinery to pull over safely.
“We support reducing the road toll but giving rural contractors no capacity to pull over for kilometres at a time is actually adding to the risk of fatalities. We want Transport Minister Simeon Brown to act.”
Hooper agrees that drivers of agricultural machinery end up copping the brunt of other motorists’ frustration when median barriers, and lack of pull-over space, cause hold-ups.
“Median barriers can be a useful measure to prevent head-on crashes but it’s legitimate to ask if their location and use is supported by accident data, or whether there’s a better road re-design solution that doesn’t impede traffic flow and safe overtaking.”
Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard recognises there is an issue. He opened the RCNZ conference last month, and said that on his drive to Parliament from his Manawatu farm there are median barriers preventing over-taking between Levin and Otaki, as well as no shoulder space to pull over.
“There’s a lot of tractors trying to get in and out of paddocks.”
Motorists get angry as a result, Hoggard said.
“There’s lots of screaming, fingers out the windows and potentially stupid decisions being made.”
Federated Farmers’ stance on median barriers matches submissions the organisation made on the previous Government’s proposals to reduce speed limits. Use of either should be targeted to sections of road with topography or accident records that justify them, and shouldn’t be regarded as an easier or cheaper solution to improvements that make a section of road fit for purpose.
“Safety is important, but so is functionality of the roading network and smooth flow of passenger and freight traffic,” Hooper says.
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.
