The Road Toll

Every death on the road is a tragedy. At holiday times the focus on the road toll comes to the fore. We have done a marvellous job in keeping the toll down. It deserves a closer inspection.

New Zealand has one of the highest car to driver ratio in the world. We have a long narrow country which breeds long narrow roads.

I believe that our fleet increases at the rate of about 15% per annum which means it doubles about every 5 years.

It is a drum we continue to beat but we fail to report how successful we have been in reducing the chance of death on the road by driving.

It is easy to see why the Politicians and the public react in horror to the Road toll but the numbers reported don’t give the true picture. Below is a graph of Road deaths from 1936 to 2014 plotted against deaths per head of population and deaths against the number of vehicles on the road.

As the cars get faster and more numerous, logic suggests, driving should become more dangerous, it would appear otherwise.

We are faced with a new tax targeting road safety the question is whether increased funding will have any effect on the existing trend? Is there a point where further investment is a waste of money? I don’t know the answers but I suggest it is a better debate to have. Perhaps we could move the Police back to Policing?

A sour puss note to end even with the road safety tax and the regional petrol tax Aucklanders will be pay less per litre than Wellingtonians!