Flat Bush student says cheap rubber cushions would slow drivers and boy racers on a 450-metre straight.
A Flat Bush resident has asked the Howick Local Board for rubber speed cushions on McQuoids Road, weeks after a 15-year-old died on nearby Eros Road.
Adarshpreet Bhullar, 21, made his case at the Board’s public forum on 24 September.
He wants three cushions halfway along the road, at an estimated $12,000 to $15,000.
The e-motorcycle rider died after colliding with a car on 30 August, and Police told the Howick & Eastern Post on Monday their investigation is continuing.
Bhullar has lived in Flat Bush since he was about five, and on McQuoids Road for five or six years. He is in his third year of civil engineering at the University of Auckland.
“Probably around one and a half years ago now, they implemented yellow lines on the early portion of McQuoids Road, and that allowed for a lot of speeding within the area,” he told the Howick & Eastern Post.
With no cars parked on that stretch, he said, drivers coming in from Flat Bush School Road have about 450 metres of straight road with nothing to slow them, the longest such straight within 1.5 kilometres by his measure.
“Naturally it attracts people that are trying to speed, get to work as fast as possible, even racers in some examples,” he said.
“You’ll have boy racers that race up from the top of the road down south towards Flat Bush School Road, and that is quite a serious issue and it does impact local community a lot in terms of road noise.”
NZ Transport Agency records list 10 crashes on McQuoids Road since the start of 2020, one of them causing minor injury.
Bhullar’s answer to the speeding is rubber, not concrete.
“The reason why I chose rubber specifically was because it’s a cost-efficient solution, and it’s also something that’s very easy to implement,” he said.
He said rubber cushions slow cars but are gentler on the heavy vehicles that use the road, from rubbish trucks to fire engines and ambulances.
Howick Local Board member Damian Light told the meeting the Board’s rubber cushions on Flat Bush School Road had been “very quick and cheap” to put in.
“They literally just drill them in. Takes half an hour,” Light said.
Board chair Bruce Kendall told the meeting he and member Krish Naidu had wanted to understand the area after the crash, and had spoken to residents.
“So it’s sad that it’s sort of taken a death to really make something happen,” Kendall said.
“As you’re coming down on McQuoids, because there’s a big dip, naturally it speeds up,” Naidu said of residents’ concerns.
At the top of the road, where there are no yellow lines, he said parked cars were the problem.
“People are parking their cars and you got to basically give way and wait for other cars to come in, and there’s lack of visibility and other issues.”
“I think this is great, but I think we need to think about a package of solutions for this area, given the seriousness of incidents and near misses that are happening,” Naidu said.
The Board asked staff for advice on the safety concerns and to make contact with Bhullar.
McQuoids Road is a local road, and since Auckland Council took over the region’s roads from Auckland Transport on 1 October, decisions on local roads rest with local boards.
That leaves Bhullar’s speed bumps in the Board’s hands.
Bhullar has been to the Board before with ideas for local roads, and said he would encourage others to do the same.
“Honestly, local democracy, I think, is great. I think local democracy is something we should all get involved in as residents of an area that we live in,” he said.
“I’d love to encourage everyone, all the residents, to take your concerns to the Board. The Board is actually a very receptive group.”
“I’m just a student at this point, but it’s truly my passion serving the community and creating good roading solutions,” he said.
“I think there is a lot of power that the people have.”
