Council drops Cameron Rd truck ban proposal
A plan to ease congestion on one of Tauranga's busiest roads has been dropped after an investigation revealed that most heavy traffic using Cameron Rd had a reason to be there.
The city council was concerned that large numbers of truckies were using Cameron Rd as a through road, between State Highway 29 and the port.
But the actual scale of the problem was revealed by studying footage from closed-circuit TV cameras. It showed that nearly all the trucks dispersed at intersections along Cameron Rd including Elizabeth St. What was left on Cameron Rd after Elizabeth St comprised only 1 per cent of the original number.
A report to the council revealed that logging trucks were the main culprits and their details have been passed to the Road Transport Association which will apply pressure to get them to change their routes. The council accepted the association's offer to police the issue.
The size of the problem was the final clincher for the council's decision this week to drop the idea of banning trucks that use Cameron Rd as a through route.
The Road Transport Association's area executive officer Charlene Kerr wrote that such a bylaw would be difficult to enforce.
She said forcing operators onto the Route K toll road would not be appropriate because the law stated that there should be a feasible un-tolled alternative, and Cambridge Rd/Moffat Rd was not a feasible alternative.
Her comment about the Cambridge Rd/Moffat Rd route between Tauriko and Bethlehem surprised councillors, with Cr Larry Baldock asking what was the feasible alternative if it wasn't this route.
Bay of Plenty police district road policing manager Inspector Kevin Taylor also poured cold water on the idea, saying that their resources were fully deployed on known safety risks.
He said that following a truck along the entire route was not an enforcement activity that the police wished to engage in.
Mr Taylor said an alternative may be for the council to invest in automatic number plate recognition technology using cameras at either end of Cameron Rd.
