Auckland Mayor Phil Goff wants the culture of running red lights in the city to change, to save lives.
Photo: 123rf
Auckland city has added new red-light safety cameras to deal with the growing number of motorists running red lights, which has seen more than 2000 cases in the past two-and-a-half months.
Mr Goff told Morning Report he has seen cars go through red lights every day.
"This is not a tiny minority of people, this is a significant minority of people and we've got to change their behaviour," he said.
Mr Goff said there needs to be better priority in this area, especially as the road death toll and serious road injuries have gone up by 78 percent in four years - three times the national average.
"We've got to change the culture," he said.
"People think that they're in a hurry, they think that they can run a red light, they can save a couple of minutes but in saving a couple of minutes in their timetable they may well cause the loss of life of another person, pedestrian, cyclist or another car driver."
He said a trial of cameras between 2008-2010 saw a 43 percent reduction in red light running and 63 percent decreases in crashes attributable to running a red light.
The location of the cameras have been published, as it's not about raising revenue, but increasing safety on the roads, he said.
"If it's going to cost them a couple of hundred of bucks maybe they'll think twice about it and they'll do the right thing even if it's for the wrong reason - the right reason is to protect other people's lives," he said.
