Ryan Bridge: A theory on the record low road toll

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

The road toll is sitting at zero for the long weekend.

Six people died last Labour Weekend, which is a tragedy.

The road toll is the lowest Labour Weekend toll since 2013, when we had one death on the roads.

Why do we think this has happened this particular weekend?

Is it the Road to Zero that the previous government introduced?

Is it the fact we've had some road upgrades, some potholes fixed potentially?

Or is it just random stats? You know, we should really be looking at annual averages, not weekend blips which can jump around – a bit like our weekend of sport last weekend, which was a bit of a con job.

It just so happened we had a bunch of sporting finals on the same weekend, it wasn't like we were comparing apples with apples like an Olympics tournament, was it?

So, was it one of those situations?

Or, and here's my theory, we didn't really travel much this weekend – and this is based on nothing other than my own experience.

But I was on Waiheke Island at the weekend, enjoying the long weekend. Beaches were nowhere near as full as they would normally be, and this was on the good day when the weather was nice.

Restaurants, same story. The wineries, the vineyards weren't as busy.

Is the cost of living crisis affecting our travel? I think it is, I think it's having a big impact.

Did you go away this weekend? Did you pack the car? Take the kids? Were you driving safely?

That is one theory I have as to why our Labour Day road toll is currently sitting at zero.

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