OPINION: Wellington’s Worst Intersection

Fergus Goodall Smith

Along State Highway 1, in the midst of Wellington suburbia, there lies an intersection. So terrible and so powerful is this intersection, that many have chosen to avoid it entirely. It is the cause of many accidents, close calls, and infuriated honking. This intersection lies on the junction between Wellington Road and State Highway 1. It’s probably the most integral crossroads in the city, where your path splits between the different regions of Wellington and the rest of the North Island.

“Stressed, pissed, fuck, shocker, ratchet, disgrace, dangerous, avoid”. When I asked Vic Deals to describe the intersection in one word, this was the response. There are over 80 more words members of the public submitted to my post, but to list them all would blow out my word count. To say the least, I am not alone in my hatred. For freshers, sorry, this article probably isn’t very relevant, but next year when you grow up and buy a car, you’ll see for yourself. 

So why, at a fundamental section of road, does it all go wrong? No one seems to have the answers. Reaching out to Wellington City Council, they said that the intersection fell under the jurisdiction of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). I asked if they could exert any pressure on the NZTA to make changes, they said no. So, on it was to the NZTA. 

I asked the NZTA how many crashes had occurred at the intersection. Over the last 24 years, 166 crashes have occurred there. That might not seem like too many, but for one little stretch of road, that’s actually quite a cluster. Most recently, March 2025 that is, a taxi was flipped onto its roof passing through the junction. NZTA also said it had no plans of making any changes to the cursed slice of tarmac. 

What NZTA doesn’t account for in its data set is the number of close calls and near misses that take place there. Posting to my Instagram story, I asked for personal experiences at the intersection. “The only time I’ve nearly been in a crash” one person said. “I FUCKING HATE THAT INTERSECTION TOO MANY STUPID FUCKERS” said another. The most common answer I got was a simple plea for traffic lights, or even better, a roundabout. 

So, what would Julie Anne Genter, our big dog powerful central government MP for Rongotai have to say about it? “I agree the intersection is quite hazardous, and I try to avoid it if I can” said Genter, “A proper roundabout would be safer”. Julie Anne said she would be happy to advocate for funding from the NZTA after seeing some roundabout designs from “Wellington City Council experts”. That’s all good news, but I thought the council couldn’t do anything about it. Alas, I had found myself in the revolving door of bureaucracy and decided to call it a day. 

Still, I was taken aback by the strength of the response I got when I asked Wellingtonians for their thoughts. The people are hungry for change. Whoever holds the power over this road, I beg you to take action.