The lights were installed in Peakhurst and Lugarno following a directive from Roads Minister Roozendaal for the RTA to trial them.

It would have been reasonable to assume that "trial" meant something like the official 2003-2006 43-school trial or the 2007 100-school trial. That is, measure before-and-after speeds, survey local residents about their awareness of the lights (as they did for the concurrent 2007 trial) etc.

None of that was done however. Apart from installing the lights the RTA did absolutely no "trialling" of them whatsoever.

In 2010 the lights were replaced by standard RTA systems, (even though at least one of the school zones, Lugarno Public School, did not qualify for lights under the RTA's selection criteria.)

That provided the RTA with a unique opportunity. They could and should have conducted speed measurements before and after the lights were replaced, to gauge the relative effectiveness of cheaper lights versus more expensive lights at reducing traffic speeds. Needless to say they did not do so.

The reason they failed to do so is because they knew that the measurements would reveal that their $58,000 systems did not reduce traffic speeds any more than lights costing $1,000.