Reversals on blanket speed limit reductions will begin on Wednesday night, starting with State Highway 2 in the Wairarapa, and will be complete by 1 July.
The National and Act coalition agreement committed to reversing the reductions implemented under the previous Labour government.
In total 38 sections of the state highway network will be reversed back to their previous higher speed limits by NZTA over the next five months.
The state highway speed limit changes will take effect across the country in Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu-Whanganui, Greater Wellington, Canterbury, and the top of the South Island.
So I kinda get the frustration. But who looks at the lowest road toll we’ve had in over a decade, and what may even be the lowest per capita road toll ever, and thinks “this has got to stop”?
Yes, the article states:
Bishop insisted it was “safe to do these changes”. “The number one factor driving deaths on our roads is drugs and alcohol.”
But physics dictates that when these drug and alcohol drivers drive into a family car, cyclist, pedestrian, everyone is more likely to survive even with only small reductions in speed.
Low speed limits are a cop-out.
The underlying cause of most fatal crashes isn’t speed, it’s either people driving impaired, or making poor decisions on the road, with some mechanical failures and black ice etc thrown in.
The solution to this is more policing, more check points, more prosecution of people driving dangerously, and harsher penalties for those that do. We also really should have mandatory re-testing every ten years or so.
We also need to spend more money on our road network, more median barriers, more shoulders, better maintenance of the road surface etc.
But all that stuff is hard and expensive, and sitting on the side of the road with a camera or a radar gun is easy, so we do the easy thing, and say “they’d have survived if they’d been doing 70”.
Theyd have survived if they hadn’t crashed, too.
The reason for lower speed limits isn’t to reduce the number of crashes, it’s to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries. It’s acceptance that these crashes are going to happen, because people are human. So let’s not make a poor decision a death sentence.
One of the other things I don’t like is that this government wanted to (maybe did?) stop councils from reviewing their speeds with a safety lens.
If we continued to invest significant amounts into making roads generally safer (with your suggestions), and actually reviewed the speeds to ensure they were fit for the road, then I think I think I would support your position.
This current government might be doing that, but if they are then they have done a terrible job of communicating it. The impression they have given me is “higher speed limits means faster travel which is good for the economy”.
It’s acceptance that these crashes are going to happen, because people are human.
This is the part I have an issue with, we are collectively giving up on preventing crashes.
Our best years in modern history were 2011-2016, and we are only just now getting back to those levels, despite our vehicles constantly getting safer. We are doing something very wrong with road safety right now.
This is the part I have an issue with, we are collectively giving up on preventing crashes.
My (laymans) understanding is that it’s supposed to be a multifaceted approach. Install all the barriers and things that have been happening all over the place, but also reduce speed limits on high risk roads. Reduce the number of crashes but also the severity of the ones that do happen. It’s based on Sweden’s Vision Zero, it’s not something we made up. The general basis of it is the belief that people shouldn’t die just traveling from one place to another.
Our best years in modern history were 2011-2016, and we are only just now getting back to those levels, despite our vehicles constantly getting safer. We are doing something very wrong with road safety right now.
There are some stats here. One thing that stands out to me with 2013 vs 2023 is that in the breakdown between drivers, passengers, motocyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians, it’s only the drivers/passengers that have increased. The others are steady despite population growth, while car deaths start going up from around 2015. That wikipedia page shows the per-vehicle death rate in 2019 is not all that much higher than 2013. Are we just driving more?
No, because even per capita we’re still worse off than 2011-2016. No matter how you look at it, things have gotten worse since then
I understand it’s supposed to be a multi faceted approach, it’s been explained to me to exhaustion, but there’s only one facet being polished for the most part.
No matter how you look at the data, what we’re currently doing isn’t working.
A drive up to New Plymouth shows significant road safety improvements and very few speed limit changes. I am a bit sad they took out two passing lanes between New Plymouth and Inglewood though (there used to be 6 on that 10 min stretch of road, it was brilliant).
Bishop’s having to suck down the stupid pill Simeon lined up. I would guess Bishop understands the whole point of reduced speed is to reduce death from car accidents into injuries. Simeon is a magic thinker and I get the vibe he’s all about “owning the libs” no matter how stupid it is so i’m not sure he’s capable of putting 2 & 2 together.
Keep an eye out for a change in the way accidents are categorised if the raw numbers tick up. I think they had the 80km/h zone across too much of the Napier-Taupo, but the time “loss” is negligible compared to reducing the harm of accidents on that road. Purely through distance alone you’d guess a lower speed crash would increase survivability because of time to respond by paramedics.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/faster-110kmh-speed-limit-accelerate-kāpiti-13-november
Nobody has died on the Kapiti expressway, and people regularly travel that road faster than 110 even.
The chances of surviving if you don’t crash in the first place are 100%, we need better roads and better drivers, not lower limits.
I’d like all three.
What are your ideas for how to get better drivers, out of interest?
Make people resit their licence after a set period of time, say ten years, and they have to pass it at a modern standard.
Also start ticketing people who camp out in the fast lane and don’t pass anyone.
Thanks. Those things would help, though I suspect the age distribution of bad drivers is probably a reverse bell curve.
The Kāpiti expressway is a poster child for a great road, I think. Two lanes each way, separated, straight, flat, wide, good shoulder, no intersections only interchanges. However it costs a fortune to build a road like that.
It does. It also means I can get to Levin in under an hour, which makes it practical to commute there from the hutt Valley.
Which means a far more competitive market for trades, and makes it cheaper and easier to build something there.
I’m keen for the Levin bypass too. But I heard the proposed rate for the Manawatū Gorge toll was something like $8 a trip (from what my father-in-law was saying, in-laws live in that area). They decided not to toll it but holly hell I hope the Levin one isn’t that much. Seems adding $16 a day to a commute is a bit rough.
It really depends on how much time it shaves off the trip.
If it saves me 15 minutes, it’s worth $8 to my boss.
You make a good point, the more I think about it the more I think it is probably fine. There will always be an alternate route (that’s the govt’s policy), and trucks are required to use them. $8 to them is nothing on a load of goods worth tens of thousands.
Ok, I admit it’s probably a fair price to balance the cost of collecting. Also nice that if you’re commuting from Levin you miss it, and so unlike the Manawatū gorge proposal, you shouldn’t hit any/many commuters.
