Speed limits on rural roads in council cross hairs

Sunday, 30 June 2019

Dropping open road speed limits through the Waikato is moving a step closer.

Slowing drivers to 90kmh on rural roads is becoming more likely with a major Waikato transport group set to back the plan.

The Waikato Regional Council's Regional Transport Committee will vote to endorse the Draft Regional Speed Management Plan when it meets on Monday.

The plan recommends 90kmh speed limits on rural roads as well as lowered speeds within CBDs and town centres designed to reduce the road toll in one of the country's most dangerous roading regions.

The vote comes after a string of high fatality crashes in the region that prompted soul searching over a stubbornly high road toll.

In the year to date, 44 people have died on the region's roads and over the past 12 months, 383 people died on New Zealand's roads, 78 of whom were in Waikato.

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April was the highest road national for a decade, at 45, including a horrific crash north of Taupō which killed seven members of one family and a driver in another car. Only a month earlier another five people were killed on nearby Tirohanga Rd, near Atiamuri.

Long-term road safety data from NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) suggests speed limits on almost 90 per cent of the country's roads are too high and should be lowered. Cutting limits to between 60kmh and 80kmh on most open roads would improve safety, data shows, and only 5 per cent should retain the current 100kmh limit.

Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury are all on the radar for where the greatest safety gains can be made, and new speed limits could be brought in within three years.

While the Waikato plan has been in the works for months it would still leave ultimate authority in enforcing any new limits with the individual district councils represented on the regional committee because they had control of the roads, RTC chairman Hugh Vercoe said.

'They would have to individually say that they think this is a good policy, 'we will change'.'

Vercoe said he was confident it will be backed by the rest of the committee.

'The only reason it might not get over the line is there are some very strong members of the committee that want it dropped to 80km/hour.'

If endorsed, he hoped it would give them the support to adopt a strategy around lowering the speed limit.

'It is the belief there are too many fatal accidents on our roads. The choices are that you sit on your hands and do nothing, or you do something.'

While there was a range causes for road crashes, Vercoe said the easiest factor that the committee could act on was road speed.

'It's not the main component in a lot of things but it is one of the components. Lets reduce the speed from 100 to 90kmh.'

Speed or driving too fast for the conditions continues to be a significant contributor in fatal and serious crashes in Waikato and shows an increasing five year trend accounting for 24 per cent of high severity crashes in the region.

In the year to date, 44 people have died on Waikato roads and over the past 12 months, 383 people died on New Zealand's roads, 78 of whom were in Waikato.

District councils had earlier rejected a proposal that the regional council should set regional speed limits. Council staff also sought feedback on whether these councils would support a speed limit reduction on rural roads, he said.

'Our position has been that we want to reduce the speed limit through the rural roads throughout the whole of the Waikato region from the current 100km/hour.'

Some councils said it should be reduced to 80kmh while others wanted it left where it was, he said.

Proposed speed limit reductions on roads around the Waipā district have received support from the public following consultation. Further south near Tokoroa, a permanent speed reduction along State Highway 1 between Tokoroa and Taupō could be on the cards after more than 20 deaths in the last six years.

Central government could either pass legislation to lower the speed limit or use NZTA, which controls state highways to lower the speed limit on some of these roads.

Vercoe believed there was low public tolerance to drop the speed limit to 80km/hour on state highways, but there was more acceptance at a 90km/hour speed limit.

Dropping to 90km/hour should not affect productivity because it equalled the maximum speed for heavy trucks.