Zero speed tolerance on 110kmh Waikato Expressway, police say
Friday, 8 July 2022
Don’t get tempted by a big new stretch of 110kmh road because police will have no tolerance for speedos inching above the limit.
Once the Hamilton section of the Waikato Expressway opens, motorists will be able to travel a continuous 78km, from Hampton Downs to south of Cambridge, on a median-divided four-lane expressway at 110 kmh.
But every extra kilometre “exponentially increases your risk”, Waikato District road policing manager Jeff Penno said, and there’s no speed tolerance in the police policy.
“We will certainly have a presence [on the expressway]. It won’t be overt, you probably won’t see it until it’s too late.
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“It won’t be heavy, won’t be hard, but we will be there in some shape or form.”
Penno said they do all their road policing based on risk, given the thousands of kilometres of highway to cover in the Waikato District.
Roads that are given a 110kmh limit have been designed and built to be among the best in the country, Waka Kotahi’s director regional relationships David Speirs said.
“The speed limit is being increased on the Waikato Expressway because it is a modern road that can support higher travel speeds without compromising safety. The features making it safer for travelling at higher speeds include having at least two lanes in each direction, a central median barrier and no significant curves,” Speirs said.
Police are consulted about speed limits but the ultimate decision is made by Waka Kotahi, Penno said.
His crews will keep monitoring speed on the expressway and will deploy officers based on risk.
The Cambridge section of the expressway has had a 110kmh limit since 2017 and Penno said there hasn’t been a fatal crash on it since.
“That primarily is because the roading structure is so good and world-class, that the ability to have friction between vehicles is so reduced that the risk is reduced dramatically.”
The other current 110km section of road is Tauranga’s Eastern Link which increased at the same time as Cambridge.
Penno said there is no speed tolerance in New Zealand in the police policy and every kilometre over the limit exponentially increases risk.
“Being 101km over in 100km is not a 1% more risk, it is significantly more. Just because of the forces involved and the human body to deal with those forces - it’s not a linear relationship. Which is why we have such a very low tolerance for speed.”
He is hopeful the expressway will take a chunk of traffic, including heavy vehicles, particularly out of Hamilton but also off State Highways 27 and 29, where police have seen a lot of trauma this year.
But Penno is concerned about traffic blending back into a windy single-lane road south of Cambridge, where the expressway finishes. Despite Waka Kotahi’s safety measures, he would like the speed reduced to 90km.
“That is the speed of heavy motor vehicles and, because you can’t pass down there now, the trucks will determine the speed limit. So for us, it’s about a self-explaining road. For the next five kilometres you can’t pass, the speed limit is 90, so just relax.”
V8 super car driver and road safety advocate Greg Murphy said the expressway is a great piece of infrastructure adding onto that which already bypasses Ngāruawāhia, and Huntly. It actually brings New Zealand into the 21st century, he said.
“I am sure this new piece will be a great addition due to the time it’s going to save, I know it’s going to save me - the amount of times I drive between Hawke’s Bay and Auckland.
But Murphy said that despite safety precautions in place there will still be incidents on the expressway.
“We still have something wrong with driving habits and behaviour on our roads. A lot of it comes down to, these days, distraction. There is a fair bit of fatigue, and also poor behaviour based on not knowing. So when we say safe driving most people don’t know what that even means.”
“It's just that piece of road does protect other motorists from drivers making errors, poor judgement, doing things they shouldn’t be which is premeditated, that is speeding,” Murphy said.
AA Road Safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen said they approve of the 110km speed limit because people want to get to places as quickly as possible, and it’s a very safe stretch of road.
He said it’s also consistent with other countries, as a lot of Kiwis have travelled even to Australia and seen similar stretches of multi-laned, divided highways that have speed limits of 110km or even higher.
“In our view, it also builds that idea that we need to have the right speed limits for the right environment and when you are looking at a multi-lane divided highway with very few intersections or on/off ramps it’s possible to have those higher speed limits and for the to be safe.”
He doesn’t think the 78km of 110km would encourage motorists to turn it into a racetrack.
“You are always going to have the risk and reality that certain people are going to go over the speed limit deliberately. That is why we have enforcement, but we already have people doing that on the 100km roads that we have.”
From July 13, it will be legal to drive 110kmh on the Waikato Expressway between Hampton Downs and Tamahere.
However, Tamahere, Hampton Downs and Ngāruawāhia will be under traffic management until upgrades have been completed.