Blanket speed limit reductions to be dropped

Saturday, 15 June 2024

Proposed blanket speed limit reductions for the region are to be dropped after community pushback and a change in Government policy, says Nelson mayor Nick Smith.

On Thursday, the coalition Government announced it would reverse blanket speed limit reductions put in place after January 1 2020 on local streets, arterial roads and state highways.

Regulation minister David Seymour said the “scattergun restrictions” were based on “nanny state ideology” and not evidence, and were “depressing”.

Seymour said blanket restrictions made it “harder for people to get where they wanted quickly and safely”, and “drained the joy from life as people were forced to follow rules they knew made no sense”.

Nelson mayor Nick Smith said the Government’s announcement was “broadly consistent” with where the regional transport committee and Nelson City Council was heading in response to public submissions to the regions’ Draft Speed Management Plan.

The plan proposed to reduce limits across the region to improve safety.

Smith said there was “strong pushback” from the community, who made over 2200 submissions, on blanket speed limit cuts.

On the proposal to reduce speed limits to 30kph in all urban streets, 66% of respondents were opposed, and 27% were in support.

Even when that was reduced back to 40kph, the opposition was 59%, as compared to 30% in support, he said.

In response to that and to the Government’s change of policy, the regional transport committee was dropping the policy of blanket speed reductions, he said.

They were now looking to reduce speed limits around some schools and areas where there was “strong community support”, such as Cable Bay, The Glen, Atawhai, Tāhunanui and Stoke.

However, Joint Nelson Tasman Regional Transport Committee chair, Tasman deputy mayor Stuart Bryant said Smith had probably taken a “personal stance” as that hadn’t yet been decided by the committee.

While there had been pushback against blanket speed limit reductions, what the Tasman District Council had been doing was looking into roads individually, he said.

State Highway 6 speed limits

In December 2020, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi dropped the speed limit to 90kph for most of State Highway 6 between Nelson and Blenheim, a reduction that could be reversed under the government’s draft speed limit rule.

To retain lower speed limits on parts of a rural state highway, NZTA would have to “demonstrate public support” for lower speed limits, according to the Government’s announcement.

Bryant said he had reservations about raising speeds, as people had gotten used to them, and they were put in place for safety concerns.

“I think most people have found that it hasn’t made a huge difference to trip time,” he said.

Smith said there were sections of the highway between Nelson and Blenheim where the speed limit had been reduced in sections that he didn’t think were high risk.

However, on some windy sections the lower speed limits were “appropriate”.

Smith said it was important NZTA’s proposals were “evidence based”.

Road freight transport companies industry association Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand interim chief executive Dom Kalasih said generally speaking, the trucking industry would be pleased to see blanket speed limits reversed.

“They felt a lot of the speed reductions weren’t justified, and often by reducing speed limits, it meant cars would get stuck behind trucks, and car drivers would get upset with the truck driver.”

It was difficult to weigh in on whether lower speeds impacted productivity, he said.

“There are some cases where it will make a substantial difference, but they are the minority, not the majority of trips, when you look at New Zealand total heavy vehicle journeys.”