At least 500 km of New Zealand state highways should already have reduced speed limits, but Waka Kotahi has had to spend a lot longer than anticipated trying to convince the public it’s a good idea
Progress on reducing speed limits across the country has been hamstrung with more community engagement having to take place than was expected.
Waka Kotahi set itself the goal of at least 500 km of the network with reduced speeds by last June.
But it only managed to change 165km.
“Engaging with communities is critical to successfully implementing Road to Zero. In 2021/22, community engagement took longer than expected, which delayed completion of the speed limit reviews,” Waka Kotahi said in its annual report.
Most of New Zealand’s roads have speed limits too high for the state of the road.
In the year to June 2022 there were 1,479 deaths and serious injuries where the speed limit on the stretch of road was not appropriate.
The Road to Zero campaign pledges a 40 percent reduction in deaths and serious injuries on the roads by 2030. A massive part of this reduction hinges on fewer deaths because of lower speed limits.
University of Canterbury Human Geography professor and Ministry of Transport Chief Science Advisor Simon Kingham said it was not surprising buy-in had been tough.
“I think people perhaps don't quite understand what Road to Zero’s about, I think that's part of the problem.
“The idea of Road to Zero is accepting that people will make mistakes, and trying to make the mistakes less fatal and less likely to lead to injuries and I think that's the part of a message that's partly been missed.”
He said lower speed limits would mean increased journey times, but the impact was nowhere near as bad as people imagined.
“What people are doing is they're imagining themselves driving down a nice straight bit of state highway, wondering why Waka Kotahi are wanting to reduce the speed limit.
“It doesn't lead to anywhere near the extra time that people think. So that probably is where they're struggling to communicate.”
“If Waka Kotahi and local councils could afford to put barriers down the middle and on the sides of roads they would do that but we don’t have the money to do that." - Paul Durdin, road safety expert.
From May this year a new framework for setting speed limits came into play, making it easier for road controlling authorities (local councils and Waka Kotahi) to reduce speeds.
Waka Kotahi recently released its Interim Speed Management Plan which is out for consultation until December 12.
It acknowledges how important public buy-in is.
“Waka Kotahi recognises that to be successful in achieving its vision and objectives, its approach to managing speed needs to ensure users of the state highway network and local communities are brought along on the journey towards a safe Aotearoa,” the plan said.
Australasian College of Road Safety NZ Chapter co-chair Paul Durdin said public opinion would change over time.
“Over time, public sentiment for speed reductions in urban areas has changed quite significantly from mainly against to mainly supportive.
“To the point now where communities lobby and actually ask their local council for lower speed limits.”
But this had not yet happened for rural roads.
“It’s less tangible and harder to understand. In the cities there’s people walking around but for areas where it’s always been 100km, people can’t understand why certain roads have to be lower.”
Durdin drives the 78km on the Christchurch - Akaroa State Highway 75 most weeks and said the speed limit drop had only added about five minutes to his journey.
“There was quite a lot of vocal opposition at the time. There was vandalism of the signs... but since then the noise has quietened down considerably.
“And it’s far more pleasant with the majority of traffic all at the same speed. Previously you’d have a campervan at 80km, trucks at 90km, others trying to hit the 100km target, now it’s much like being on a conveyor belt, there’s a lot less overtaking happening.”
He believed sentiment for lower limits on rural roads would soften over time.
“If Waka Kotahi and local councils could afford to put barriers down the middle and on the sides of roads they would do that but we don’t have the money to do that.
“There’s plenty of examples where roads have been built that support higher speed limits, the Waikato Expressway, Transmission Gully, it’s not like the infrastructure isn't happening.”
"Regardless of the reason a crash occurs, impact speed always decides injury severity and lowering speed limits and rigorously enforcing them has globally proven to be a highly effective casualty reducing strategy." - Dave Cliff, Global Road Safety Partnership chief executive.
AA Road Safety manager Dylan Thomsen was not surprised consultation had taken longer than expected, adding speed reductions were often framed as black and white when they were not.
“On some roads, in some places, we will support speed reductions and we have supported a number in the past but in other cases we have thought the changes don’t make sense for the environment so we have opposed some.”
He said public support and doing what “felt right” was important for success.
“If changes make sense to people and they can see a good reason for it they’re likely to not be too bothered but if people are looking at changes and they think that doesn’t seem right then that’s when you’re likely to get more of that public debate.
“It is a polarising issue and there is a spectrum but the majority sit in the middle where they don’t love the idea of sweeping changes but if a road is having excessive risk and crashes they can get onboard with that.”
He said it was important consultation was given the time it needed, otherwise the changes would not be effective anyway.
“People need to get a say, that has to be a part of the process.”
Global Road Safety Partnership chief executive Dave Cliff said lower speed limits would result in fewer deaths and serious injuries, particularly on rural roads without median barriers.
“A 5 percent decrease in average speed leads to approximately a 10 percent decrease in all injury crashes and a 20 percent decrease in fatal crashes.”
He was a police officer in New Zealand for over 30 years.
“It is a common international phenomenon that commentators will want to attribute road trauma rates solely to behaviours such as driver distraction, driver inexperience or driver education. While these issues are important, they avoid a fundamental truth.
“Regardless of the reason a crash occurs, impact speed always decides injury severity and lowering speed limits and rigorously enforcing them has globally proven to be a highly effective casualty reducing strategy.”
The evidence here supports this too. Analysis of crash data from 2015-2019 shows the number of people killed or seriously injured per crash on a road with a speed limit of 100 km per hour is 40 percent higher than in crashes on 80 km per hour roads.
National recently launched a petition calling for a halt to speed reduction plans.
Transport spokesperson Simeon Brown said they were a short-sighted, quick-fix attempt "to address the problem of road safety that doesn’t deal with underlying issues like poor road maintenance and the proper enforcement of road rules.
“While National supports variable speed limits outside schools during pick-up and drop-off times, this proposal is the first step towards reducing the speed limits on all State Highways across the country to a maximum of 80km per hour.”
Transport Minister Michael Wood said it was always going to be a challenging area.
"There will be sometimes criticism if they do move ahead and make changes and sometimes criticism if they don't, and that is the nature of these things, which is that different people and different communities will have different views about these matters."
"We've got a broader strategy to bring down deaths and serious injuries on our roads and safer speeds are a key part of that. At an overall level Waka Kotahi is making good progress at bringing in safe and appropriate speeds but it is important we take the time to work it through carefully with people and to target those efforts into the places that will make the biggest difference."
