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Speed limits start going back up, full list of roads announced (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 2 days ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/politics@lemmy.nz

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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.

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[–] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics-and-insights/safety-road-deaths/sheet/death-on-nz-roads-since-1921

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.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 days ago

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).