Green light for 30km/h speed limit in Wellington.

[Swoop]

27.04.06 11.00am


The speed limit in a number of downtown Wellington streets could be reduced to 30km/h as early as next week.

Wellington City Councillors yesterday voted for the new speed limit along Lambton Quay and Willis Street, a busy shopping and office area used by about 30,000 pedestrians daily, The Dominion Post reported.

The initiative stemmed from a coroner's report into the 2004 death of a woman who was killed when she stepped in front of a bus in Willis St.

Mayor Kerry Prendergast said an informal agreement between council and bus operator Stagecoach to reduce bus speeds to 30km/h had not worked.

The limit will apply to lower Willis St, Lambton Quay and parts of Willeston St, Mercer St, Customhouse Quay and Bunny St.

- NZPA


Good one stagecoach...

Watch your speed if riding in wellytown everyone.

[Blairos]

Another example of a ridiculous act by a City Council - it probably wont stop people getting hit by buses in that part of town either...

[Blairos]

Another thread on this going here (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=28407) as well

[Squeak the Rat]

If they have any more accidents and then apply the same logic, we'll see the speed limit down to 10kph.

When you have people moving about with free will either in foot or in a vehicle you are going to have accidents. Accidents are part of being human. This hangover is making me turn green :sick:

[skelstar]

I have no problem with this. Those buses go pretty quick down those streets...esp when they pull into the bus-stops, it can kinda catch you by surprise even if youre still on the sidewalk.

[sAsLEX]

The initiative stemmed from a coroner's report into the 2004 death of a woman who was killed when she stepped in front of a bus in Willis St.


Wonder if the report mentiond Darwin much?


I have no problem with this. Those buses go pretty quick down those streets...esp when they pull into the bus-stops, it can kinda catch you by surprise even if youre still on the sidewalk.

Well judging by the fact that buses ignore all present road rules what makes these people think they will follow this one?

Hell they go up and down Symonds Street which has huge foot traffic accross it, and not being racist but alot of asian students dont seem to have very good road craft and I have seen a few hit and many many near misses where their friends have had to pull them back from a bus etc, and these buses go well above 50/60/70 up and down this road.

[wendigo]

I wouldn't mind so much if instead of just hammering the motorist, they'd also do something educative to stop the fucktards who're getting themselves killed, killed.

For example, 'The Green Cross Code' anyone here know what I'm talking about? Stop, look, listen? These where things that were on the telly all the time when I was growing up in Ireland. For those of those of you who don't know what they are, they were a series of adds aimed at young children to teach them how to cross the road, and to raise the general awareness vis a vis road safety.

I've been here 4 years now & apart from a rather limp wristed "the roads are no playground", I've seen nothing that comes close.

Which leads us to this:


The initiative stemmed from a coroner's report into the 2004 death of a woman who was killed when she stepped in front of a bus in Willis St.


WTF???? How did she NOT see it? Its not as if its a packet of peanuts. Kind of difficult to miss. It must have hid behind a lampost then jumped out on top of her...

[poorbastard]

I actually think this is a good idea for those streets. Often you wouldn't want to be doing much more then 30km down those streets anyway. And those busses do fly down those streets thinking they own the road so maybe this might make them think about what they are doing more.

[madboy]

Don't worry about the speed limit, screw the buses for careless driving. Careless use doesn't require the driver to be exceeding the speed limit, merely driving in a manner that is careless for the conditions. I think doing 50k in a heavy vehicle with no chance of stopping or avoiding any sort of unexpected hazard, only 3m away from a few thousand pedestrians is careless.

See how long it takes the bus drivers to modify their attitudes when they're getting fined, and demerit points are stacking up leading to them losing their licenses.

But, oh wait, the traffic cops are all on the 6-lane nil pedestrian median barriered urban motorway parked under overpasses busting those f***ing lunatics doing 115k in the middle of the day! [Yes Aucklanders, we can speed in cages on our motorways during the day - haha!]

[thatHurt]

haha 30k - may as well ride a horse.

ahh you know - the one with 4 legs and eats grass, not the one that men with leather jackets with tassles ride.

[madboy]

may as well ride a horse... not the one that men with leather jackets with tassles ride.For those of us who don't live in Sydney, can you elaborate please?

[skelstar]

You mean like 'Man From Snowy River'? What were you Aussies thinking with that movie? ;)

[thatHurt]

You mean like 'Man From Snowy River'? What were you Aussies thinking with that movie? ;)

Who said I was an Aussie?

[madboy]

Not an Aussie? You just went to Sydney cos you heard the "lifestyle" was good, aye?? :nya:

[skelstar]

Educated guess.

[thatHurt]

yeah just can't keep away from those tassled leather men:blip:

[beyond]

One way of saving gas I suppose :(

Might as well just get off and walk. It's going to feel like it anyway.

Hasn't anyone told the councillors that counter steering isn't very effective below 30kmh. :bleh:

At 30kmh, cagers will be asleep as most of them are already, at 50kmh.

[Korea]

WTF???? How did she NOT see it? Its not as if its a packet of peanuts. Kind of difficult to miss. It must have hid behind a lampost then jumped out on top of her...
I agree - if someone steps out into the path of an oncoming bus, whose fault is it???
Even stepping in front of a bus at 30kmph is still going to mess you up.
A 30k speed limit isn't going to solve the problem of brainless morons walking into the middle of a busy street without looking both ways first.
Condolences to relations of the victims of myopia.

[Swoop]

Wonder if the report mentiond Darwin much? ...but alot of asian students dont seem to have very good road craft and I have seen a few hit and many many near misses where their friends have had to pull them back from a bus etc,
Too right there.
Catering to the lowest common denominator in society again....

Darwin rules!

[ferretface]

Its not a bad idea - its only gunna be two roads - one of which has some speed humps anyway. Just be glad they haven't decided to do some pedestrianising. I ride for fun and none of those roads are on my fav list!

[Back Fire]

what the hell is wrong with this country? its going down hill so fast its not funny....

[Bandit Rider]

Not really much of an issue - fairly short length of street - lucky if you are going 5 km most of the time - there are some seriously deranged bus drivers (and lots of brilliant ones too). At best it might discourage a few psychos, at worst give you more time to have a look as you go through - most people would only be on the route for short distance, or looking around.

[Madness]

Catering to the lowest common denominator in society again....

I think WCC are catering to the thousands of pedestrians who treat Lambton Quay & Willis St. as one big-fuck-off zebra crossing. I often crawl down that route on quiet afternoons (scoping for prospective new accounts of course) and the average speed would be 20-30km/hr during the day already.
I'd suggest that vehicles would tend to speed through there during evenings/weekends and pedestrians still think they own the road like they do during office hours.

I wonder how long it takes for a 28 day confiscation for doing 40km/hr over 30?? And will it be a Stagecoach bus??

Mayor Prendergast needs an enema.

[Lord Derosso]

I have used the buses in Wellington for the last seven years because its safer and cheaper to spend $20 a week rather than risk the bike at a bike park when the scooters get blown over onto your bike. Yes, this has happened to me in the past. Sometimes I have seen pushbikersdriven off the road because bus drivers have cut them off before stops. By law they are allowed to use the bus lanes. Is this really a good idea? I do see a lot of manics on pushbikes whom seem to take the bus lanes as their god given right but what really gets up my nose is those bus drivers whom creep right up to a foot away from your taillight and have no consideration for safety lengths. What happens if the car in front of you starts to roll back whilst beginning to take off from intersections? Bloody annoying when you leave 10 feet gaps to have nothing behind you. Had this happened so many times. Still, most of the drivers are good but I support the lowering of the speed limit though its a joke because I know for a fact that they hit 90KPM in a lot of 50KPM zones like Adelaide road for example on a late night bus......

[Dafe]

I agree with that!

With work, I'm driving around the CBD all day. I find I normally stick to 30-40kph on Willis and Lambton anyway, just because there's so much foot traffic, you never know what might happen in the blink of an eye.

I'm glad they haven't incorporated Featherston St, 50kph in the middle of the day down Featherston St actually feels quite quick.

A good call I say!

[MikeyG]

Everyone is impatient at the streets/intersections. If they put up cameras to get the cars/busses running the red lights it would help a bit but the main problem is pedestrians crossing the road trying to beat the traffic. There are lights there for them to cross at. I've seen people step out in front of busses and running across the road beause they think the bus is big and slow.

Why don't we just require people to use common sense? We could have the being bloody stupid act of 2006 to enfirce it.

[Kendog]

I am one of the stupid pedestrians trying to beat the busses each day on Willis street (crossing between two buildings I work in)

So I think this is a good idea, especially as I can't run as fast as I used to :whistle:

[Insanity_rules]

Oh that sux, cause ya know you'll get pinged doing 40 odd cruising around the city at night. Bus drivers never obey the speed limit anyway..... And someone who could actually miss a moving bus and walk in front of it get out of the gene pool right now!

WCC are a complete bunch of f#cktards!!!!!!

[Streetwise]

fuck it. fuck this city, for that matter fuck this country. we are all turning into a pack of dribbling fools. Over protected by those at the top, What about personal responsibility........or have i got it wrong and we all need saving from ourselves.

[Drew]

fuck it. fuck this city, for that matter fuck this country. we are all turning into a pack of dribbling fools. Over protected by those at the top, What about personal responsibility........or have i got it wrong and we all need saving from ourselves.
Methinks we all need to settle down a bit here. This is the CBD we're talking about, the busses do fuckin fly down there and I have had the shit scared out of me more than once.
It aint gonna slow you down any because the average speed is slow as down there most of the time.
And yes, most of the time people do need protected from themselves, because when walking in groups, we are all a bit vacant minded with regaurds to the traffic cos we yapping at eachother.

If it was at the bottom of the Rimutaka hill because someone got hit by a bus, fair enough to get mad, but if you're gonna say fuck the country because a slow place became a manditory slow place, I say FUCK OFF SOMEWHERE ELSE, YOU'RE A FUCKIN COCK!!!!!

[Streetwise]

Methinks we all need to settle down a bit here. This is the CBD we're talking about, the busses do fuckin fly down there and I have had the shit scared out of me more than once.
It aint gonna slow you down any because the average speed is slow as down there most of the time.
And yes, most of the time people do need protected from themselves, because when walking in groups, we are all a bit vacant minded with regaurds to the traffic cos we yapping at eachother.

If it was at the bottom of the Rimutaka hill because someone got hit by a bus, fair enough to get mad, but if you're gonna say fuck the country because a slow place became a manditory slow place, I say FUCK OFF SOMEWHERE ELSE, YOU'RE A FUCKIN COCK!!!!!

I can see you are a hot headed, broke back mountain watching piece of shit. am i not aloud my opinion on a site that asks for opinions......

[Finn]

Kinda now makes Wellington even more pointless. Us Aucklanders may decide to close it down once and for all. Trouble is, where shall we put all the civil servants?

[Streetwise]

Well there is a good rugby team, Well better than the blues anyway, lol

[James Deuce]

I can see you are a hot headed, broke back mountain watching piece of shit. am i not aloud my opinion on a site that asks for opinions......

It wasn't an opinion, it was mindless dribble.

[Streetwise]

you guys run to protect each other dont you, You see i thought this was a forum for placing info, advice, or just an opinion, Not a place where people read each other stuff and throw abuse at it. Please tell me if i have it wrong ???....

[Swoop]

Kinda now makes Wellington even more pointless. Us Aucklanders may decide to close it down once and for all. Trouble is, where shall we put all the civil servants?
Apart from:
Firing squads,
Shallow graves in the Kaimais,
Thrown off wharfs wearing concrete overshoes,
Contributing to the foundations of buildings,
and anything else the Sopranos would think of?????:blip:

[Hawkeye]

A 30k speed limit isn't going to solve the problem of brainless morons walking into the middle of a busy street without looking both ways first.


It will not be long before they introduce the same restriction on the Terrace due to the amount of foot traffic during the day.

Try going down the Terrace at the end of the day. The number of brainless morons that consider the fact that there is a crossing there so they will just walk out without checking the traffic is capable of stopping in time.

I've also sat at a crossing for 5 mins because of the morons that think it is their right to just step out onto the crossing even though you are about to pull away after waiting for it to clear.

[snuffles]

I have no problem with this. Those buses go pretty quick down those streets...esp when they pull into the bus-stops, it can kinda catch you by surprise even if youre still on the sidewalk.


suggest you look.......might be a dumb suggestion.............but lowering the speed limit is still not gonna fix the issue

[MikeyG]

The artice also said the average speed down there is 38km/h so dropping it to 30km/h probably won't make much difference.

I'd say the problem is the busses and car drivers speeding up to get the orange lights, and the number of impatient pedestrians who cross against the lights. I work on Willis St and every day I see some idiot who seems to thik that because a bus is big it is slow and so they try to beat the bus across the road.

To get fewer accidents get some cops down there to pull enforce the existing laws. If noone is obeying the existing laws why would they obey the new ones

[MD]

I wouldn't be so quick to judge the deceased woman. Unless you were there at the time and witnessed something different?
She was caught out LIKE A LOT OF US, by the recent changes with the traffic flow in Willis St and the Quay i.e. they had been normal two way streets for ALL vehicles, then they made some short stretches one way North only BUT the east side (southward direction) was closed to all vehicles except Buses. Suddenly Peds noticed that half the road appears unused by traffic going south, so people started crossing the road to the centreline feeling safe. Until a silent electric bus hits them one foot off the curb. Lulled a lot of people into near misses- me included.
Now say sorry.