Oh yay, Nanny has her eye on us yet again!
Call for speed limits to be lowered
12 August 2005
Open-road and urban speed limits should be lowered, the Local Authority Traffic Institute of New Zealand (TRAFINZ) said today.
President Andy Foster said the 100kmh speed limit was too fast for most of New Zealand's roads - including sections of State Highway One - and should be lowered on sub-standard roads until safety barriers could be installed.
He admitted the lowering of speed limits to 80kmh would be unpopular in large sections of the community - and among many politicians.
However, he said the suggestion of a wire barrier along large undivided sections of State Highway One "would also be unpopular".
Mr Foster, a Wellington city councillor, said the 50kmh urban speed limit was "far too fast" in residential streets.
At the annual conference held this week, TRAFINZ strongly supported plans to introduce a blanket 40kmh speed limit.
The aims were similar to the philosophy adopted in the United Kingdom and European countries where there was commitment from politicians and the general community, to the elimination of death and injury on the roads, he said.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe conference agreed there should be renewed commitment to meet the Road Safety Strategy 2010 target of no more than 300 deaths and 4500 hospitalisations a year by 2010.
TRAFINZ also says the minimum driving age of 15 is too low.
"The decline in our road toll has stopped, after big improvements since the 1980s ," Mr Foster said.
"The 100kmh limit is fine on many of our roads, but only until you or somebody else makes a mistake.
"You can be the best driver in the world, but it is not much protection when somebody coming the other way gets it wrong and there's only a bit of paint separating you."
Road crashes remained the number-one cause of involuntary death in the first five decades of life.
"The need to lower the open-road speed limit is really something that will only be possible if the whole New Zealand community agree to take responsibility for the fact that New Zealand's road toll is devastatingly hig h."
Building more overtaking lanes would be a solution for drivers visualising the nightmare of being stuck behind a truck or caravan for mile after mile.
"What people may not realise is that the annual cost of death and injury on our roads is about $3.6 billion.
"That is more than the cost of congestion, which seems to get all the focus," Mr Foster said.
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