… to ride from Christchurch to Akaroa at the new speed limit(s). This was the Tuesday before the recent school holidays, in the late morning, when I guessed that there would be minimum traffic.
From Tai Tapu to Little River the road flows nicely, there’s mostly good visibility, tighter bends are signed for a lower (recommended) speed and the surface is in good condition. What was 100km/h is now 80km/h. When you used to catch up to camper vans and the like, trundling along at 75km/h, you had a 25km/h margin when passing, to stay inside the speed limit. Now you have 5km/h. Mostly, it can’t be done legally, even in light traffic. What happens, of course, is that a line of drivers queue up behind the front vehicle, none of whom have the will to pass, but all of whom will follow the car in front at half to one second spacing. Thus, even a spirited competent driver (or rider!) must bulldoze his way in as one by one (or two by two) progress is made to get away from such tedium.
As an example, at the traffic-light signaled road works alongside Lake Forsyth, the line-up was camper van, stock truck, four cars, and then me on my bike. Once through on the green light, no-one showed any indication of wanting to do anything other than accept the 65km/h being imposed by the camper van. With a 15km/h margin for overtaking, I quickly made my way past them all.
From Little River to Hilltop the road is uphill, twisting with some tight bends but mostly in good condition. The previous speed limit was 100km/h and now it’s 60km/h. From my 50+ years of riding this road, I have observed that most cars don’t get much faster than this new limit anyway, but previously there was a 40km/h margin for legal passing. Now, there’s mostly no margin, and only very short ‘straights’ in which to make a move. Then I caught up to a concrete mixer truck, traveling at 20km/h. The slowest my R1200GSA can go in 1st gear without slipping the clutch is 20km/h… When visibility allowed, I was able to nip past, but for sure I wasn’t checking my speedo for compliance with the new limit.
At Hilltop, I turned for home.
The NZTA may have decided that it is ‘safer’ to have the new limits but my view is that for the majority of drivers who appear to be so concerned with not breaking the law, and who trust their over-reading speedos to keep them ‘safe’, they will drive in close formation convoys without any of them paying the least attention to what’s going on around them.
I expect that if or when something does happen, it may well involve several vehicles, as the road, at 80km/h, needs no special concentration and the less than one second following distances that I now see, will frustrate the hell out of those wishing to make steady progress, until eventually they ‘take a chance’ and it all goes wrong.
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Originally Posted by Racing Dave
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