Crash hotspot: Speed limit changes divide residents
Residents living either side of Christchurch’s ‘‘lethal’’ Dyers Pass Rd are divided over mooted traffic changes.
The Port Hills road linking Cashmere and Governors Bay is a crash hotspot – since 2008, there have been 170 crashes on the road, injuring 95 people and killing two.
In January, a German tourist died after colliding with a car on the first day of her motorcycle tour around New Zealand.
On Thursday, city councillors will decide whether to introduce a 60kmh speed limit along non-residential Dyers Pass Rd.
The current speed limit between Summit Rd and Governors Bay Rd is
100kmh. The limit is 70kmh for the section from just above Hackthorne Rd to Summit Rd.
The Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board has already approved double yellow lines from Hackthorne Rd towards Summit Rd. The Banks Peninsula board decided against double yellow lines from Summit Rd to Governors Bay.
Fifty-five per cent of 538 submissions on the proposed changes favoured the 60kmh limit, while
50 per cent supported the yellow lines.
Lindsay McLeod, a former Governors Bay volunteer firefighter, recalled attending serious crashes along Dyers Pass Rd, including a fatal motorcycle crash.
‘‘He was a North Islander. He didn’t have any idea where the road went, came around a couple of bends . . . and then got out of shape and ended up going off the road,’’ he said. ‘‘That was the end of him.’’ McLeod has lived in Governors Bay for more than 35 years and travelled Dyers Pass Rd to the city and back most days.
‘‘One of my issues was the amount of paint double yellow lines would create . . . If you took it all the way to Governors Bay it would represent about the area of three medium-sized houses,’’ he said. ‘‘When that paint gets wet . . . that makes it slippery and so you’ll catch out motorcyclists, you’ll catch out cyclists and if they get out of shape in the middle of the road they’re immediately on the wrong side of the road.’’
McLeod was ‘‘passionate about safety for cars, for cyclists, for motorcyclists’’.
‘‘My son was a really good road cyclist. He raced over these hills for many years . . . [and later] became a racing motorcyclist and he died a year ago this Easter racing a motorcycle at Methven in the street races,’’ he said.
Governors Bay residents Fred and Lesley Simpson supported the speed limit changes in their submission.
They estimated the 10kmh reduction would add one minute in travel time from Cashmere Rd to Governors Bay Rd.
Terry Porter described the route as ‘‘lethal’’, but did not support the changes and called for the installation of roadside barriers.
‘‘It’s the only road with catastrophic drops that hasn’t got such barriers,’’ he wrote.
McLeod did not believe the proposed speed limit changes would make much difference for motorists.
‘‘The only thing is of course if you’ve got someone who’s doing 30kmh and you might want to pass somebody before you got to a corner. Well you might exceed 60kmh to get past them,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s about three pulloff bays up the Governors Bay side of the road and if they made those in good quality seal, and maybe extended them slightly, people would feel more comfortable about pulling off to the side.’’
Council transport operations manager Stefan Thomas said councillors would consider the speed limit on Thursday. Decisions on double yellow lines were made by the community boards.
Drivers could cross yellow lines to pass cyclists or stationary vehicles if it was safe.
‘‘Safe passing means there is a good space between the driver’s vehicle and the cyclist, and there is good forward visibility of oncoming traffic,’’ Thomas said.
‘‘When that paint gets wet . . . that makes it slippery and so you’ll catch out motorcyclists.’’ Lindsay McLeod, frequent road user