70kmh limit would be ‘a nightmare’
Lowering the open road speed limit to 70kmh would be like being in slow motion, says the TaranakiKing Country MP.
A report by the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group with 59 member countries, including New Zealand, is recommending that rural roads without median barriers should have their speed limits lowered to 70kmh.
This would include the majority of New Zealand’s roading network, including state highways.
‘‘My view is productivity would plummet for a start,’’ said Taranaki King Country MP Barbara Kuriger. ‘‘It would be like going back to life in slow motion.
‘‘The cattle trucks, the milk tankers - driving around the rural roads would just be a nightmare.’’
The National MP thought it was a ‘‘really archaic way to deal with safety’’.
The Mt Messenger and Awakino roads had already been appropriated for repair, she added.
‘‘My message is just fix the roads.’’
Kuriger said she frequently drove between New Plymouth and Te Awamutu.
‘‘I was just trying to think off the top of my head how long it would take and it would just be a joke.
‘‘You’ve already got those safety signs on some corners that give you a suggested speed limit.’’
Taranaki truck driver Tim McDonald said it was a ‘‘stupid idea’’.
‘‘Sure there are some places where it’s fair enough but I don’t think all roads need to be 70km.
‘‘The roads are still going to be the same no matter what speed you’re travelling at because you don’t know the speed of the person coming around a corner.’’
He said work should be put into making the roads safer, such as making them wider, rather than just reducing speed.
‘‘If I’m going down the road in my truck and I come around a corner and there’s a tractor doing 50km, that’s dangerous even if the speed limit was 70.
‘‘Effectively it would just make things dangerous because people would get impatient and pass trucks.’’
Driving instructor Antonia Baylis from Naki Driving School agreed.
‘‘I think people will just get impatient,’’ she said.
‘‘They’re already getting impatient when they’re following you at 100k.’’
She is not convinced it would make the roads safer.
‘‘It’s the observational skills, the knowing what’s going on around you, the defensive driving. It’s not only speeding.’’
However, lowering the limit on some rural roads off the main highway would not be a bad thing, she said.
‘‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing 70kmh, especially on the ones with no white line showing you where the middle of the road is or no white line on the edge, but it’s where do you draw that line?’’
Taranaki Road Transport Association executive member Tom Cloke said the organisation certainly did not support the idea.
‘‘We believe that all it will do is push up cost as far as loss of productivity time on the road,’’ he said.
Cloake said it would actually end up putting more vehicles on the road, as companies tried to meet delivery deadlines and driving time limits.
‘‘Instead of doing three loads a day we’ll only get two and you need to put another truck on the road to cover that capacity and it will create more congestion.’’
Drivers will also take more risks because of frustration with travelling too slow, he said.