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Speed limit reset accelerates national debate

One Hundred Percent reversal of earlier speed limit: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with Transport Minister Chris Bishop
(RNZ Photo by Samuel Rillstone)

Vineeta Rao
Auckland, January 31, 2025

The government has announced that the reversals to Labour’s speed limit reductions will begin with immediate effect and be in place by 1 July.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said, “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads.”

The Minister, whose National Party campaigned on the matter, added that over 65% of submitters during consultation on the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 agreed with the Party’s agenda.

“Where Labour was about slowing New Zealand down, the coalition government is all about making it easier for people and freight to get from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible, which will help drive economic growth and improved productivity,” he said.

The impact on our roads

The Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 requires the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and local Councils to reverse all speed limits lowered since January 2020 on several categories of roads back to their previous limits by 1 July 2025. The reversal will see speed limits being increased on 38 sections of key routes, including parts of State Highway 1 in Northland, SH16 near Auckland and SH3 in Hamilton. Changes will also be made to SH2 between Featherston and Masterton, and SH3 Whanganui.

The North Island will see 13 of the changes, with specific sections of the following roads impacted: SH1 Kamo Bypass; SH1 Whangārei; SH11 Te Haumi; SH1 Moerewa; SH16 Waimauku; SH22 Paerata; SH1C Hamilton; SH3 Hamilton; SH26 Hamilton.

Maintenance and project work will also take place alongside these changes. A list of an additional 49 sections of roads is also being released for public consultation, which will run for six weeks.

“In terms of local road changes, Councils have until 1 May 2025 to advise NZTA of the specified roads subject to reversal under the new Rule. The new rule also requires variable speed limits outside schools during pick-up and drop-off times. By 1 July 2026, local streets outside a school will be required to have a 30km/h variable speed limit. Rural roads that are outside schools will be required to have variable speed limits of 60 km/h or less,” Mr Bishop said.

Death by drugs and alcohol

He attributed 30% of road deaths to drugs and alcohol.

“Throughout the world, 50km/h is used as the right speed limit to keep urban roads flowing smoothly and safely. The evidence on this is clear – comparable countries with the lowest rates of road deaths and serious injuries, such as Norway, Denmark, and Japan, have speed limits of 50km/h on their urban roads, with exceptions for lower speed limits,” he said.

While the Minister stopped short of throwing NZTA under the figurative bus, he did not pull any punches when criticising the previous government for their inaction on the matter.

Mr Bishop claimed the previous Associate Transport Minister, Labour’s Kieran McAnulty had recently said that, under the previous government, he asked NZTA to review the SH2 Wairarapa speed limit, and that they told him ‘No.’

The new changes will save drivers around three minutes on their route.

“Today provides a classic example of our government’s determination to stop letting government agencies put things in the too-hard basket, and instead to push forward for actual results,” Mr Bishop said.

Politicians react

Coalition Partner ACT Leader David Seymour welcomed the move.

“Sensible speed limits are a triumph for common sense and democracy. Instead of being dictated to by a faceless bureaucratic minority, the people are in charge again,” he said.

The Green Party’s Transport Spokesperson Julie Anne Genter argued that the laws of physics were not a matter of popular opinion. She said there was enough evidence to prove that safe speeds saved lives.

“And yet this government is substantially hiking up the speed limit on a swathe of often undivided roads in regions such as Northland which has had historically higher rates of deaths on their roads compared to the rest of the country. When safe speed limits were established in Northland it reduced deaths and serious injuries by 50%-60% with increases in travel times less than one minute per 10 kilometres.

The Labour Party Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said that with this move, any road deaths as a result of removing the speed limits will be in the hands of the government.

“Where it is safe to do so, we do not oppose raising speed limits. However, the government is making many of these changes based on a campaign promise, rather than evidence. I would like to see the evidence that it is safe to raise speed limits on these roads, not the National Party’s opinion that it is. It is an absolute tragedy that we go into every long weekend expecting a road toll. It should not be normal for Kiwis to lose loved ones to people driving too fast,” he said.

 

Christmas-New Year 2020/2021 2021/2022 2022/2023 2023/2024 2024/2025
Road Fatalities 11 16 19 22 14

Source: www.transport.govt.nz

What the Local Governments say

Reactions coming in from local governments are mixed with a safe transport advocacy group even taking legal action against the government’s decision.

‘Movement,’ a charitable trust that advocates for safe transport for all New Zealanders, applied for a judicial review of the Transport Minister’s decision in mid-January.

It claims that the decision to adopt the Setting of Speed Limits 2024 rule is inconsistent with the minister’s objectives under the Land Transport Act.

Bevan Woodward, a transport planner and spokesperson for the Organisation said one of the grounds for the review was that it was “unreasonable and perverse” for former Transport Minister Simeon Brown to require the reversal of any speed limit reduction put in place because of the presence of a school.

Movement’s reaction came after Nelson Councillor Rachel Sanson said that the decision to reverse speed limits means that SH6 at Marybank, North-East of the city, will revert to 80 km/h and 100 km/h in parts, up from the current limit of 60 km/h.

It is a densely populated stretch of road that is bordered by a shared pathway, residential homes and Clifton Terrace School, which is attended by more than 300 students.

Atawhai Liaison Councillor James Hodgson wrote to Mr Bishop last week to raise concerns about the decision to reverse blanket speed limit reductions on SH6.

“This section of state highway has a long history of advocacy from residents for speed limit reductions, noting the 2010 campaign by Atawhai residents, supported by Nelson City Council and then Nelson MP Nick Smith, to reduce the entire stretch from 100 km/h to 80 km/h.”

“Much of the state highway is urban in feel, and includes a shared path used extensively by school children travelling from Dodson Valley to Clifton Terrace School, as well as multiple busy intersections where housing development continues to occur.”

In Canterbury, where two segments of State Highway 75 Christchurch-Akaroa Road will increase from 80 km/h to 100 km/h, between Halswell and Tai Tapu and Little River and Tai Tapu, commuters expressed their satisfaction over the decision.

Masterton Mayor Gary Caffell also backed the decision.

“We did not think that the reduction needed to happen and now we are more than happy with what the government has done.”

There is no denying that, globally, New Zealand has one of the highest tolls when it comes to road deaths. What remains to be seen is how the government’s decision impacts this number.

Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Auckland.

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