NZTA suggests 80kph speed limit for whole district

mcscottwgtn, Apr 16, 11:13am
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/communities/4887659/Council-to-consider-trialling-speed-limit http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/769244 http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/coroners-court/documents/recommendations-2008/december-2008/Recommendation.Bowker-Napp.SB.18.Dec.2008.pdf
Don't understand how a petition 'signed by some 300 people' can result in a suggestion from the NZ Transport Agency for a reduction to the speed limit to the whole of the district. The petition was initiated after the sad death of a teenager killed while crossing a rural road on foot.
The coroners recommendation which I had to hunt out states the car was not travelling at excessive speed.
Another interesting aspect is that speed limits are set according to the number of driveways in an area and not the geometrics of the road. Guess the geometrics of the road result in those yellow speed advisories for bends.

saxman99, Apr 16, 11:24am
If a car strikes a pedestrian at 80km/h they will still be the same kind of dead as they would be if struck at 100km/h.

mcscottwgtn, Apr 16, 11:25am
Good point saxman.I recall some lame (nzta!) add with a teenage girl in various states of death around a speedo.

mcscottwgtn, Apr 16, 11:46am

ginga4lyfe, Apr 16, 2:53pm
whats the point! all it does is slows drivers down un neededly, and how often does a teenager get run over in those parts! and they are only acting on it now after 2 years! It sounds like it obviously wasnt a top rpiority and not such a need, why not rather put some money into ROAD SAFETY education rather than penalizing drivers, yet again , Alot of problems can be fixed with education , not extra laws or limitations - Thats one thing i have noticed about NZ almost No road education to the young fellas at school, if you teach them to repect the road and cars THERE you solve problems LATER, its very one sided here, if a car runs you over , its immediately the drivers fault, no one is willing to think of " hey if maybe we taught those kids that running across the road, and to use ROAD crossings then this may not have happened!

mcscottwgtn, Apr 16, 3:07pm
My understanding from what I have read is that the child was with another sibling whom must have escaped physically unharmed. You would think they would have been able to hear a vehicle and decide to wait it out (something kids find hard to do). I often open the car windows to have a listen out on intersections where you see f all and base my decision on that info as well.
Must admit that kids are often hopeless around the road. One of my nephews simply fails to look when crossing the road. He has been nearly bowled on at least two occasions.

richardmayes, Apr 16, 3:21pm
Why is legislation even necessary!

When I was down there in 2008, everyone drove at about 80km/h on the open road and about 41km/h through the main street of Motueka anyway. I couldn't tell if they were all smoking heaps of the ganja, or just retarded.

mcscottwgtn, Nov 5, 5:07am
The road is a State Highway 60.