To 80 KPH, a 10,000 dollars fix for a billon dollar problem, if these boffins think it with reduce the deaths on this road, they have their collective heads up where the sun won't shine. Most people will end up having a accident at 80kph from falling asleep. Modern cars are safer than ever but the volume using the road has increased so it needs up-grading. There with be snake lines the length of the highway (its bad enough now at the Napier end because of slow traffic) and slow uphill trucks won't be able to be passed legally because of slow speeds across the board. What that road needs is more passing lanes, Painting of worn white lines, smooth corners, better road surfaces, better cats eyes that aren't sourced in china, Better policing of Trucks and those towing trailers and boats, blown car headlights, even seeing a police car on that road would be a bonus. Another issue is cost to businesses where time is a big deal, but we live in a country that being productive is a dirty word, especially the labour party. Its just beyond belief that they would go down this track. LSTA has made it hard to make a submission with an idiot web site but please have a go, i'm sure their wanted out come is back to horse and cart
tygertung,
Apr 26, 6:51am
Crashing at 80 kilometres per hour is safer than crashing at 100 kilometres per hour due to physics.
apollo11,
Apr 26, 7:25am
Although if it's a head on crash you are probably dead either way- but a bit less minced.
tweake,
Apr 26, 7:40am
i know your going to hate this, but we have had speed reduced in "death valley" to 80kmh for a very long time now and it has made a huge difference both with the amount of accidents and serious injury and death rates.
sorry but reducing speed limits works.
the only problem with it is getting the police to enforce it. they had to do a massive campaign here to get drivers to slow down.
the perceived issue of lost productivity turns out to be negligible, as the actual time difference is marginal in this particular case.
evotime,
Apr 26, 7:48am
They’re wanting submissions for the same on SH1 from whangarei to Kawakawa as well as a bunch of other northland roads
Lowering the country’s speed limit price by piece
franc123,
Apr 26, 8:01am
x1
As annoying as it is, I can understand NZTA's reasoning behind this. to a point. There isn't any more simple, quick or cost effective answer to enhancing safety on some of these roads. Despite advancements in vehicle safety, tyre technology etc theres still the forces of physics to deal with, it also needs to be kept in mind that much of our roading network was engineered and constructed when open road speed limits were 80kph or even less in some cases anyway, as well as far less traffic density. Over the years a fair few of the truly nasty bits have been cut out/bypassed (think SH1 Bulls to Taupo for instance) which has much reduced the accident rates in these areas. There is still much work to do clearly, but its got to be prioritised somehow based on hard crash data. I've said before and I will keep saying the biggest issue facing this country is poor driving standards generally, made worse by the fact some people don't do enough highway driving to become truly competent at it.
nice_lady,
Apr 26, 3:18pm
The roads are fine. Many of the drivers are fool's.
bill-robinson,
Apr 26, 5:57pm
that is the problem in a nutshell
martin11,
Apr 26, 6:16pm
Bring in Driving licence retests for everybody at 10 year intervals and make them hard to improve the standard of driving . Also bring back the traffic Cops for . better policing of driving with larger fines like other countries for offences
tygertung,
Apr 26, 6:18pm
Also for some very strange reason there are a lot of aggressive drivers in this country. More so than overseas.
cjohnw,
Apr 26, 6:36pm
SH6 between Nelson and Blenheim has been reduced to between 60-90km (mostly 80km) since last year. I haven’t noticed a discernibly longer travel time between the two - maybe a few minutes at most. 120km.
tamarillo,
Apr 26, 6:56pm
I use this road lots, it has reduced travelling times and it’s bloody annoying. Majority of people disregard new limits as stupid but some, often tourists, stick rigidly to them (effectively doing less) and tail jam occurs. Then. Tailgating, bad overtakes etc. if govt think we are stupid and can’t conduct a modern vehicle at 100 on an open road they should change licence requirements.
nice_lady,
Apr 26, 6:56pm
That's not going to work. All it will do is make a lot of people pay a lot of money to the testers. They already make it hard to get a first licence. The people crashing aren't going to be the kind of people who generally drive with care. More driver enforcement. LOTS more. Like cops pulling people up for following too closely. Keeping an eye on speeds on the highways. We get passed ALL the time by people and we're sitting on 100Kmh. People pass is STUPID places, like for instance they wait till the end of a passing lane to suddenly pull out to pass. Then theres the ones who pass on blind corners or much too close to corners where someone else could appear round from the other direction and there's no-where to go. Or they drive too damn fast in wet conditions or in fog and can't react/stop in time if needed. Theres all sorts of stupidity out there and not a lot if any of it would be fixed by harder or more regular licence tests.
nice_lady,
Apr 26, 6:58pm
It's a great piece of road and much better than back in the 80's and 90's. But even then it was fine if you drove it right. The Govt and the LTSA or whatever they're called now, (waka something ?), are simply being risk averse and forcing everyone to slow down so that in the event of a crash less damage occurs. They're doing this all over the country - even in places where the road is perfectly fine and very few crashes have occurred. It is annoying.
apollo11,
Apr 26, 7:01pm
A lot of our country roads just aren't 100km/hr worthy roads, especially at night or with bad weather. People often don't drive to suit the conditions. I'd agree that dropping the speed on these roads would tend to make them safer.
3tomany,
Apr 26, 7:12pm
And probably way more likely due to boredom.
franc123,
Apr 26, 7:12pm
Politicians will never make it harder than it currently is to obtain drivers licences, its a guaranteed vote loser, introducing a 10 year retest with the possibility of having your licence revoked would be suicide. They have a big enough issue now with excessive amounts of either unlicenced drivers or those remaining on Learners for far too long. What they want is the whole issue to go away in the form of GPS monitored self driving cars.
tygertung,
Apr 26, 7:25pm
Perhaps in a few more years robot cars will come out so it won't be an issue?
loud_37,
Apr 26, 7:27pm
The majority of accidents are caused by distractions, when travelling slower people tend to get distracted more as they are bored and will play with the radio or their phone or look at the scenery. The slower speeds will not cut down on accidents but it may cut down on deaths but bad injuries will increase (which don't get advertised like deaths)
cjohnw,
Apr 26, 7:53pm
There is certainly a lot less tourist traffic using the road presently and a fraction of the amount of campervans and vehicles towing boats and caravans etc. Still the same amount of trucks and commercial vehicles of course. I drive it regularly too and have not often been overly inconvenienced and luckily haven’t been in a tail jam. Traffic has always been moving - just a little slower in places.
bill-robinson,
Apr 26, 7:56pm
simply driving to the conditions to hard for you?
bill-robinson,
Apr 26, 7:58pm
tygertung wrote: Perhaps in a few more years robot cars will come out so it won't be an issue?[/quote we have enough of them driving now, do not try to improve them.
nice_lady,
Apr 26, 8:25pm
No it wont. You don't HAVE to drive at 100Kmh even if the sign says you can. Dropping the speed limit wont make people drive slower or safer necessarily. Perhaps the best way to make our roads safer would be to ban idiots from driving. Ooopppsss there goes 95% of drivers.
apollo11,
Apr 26, 11:36pm
I said above that people often aren't capable of driving to the conditions.
tweake,
Apr 27, 12:19am
yet when we improve the road or drop the speed limit people stop crashing.
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