The New Zealand Taxpayers Union commends Waka Kotahi for listening to taxpayers who called them out for their extreme speed camera plans and backing down from their intentions to saturate roads with cameras.

"The cost to set up the immense number of cameras and the policing and administrative burden would have been obscene. Then taxpayers would be hit again directly in their pockets with increased fines for minor infractions," Taxpayers' Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says.

"As it is, Waka Kotahi is still greatly expanding the number of cameras and the amount they spend on policing them. They have simply taken a step back from a bonkers approach to a slightly mad one."

"Fines effectively become a tax when they are so frequently doled out and for infractions that are human error rather than willful lawbreaking."

"New Zealanders all want our roads to be safe, but Waka Kotahi was not proposing reasonable measures. It is a victory for taxpayers to see them back down."

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