87% of Speed Limits Unsafe

A new study by the NZ Transport Agency has revealed that 87% of our road network has speed limits that exceed the safe and appropriate speed.

Transport planner Bevan Woodward says “No wonder our road fatalities are so high. But this should come as no surprise, New Zealanders have been telling the Transport Agency for years that most of our rural road speed limits are too high[1].

When people crash at 100 km/h there’s a high likelihood they will die. But if they crash at 80 km/h there’s high chance they will survive, the evidence is on this is clearUnfortunately the Transport Agency has been dragging its heels on implementing safer speed limits. Their ethos seems to be haste before safety.

The path to improving road safety in New Zealand is recognising that drivers are human and will invariably make mistakes. We need to make those mistakes survivable by adopting the safe and appropriate speed limits.

We urge the Transport Agency to get on with implementing safer speed limits across New Zealand. Inaction will only result in more road deaths, injury, disability and trauma.”

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[1] http://www.movement.org.nz/sensible-speeds/people-want-safer-speed-limits/

[2] Speed and Crash Risk report: https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/speed-crash-risk.pdf

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