Evidence shows increased speed limits will cost NZ in money as well as lives
The government isn’t slowing its plan to increase speed limits, despite evidence this will increase fatalities without delivering the touted benefits in “productivity”.
Despite community resistance and legal push-back, the government isn’t slowing down on its plan to roll back speed limit reductions on many roads. In the process, it’s going against expert advice from transport officials and solid economic evidence showing the benefits of slower speeds.
Documents recently released quietly by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) show Land Transport Director Brent Alderton raised serious concerns in 2024 about the proposed speed limit changes and urged decision makers to rely on evidence rather than ideology. “There is well founded evidence, nationally and internationally, that establishes the link between vehicle speed and the likelihood of a crash occurring, as well as the severity and consequences of any crash.” wrote Alderton.
But the government is also bypassing evidence that contradicts its own justification that raising some speed limits will help increase productivity.
There is a perfect madness to this isn’t there?
National push and pump mass immigration.
That mass immigration has enormous impacts on our roads.
Our roads need upgrading which causes more gridlock.
National weaponises your impatience to lift speed limits that will generate more fatalities as National try to unclog the gridlock by privatising roads and pushing poor people off them, without investing in the public transport infrastructure for them to move to.
You have had your impatience at the gridlock manipulated into lifting speeding rates that won’t create productivity or make things safer.
Let’s be very honest.
We are such a cheap bastard nation altho we don’t build safe roads or well engineered roads.
We build cheap goat tracks through Mordor.
And because we are such a nation of cheap bastards we have this appalling carnage on the roads that costs us 4% of GDP!
4% of GDP from terrible car crashes!
It’s a social obligation and responsibility to properly fund and build safe roads when the damage being caused is 4% of GDP!
BUT because we are a nation of cheap bastards, instead of building and engineering safe roads we simply lower the speed limits which generates gridlock, impatience and extreme frustration because there are no upgrades to infrastructure to cope with the huge levels of immigration!
The road science is very clear...
Former chief science adviser for the Ministry of Transport, Simon Kingham, has criticised the proposal, saying it will increase the number of road casualties and injuries, deaths by air pollution, as well as increase greenhouse gas emissions.
…of course we should lower speeding limits but this must be ON TOP OF better built roads and better engineered public safety and we do that by TAXING THE RICH!
Not user pays, not more privatisation, we need a Ministry of Green Works that builds the roads and we need to propel fund it by TAXING THE RICH!
We need to see our roads as part of the common good and engineer it for safety, adaptation to climate change and funded by TAXING THE RICH!
Lifting speed limits and pretending that will magically see more growth is possibly the dumbest thing this Government have suggested to date.
It truly is remarkable that Kiwis are swallowing this.
National have weaponised your impatience and you have been conned.
Honestly, how dumb are you all?
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Cops will have to work that much harder to catch fleeing all blacks to
no Mitchel will instruct them to never chase a speeding motorist because it might be a doner
Any person with half a brain would know this.
These idiots should be held responsible for the increased deaths and injuries that will inevitably occur.
Having driven both the Napier Taupo and Nelson Picton highways in the last two years I can vouch for a much less stressful experience because everyone was traveling slower and more thoughtfully. The accident statistics speak for themselves.
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