More than 1600 roads around Auckland have received approval for a speed limit change from Auckland Transport's (AT) board today.
The roads make up 19 per cent of AT's road network and will be predominantly around schools. There will be changes on about 980 roads near more than 70 schools, according to AT's executive general manager of safety, Stacey van der Putten.
Speed limits will also change around rural marae, high-risk rural roads, town centres including Takapuna, Devonport and Glen Innes, further residential roads in Manurewa, and a whole island review for Waiheke.
The speed limit changes will come into effect between December 2022 and March 2023.
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"Safe speeds are one of the most simple and effective things, as a community, that we can do to prevent serious injuries and save lives," Putten said.
Putten said evidence shows speed is a factor in more than 70 per cent of injury crashes in New Zealand.
This board endorsement is phase three in AT's safe speeds programme.
Phase one began in June 2020, speed limits were changed within Auckland's city centre, residential areas in Te Atatū South and Rosehill in Papakura, plus many high-risk urban and rural roads
Speed limits in several town centres and 26 roads in Auckland's west and north were also changed in stages from August 2020 to June 2021.
Putten highlighted that in areas where speed limits were changed in June 2020, fatalities have reduced by 30 per cent in the following 24-month period.
Phase two mostly consisted of speed limit changes for rural roads, roads near schools, and community-requested changes in Freemans Bay and Ponsonby.
The phase three consultation received 8000 public submissions, Putten said, and following consultation, changes were made to 36 roads or road sections in the original proposal.
View this map to see the changes.
Last year, 320 people died on our roads, a much higher rate than in comparable countries, Minister of Transport Michael Wood said.
Wood believes this proves the previous approach has not been working and things need to change.
"Each death is a person who leaves behind a family, a workplace, a community, they are not simply a toll that we pay when we decide to turn the key," Wood maintained.
Wood said the Government's "Road to Zero" strategy is focused on meaningful actions that will prevent and minimise harm across the transport networks.
"Our Government's road safety vision is an Aotearoa where no one is killed or seriously injured on our roads, and we've set an initial target of reducing the number of people dying or being seriously injured on our roads by 40 per cent by 2030."
AA's Auckland Transport spokesperson Martin Glynn agreed that the speed limit changes on 1600 roads were "consistent with where Government policy is going".
"Waka Kotahi put out a speed management guide, and AT are a bit ahead of that," he said.
"The new speed limits they're proposing are at a level where accidents, particularly involving pedestrians and cyclists, are less likely to cause injuries or worse."
Martin said while the changes were significant it follows road safety policies internationally.
The National Party's transport spokesperson Simeon Brown, however, said the changes will only make the city's traffic woes worse, without providing any real benefit.
"Congestion issues in Auckland have long hindered the ability of people to get around and get things done, costing the city's economy around $1.3 billion a year and having a major impact on our productivity," he said.
"Despite what AT claims, reducing speeds in this manner isn't going to improve safety to a significant degree. They are quick to boast that the number of accidents declined after their last round of speed limit changes in 2020, but conveniently fail to account for significantly lower overall traffic numbers as a result of Covid-19 restrictions that year."
Brown instead said speed limit reductions should be focused on high-risk areas and roads.
"There is little evidence to suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach like this will make any real difference."
- NZ Herald