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Saturday, March 30, 2024

David Farrar: Common sense wins again


Simeon Brown announced:

Cabinet has agreed on the coalition Government's direction of travel for a new Land transport Rule to be signed by the end of 2024. This new rule will reverse the previous government's blanket speed reductions imposed on motorists across New Zealand, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.

“The new rule will ensure that when speed limits are set, economic impacts – including travel times – and the views of road users and local communities are taken into account, alongside safety.

“The previous government's untargeted approach resulted in blanket speed limit reductions across the country, rather than targeting high crash areas of the network. The new Rule will lead to blanket speed limit reductions being reversed by the end of next year, except where it is unsafe.

The new approach is basically just common sense. It's amazing how many of the former Government's policies were just ideology gone mad. Taking into account travel times, community views as well as safety is a balanced approach. Otherwise we'd just have a maximum 30 km/hr limit on all roads.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have they totally trashed Labour's campaign to re-write road signs such as "No engine braking next 5kms" in te reo ??

Robert Arthur said...

Personally I have always opposed he 110 kph limits. time aved at high speeds is neglegible cf delays at entrance round abouts, lights etc. Persons"speed"" more out of boredom than time saving, but once uccoustomed to a higher speed any lower is very tedious to maintain. Better to avoid the extreme altogther. I find today far too much attention needs to be devoted to signs, lane markings etc etc, reducing attentions for basis hazards. Combind with phones, obscure controls, screen displays, complex operating controls known only to very regular users, progress in road safety has largely stalled. But the Trade exploit all to make new models different so improvemnt is unlikely.