'Dumb decision' to increase Nelson highway speed limit reversed
Nelson's Clifton Terrace School students protested over the speed limit changes in February.
Photo:
RNZ / Samantha Gee
A section of highway north of Nelson will remain at 60km/h after a strong community campaign against the government rollback of speed limit reductions.
The 1.8-kilometre stretch of State Highway 6, north of Nelson, was set to increase to 80km/h from July, until Waka Kotahi / New Zealand Transport Agency agreed to publicly consult on the proposed change.
The stretch of road through Marybank at Atawhai passes Clifton Terrace School and many residential properties. The community launched
a strong campaign in opposition to the government's speed limit reversal plan
, writing to the transport minister with their concerns.
Waka Kotahi said it received strong feedback that people did not want the stretch of road to revert to higher speed limits.
Of 1787 submissions, 76 percent wanted the speed limit to remain at 60km/h. Respondents showed a desire to keep children safe on the road, especially those travelling by foot or bike to Clifton Terrace School.
Parents for Active Transport's Emily Osborne said it was a relief to learn the speed limit would remain at 60km/h.
The group was formed in the hope of achieving safety improvements on the cycleway alongside the state highway so parents felt more comfortable with their kids riding to Clifton Terrace School, but Osborne said they had spent the last six months campaigning to ensure the speed on the highway remained the same.
"It just reaffirms that this is a battle that we shouldn't really have had to fight because it was just a dumb decision [the government] made."
She said claims the previous government was slowing the country down were not true, when the speed limit was previously reduced from 80km/h on that section of SH6 because it was unsafe.
Waka Kotahi said its safety and technical data aligned with submissions said children were safer when travelling by foot or bike to and from school, and residents also reporting it was safer to cross the state highway with the traffic at 60km/h.
"There are not many people around who think that going faster through that stretch is a good idea," Osborne said.
She said the decision was "a little bit bittersweet" as it came on the back of speed limit increases on SH6 between Nelson and Blenheim, which reverted to their former limits on Monday.
She anticipated that there would be more serious crashes and deaths on that section of highway, as was the case before the speeds were reduced in 2020.
"We drive over it all the time as do all our family and friends and stuff and it's just not safe."
Another "urban connector" section of road on SH6, north of Wakefield, was due to have its speed increased but was consulted on, with the decision also made for it to stay at 60km/h. Of 633 submissions, 49 percent wanted the speed limit to remain at 60km/h.
Labour MP Rachel Boyack.
Photo:
Max Frethey / LDR
Nelson's Labour MP Rachel Boyack said there had been a huge pushback from the community when the government announced the speed increases and she was delighted that their views had been taken into account.
She said the blanket decision to reverse all of the speed limit changes had been made without looking at the evidence.
"People have been advocating for lower speed limits in some of these areas for years and years off the back of fatal crashes, lots of incidents where children have been unsafe getting to school."
She said the decision to retain the lower speed limit was a result of the hard work done by many to ensure Waka Kotahi heard the views of the community.
"This didn't have to happen. If the government's rule had been written in a more flexible way at the very beginning, we wouldn't have had to go through this long-winded and expensive consultation process."
Boyack said there was another section of SH6, further north at Hira, where the road ran past a school and the speed had been increased, despite strong community feedback against it.
"The indication is that future speed management reviews could be made there, but it's just such a waste of time and money to be going back and forth between different speed limits. We need a robust system that looks at both the evidence and the views of the local community."
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