Sometimes I wonder if politicians just want to really, really piss us off.
How else could you explain some crazy scheme which we in the south might have to put with about how fast we can drive? Not far from where I live, the Queenstown Lakes Council want to slow Wanaka right down. At the moment the speed limit in town is already just 40kph . Now there are plans to reduce that 30kph or lower.
This is part of the council’s SMP or Speed Management Plan. What’s even worse is that there are about 20 non-urban roads in the area where it’s proposed the speed limit will reduce from 100kph to 60 or even 40. Then there’s another 30 roads where the 100 kph limit will be taken back to 80.
It is just nuts. This part of the world has very good quality roads, which do not have much traffic on them. Fatal or injury accidents are a rarity in this region for those reasons.
This is all being driven, excuse the pun, from Wellington, from the bureaucracy sometimes known as the New Zealand Transport Agency.
Unbelievably on the web pages explaining the rationale behind this Setting of Speed Limits Rule and its mate the National Speed Limit Register is this phrase – “providing a single source of truth on speed limits nationwide.”
How can a public servant possibly use that phrase ever again in New Zealand public discourse? It was a disgrace when Ardern tried to pull it during Covid and it’s a disgrace now.
How can there be a single source of truth on something like speed limits? Here's another line from the website – “the stated objective of the Setting of Speed Limits rule is to contribute to road safety by providing for a whole of network approach where speed management is considered alongside investment in safety infrastructure.”
So basically the government wants us to slow down so that they don’t have to fix the roads so often.
There are places around the country where possibly traffic volumes dictate a slower speed. But not where I live in the Upper Clutha Valley.
There’s an old saying in racing about horses for courses. Wellington bureaucrats should remember that and stick your single source of truth where the sun doesn’t shine.