More SLOW speed limits coming soon despite the National Party campaigning on protecting our right to drive 100km/h. After reading the “draft speed limit rule 2024” It seems The Draft Rule allows local Road Controlling Authorities throughout New Zealand to reduce rural roads to a slower 80km/h. The only roads which are required to have the promised speed limit of 100km/h are interregional connector roads such as the state highways. But don’t panic just yet, this isn’t set in stone, it is still in the draft phase and can be adjusted with enough community feedback. Please have your say by googling “draft speed limit rule 2024” and filling out the survey or emailing feedback to “speedrule@transport.govt.nz”.
A win for Rodney: At the Rodney Local Board Meeting held on the 19th of June I submitted a motion to upgrade the designation of some of our most important roads to a higher classification such as “regional strategic” or other appropriate designation and to make some of the most important roads limited access roads to prevent thousands of driveways being built onto the major roads without consideration for the safety of those of us who need to travel throughout Rodney and future residents who might move into houses built directly onto major highways.
Amazingly: I got almost full support from the other Rodney Local Board Members, The only vote against was of Chairperson Bailey who asked for voting to be done by division so his dissenting vote would be recorded.
The classification of Rodney roads is mostly the same regardless of the importance of the road or the number of road users who travel on it each day and this often leads to below acceptable levels of maintenance and poor future planning being carried out on some of our high volume and important roads. While a low-cost repair is often appropriate for a road with 20 traffic movements per day a different approach is required for roads with thousands of traffic movements per day or where the route is of regional significance.
In some areas of Auckland, we are seeing urbanisation of rural highways without any alternative roads being built for the tens of thousands of people who rely on these roads and highways. One of the most concerning facts is that every driveway and intersection that connects onto these major roads is a risk of a crash happening so if we can reduce the number of driveways directly onto major roads we can improve safety for everyone.
