Some Wairarapa residents have backed the reversal of speed reductions on State Highway 2.
Thirty-eight sections of the roading network will be reversed to their previous higher speed limits by NZTA over the next five months. They will bring an end to speed restrictions brought in under the previous Labour government.
The speed reduction rollout will begin at midnight with the first road to get a change being State Highway 2 between Featherston and Masterton in Wairarapa.
Residents RNZ spoke to in Featherston seemed happy with the change.
Pat Fairhall of Masterton said he travelled the road a lot.
He told RNZ the previous reduction to 80km an hour had made the journey very slow, and with a central barrier in place, it was possible to drive safely at higher speeds.
Angus Stokes said it was a good change.
"It'll help speed things up with traffic and stuff like that but I also just enjoy getting to my destination a bit quicker."
But not everyone was on board - local Elise Brimer said she found travelling on the road nerve wracking.
"I think they [the government] have said it's like a three minute time saving by increasing the speed limit to 100km [per hour] and I don't think it warrants the safety concern."
Transporting NZ chief executive Dom Kalasih said the changes were common sense.
"When there was public consultation on this last year 65 percent of submitters agreed to this."
Kalasih said for the trucking industry it could make a financial difference.
He said if 15 minutes could be saved in a four hour journey that would equate to a $50 to $60 saving.
Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter did not support the changes and said it was not an evidence-based way to provide transport.
"Safe speeds save lives," she said. "The evidence says that it wasn't safe before, more people will be harmed as a result of these changes, that will mean more lives lost, more lives ruined, a lot more emergency services costs.
"If we really wanted to improve the productivity of our transport system we would invest in public transport, into regional rail services, get freight off our roads and onto trains and ferries.
"These are tiny time savings that people won't really notice, but they will notice if a loved one doesn't come home."
While the changes may be popular with the public, she said the "laws of physics are not a matter of public opinion, we all know the faster the speed the bigger the mess".
She also criticised the government's rhetoric, saying speed was a bigger factor in road deaths than either drugs or alcohol on their own, and the countries being pointed to as having higher speeds and safer roads also limited speeds on rural highways if they did not have median barriers.
"That is international best practice, it's how those countries have reduced road deaths and serious injuries."
But newly-appointed transport minister Chris Bishop said they were taking road safety seriously.
"Clearly speed is a factor when it comes to road safety but the biggest driver in death and serious injury on our roads is drugs and alcohol, and that's why we are putting such an investment into the things that really make a difference."
Bishop also released 49 sections of state highway for further public consultation so communities can have their say on keeping their current speed limit or returning to the previous higher speed.
The consultation starts tomorrow and will run for six weeks.
Former chief science advisor to Ministry of Transport Professor Simon Kingham hoped evidence-based research and expert opinion would be a focal point of the consolations, which he said would mean they would not go ahead.
"We're almost certainly going to see more people dying, and more serious injuries because while the government are right, drugs and alcohol are one of the main causes, speed is regularly one of the main causes," he told Checkpoint.
"If you increase speed, you're going to see more people die and see more serious injuries."
He said he has yet to see any evidence that suggests the changes will boost the economy and accused the government of viewing savings and productivity "as if they're the same thing".
Labour leader Chris Hipkins acknowledged some of the speed limit reductions made last term had not made sense.
He said he supported some of the changes - but politicians should stay out of it.
"I think we should increase speed limits or decrease speed limits based on what is safe for that stretch of road. We increased speed limits on the Waikato Expressway, the new Tauranga road, for example.
"I support the higher speed limit on the Kāpiti expressway for example, it's a very safe road and they've been able to do that safely but I think those decisions - including whether they should be increased or decreased - should be based on an analysis of each individual road.
"I don't this should be a political football, I don't think politicians should be pork-barrelling based on what the speed limit on a particular road should be.
"Ultimately, if more people die on these roads because of the political decision to increase the speed limit, then that's going to be on National."
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