Some of the parents who are advocating for the speed limit outside the school to remain at 60km/h. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
- The Transport Agency has agreed to consult on two sections of State Highway 6 that were due to have their speed limits automatically increased
- They include two sections that were reduced from 80km/h to 60km/h
- NZTA is also consulting on limits on seven sections of the highway
The Transport Agency has confirmed it will consult on the automatic speed reversal of two sections of highway through Nelson following strong community opposition.
Parents and others living near State Highway 6 in Atawhai have expressed their horror at the automatic speed limit increase from to 80 kilometres per hour to 100km/h, after years of campaigning for safer speeds along the 1.8km stretch of road bordered by a shared pathway used by many Clifton Terrace Primary School children.
Concerns were also raised about automatically raising the speed limit on an 800-metre stretch of State Highway 6 north of Wakefield near Nelson, from 60km/h to 70km/h.
At a regional transport committee meeting on Monday, the Transport Agency's director of regional relationships Emma Speight said it would now consult on the two sections of State Highway 6 in Atawhai and Wakefield that were due to have their speed limits raised on 1 July.
"We have been reviewing the feedback we've received across the country and particularly from the Nelson region and residents about the auto-reversal corridors and I can confirm that we will be undertaking a speed review for the Marybank-Atawhai section that is currently an auto-reversal and for the Wakefield section that is currently an auto reversal," she said.
Speight said consultation on the two sections would begin after the agency's current round of consultation ended on 13 March. It would be open for six weeks and allow time for the feedback to be considered before July 1, when the new speed limits were due to take effect.
The government announced details of its speed limit changes in January, with public consultation on 49 stretches of state highway and 38 areas that would automatically return to higher speed limits.
Emily Osbourne and Femke Meinderts of Parents for Active Transport Atawhai. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Parents for Active Transport Atawhai member Emily Osborne said children were scared of biking to school when cars were travelling at 60km/h and there was a lot of community anger about the limit being raised.
The group wants the Atawhai section of State Highway 6 reclassified as a "peri-urban" road, as it primarily provide access from residential property on the urban fringe or in a rural residential area.
Another Parents for Active Transport Atawhai member, Femke Meinderts, said their main concern was that it was the only way for the kids to get to and from school from Dodson Valley, where 33 percent of Clifton Terrace School students lived.
"We are asking NZTA, why won't they reclassify that road to a peri-urban road which far better fits the description... and if that is done, then the automatic speed increase doesn't apply and we can just keep it 60 km/h without doing any consultation and wasting any taxpayers money."
After community push-back, Transport Minister Chris Bishop last month opened the door for consultation on the Atawhai and Wakefield sections of State Highway 6.
"NZTA's always had the discretion to engage with local communities and they'll be doing that in relation to those two areas and there's a couple of other examples around the country where there is local support for the speed limits to stay lower," he said.
Clifton Terrace School pupils who bike and scooter to school, with signs protesting the speed limit increase. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
This consultation is additional to the seven other sections of State Highway 6 that are currently being consulted on between Nelson and Blenheim.
Bicycle Nelson Bays convener Bevan Woodward said speed reductions on that stretch of highway that were implemented in 2020 had been "an overwhelming success".
"We were getting two deaths on average on that road between Nelson and Blenheim every year and in the four years since the safer speed limits have been implemented, there has been one death. That doesn't include the change in serious injuries, which have gone down remarkably as well," he said.
NZTA data shows in the 10 years between 2009 and 2018, 20 people lost their lives and 92 were seriously injured in crashes on this stretch of highway.
Woodward said the lower speed limits should remain until there was an off-road route available for cyclists north of Nelson, or between Havelock and Pelorus, which was used by cyclists riding the length of the country on the Tour Aotearoa.
The road had "diabolically narrow shoulders" and there was no off-road alternative, he said.
"It is really not good enough that there is this consultation happening at the moment where we don't consider the vulnerable road users, in fact there is no safety assessment," he said.
The committee agreed to make a submission to NZTA, noting that Nelson City Council supported the current 60 km/h at Atawhai and Tasman District Council was comfortable with the 60 km/h at Wakefield because it struck a good balance between safety and efficiency.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith said he was worried the issue of speed limits had become "politicised and polarised".
He urged the regional transport committee to signal that it was taking an evidence-based analytical approach in trying to make the region's roads as safe as possible, while also recognising the importance of economic efficiency.
He said a detailed cost-benefit analysis of road speed changes was needed to better inform decision-making.
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