Opinion: Speed limit should be increased

Increasing the speed limit on the Tauranga Eastern Link seems more than reasonable to me. Photo/File

I'm all for an increase in the speed limit on the Tauranga Eastern Link.

A 110km/h speed limit on the Tauranga Eastern Link became one step closer after Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss announced a new "speed management guide" would allow speed limits to be raised under some circumstances on some roads.

The Tauranga Eastern Link is one of the safest roads you will ever drive on.

It's wide, straight, flat and has a median barrier separating traffic heading in opposite directions - I don't see how anything can be done to make it safer.

Even when you're travelling at 100km/h on that stretch of road it feels like you're crawling.

Increasing the speed limit there seems more than reasonable to me.

Australia has a better system. Their speed limits vary much more.

There are numerous roads with a 110km/h speed limit but that limit will drop through narrow or winding sections before going back up when it straightens out again.

We should follow their example and be willing to change the speed limits more often to suit different stretches of road.

Under their system the TEL would most certainly have a speed limit of 110km/h.

Consider too the German autobahn. More than half the total length of the autobahn has no speed limit. They trust drivers to use their own common sense and make sensible decisions on what a safe speed is.

In my opinion our horrendous road toll has less to do with our roads and speed limits and more on bad decision making by drivers.

It seems to me many Kiwi drivers have a selfish mindset when driving and many accidents could be avoided by being more courteous to others when behind the wheel.

I don't believe an increase in the speed limit on safe roads will make any difference to our road toll.