John Williamson: Nothing like a road trip to see the state of our roads

The yellow sticks in the middle of the road just out of Whangārei is the only place on the trip where they are a permanent fixture. Photo / Michael Cunningham

ON THE ROAD

There's nothing quite like a road trip at this time of year to notice the state of the road, driving behaviours and what other factors impact on safe driving.

The occasion was a memorial service in Palmerston North. My 92-year-old aunt had died during lockdown in August, she was cremated and mid-January was the first appropriate time for her memorial. She was a significant person nationally and in her community, so we were expecting a crowd.

We shared the driving in approximately 90-minute turns, so we each had the chance to observe the road and the behaviour around us. The yellow sticks in the middle of the road just out of Whangārei is the only place on the trip where they are a permanent fixture. They create a visual barrier with the widened centre line and slow traffic down.

We noticed a number of sticks knocked over but no great lines of downed sticks. I understand that house moving trucks are the worst offenders and, even though they look terrible, they have largely eliminated the death and serious injuries on the road to Oakleigh.

Then we noticed the smiley faces, and again the Northland roads were the only ones where these variable message boards were installed. They show your speed and a large smiley face if you were under the speed limit. We didn't test what message you got if you were over the limit.

We reckoned that this was far more positive messaging than the innocuous message sign that tells you to slow down whatever speed you were doing. In fact if you drive below the speed limit and you are continually being advised electronically to slow down you are more likely to be angered than affirmed.

The most prominent side and centre line barriers on the whole trip were on the northern Brynderwyns. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The most prominent side and centre line barriers on the whole trip were on the northern Brynderwyns. These were a determined approach six years ago to address the horrific toll on this stretch of road. Since the barriers were erected there have been dozens of strikes per year without fatal consequences.

The tensioned wires and soft posts cradle any cars hitting them, absorbing the impact and redirecting the vehicle back on the road it came from. One side barrier had been hit a couple of times, maybe by the same car, and doing what it was designed to do. It has been well acknowledged many times, that side and centre wire barriers are the most cost effective road treatments to improve the safety of our roads.

Generally we reckoned that the traffic flow and driver behaviour was pretty good with the general open road speed flow at around 95kph. There was the odd idiot on the Southern Motorway but what was noticeable that, on a relatively busy end of holiday road environment, there was a distinct lack of obvious police presence. They were in traditional fishing holes like the Brynderwyns, Dome Valley and the Desert Rd, but little obvious deterrent activity almost the length of the North Island.

When on a road trip there's a great opportunity to compare fuel prices and two factors were obvious. Fuel prices for 91 octane varied by 25 cents a litre throughout the North Island: Atiamuri-Gull at 231.7c a litre and Wellsford Caltex at 256.7c. The Gull factor certainly works to keep the international vendors vigilant, although the AA Smartfuel discount at Taihape BP gave us the cheapest refuel along the way.

After a pleasant week away, driving at the natural flow of around 95km/h without incident, it was pretty disappointing to arrive home to the news that NZTA is looking to permanently slash the speed limit from 100kph to 80kph across most of Northland's 880km of State Highways- ostensibly as a road safety measure. To me, it is an idiotic idea.

The road should tell you what speed it can safely be driven. After safely driving at 95km/h on the open highway for years, there will be significant frustration as well as economic and safety consequences at being forced to drive at an arbitrary limit that is inconsistent with what the road conveys.

NZTA has done a great job of consulting and reviewing speed limits across many "hotspots" on Northland highways. They have listened to feedback and generally made sensible adjustments. To now be told we will have a blanket 20 per cent reduction across all Northland state highways belies the integrity of that process and is an outrage.

You don't set speed limits to catch idiot drivers. The speed limit is an indication of the safe speed the road can be driven and the road should tell you that.