Bevan Woodward: Reducing speed limits offers swathe of benefits

Opinion

COMMENT: Auckland Transport's proposal to reduce speed limits in some parts of the city to 30km/h has created plenty of discussion.

This approach has been adopted in Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton, where lower speed limits have been proven to save lives and reduce injuries in the order of 30-40 per cent.

There are additional benefits to lower speeds. More commuters and school students can choose to walk and cycle, so traffic congestion reduces and travel times for motorists improve.

Enabling more people to walk and cycle helps to address the health issues caused by sedentary lifestyles. Transport emissions are reduced and less traffic means we save billions by no longer trying to build our way out of congestion.

Outside peak travel times, when there is no congestion, your journey time might be slightly longer. However, when you add in the usual delays at traffic lights and the time taken to find a car park, it's probably not significant. More importantly, you can take credit for being a responsible driver actively contributing to a safe roading environment.

A pedestrian hit by a car travelling at 50km/h has a 20 per cent chance of survival compared to a 90 per cent survival rate if hit at 30km/h. Our road toll is not just a number, it is mothers, fathers, friends, daughters and sons. Lives are ruined for everyone involved in these accidents. That's why we want you to ease back to an appropriate speed around schools, shopping centres and playgrounds. Learn to share the road and go gently.

Our goal for New Zealand is encompassed in Vision Zero, a road strategy whose ultimate objective is no road deaths or serious injuries. Vision Zero focuses on prevention through safe speeds, safe people, safe road design and safe vehicles.

The most effective and best value for money of these is safe speeds, meaning 30km/h outside schools, shopping centres and in residential neighbourhoods, 50km/h arterials where safe space for walking and cycling is provided, and 60-80km/h on rural roads without a median barrier.

Vision Zero also maintains it can never be ethically acceptable that people are killed within the road transport system. You may think that's a no-brainer, but in New Zealand our traffic engineers trade off safety against convenience.

This is why it is so difficult to get a pedestrian crossing installed, because they are seen as a hindrance to traffic flow.

Unfortunately, their interpretation of "safe and appropriate speeds" has allowed our traffic engineers to justify speed limits higher than the safe speeds of Vision Zero.

We must challenge that by asking what's "appropriate" about road carnage?

Vision Zero is proven to delivers results. Since its 1997 introduction in Sweden, road deaths have reduced from 6.1 to 2.7 per 100,000 in 2016, a 56 per cent reduction. Since New York City introduced Vision Zero in 2014, road deaths have fallen by 28 per cent, despite a 15 per cent rise nationally.

These are amazing improvements and what we must strive for in New Zealand.

Let's support the changes in speed limits and make the small changes in behaviour required to reduce the suffering caused by our road carnage. That's all we ask.

• Bevan Woodward is a transport planner and spokesperson for Movement, an alliance of national organisations supporting safe active travel for New Zealanders.