State Highway 5 south of Rotorua is in for a speed limit shake-up. Photo / Laura Smith
Returning speed limits on Rotorua roads to higher speeds could spell trouble, residents say.
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said she would be reluctant to see the limit on State Highway 5 south of Rotorua back at 100km/h without government investment into road safety, and a former council candidate is planning a petition against the proposal.
The Government has announced it will reverse or consult on speed changes implemented since 2020.
The reversals are for specific road categories and in the Bay of Plenty largely relate to Rotorua, and will happen between now and July 1.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the changes would make it easier for people and freight to move as quickly and efficiently as possible, and would drive economic growth and productivity.
“Reversing the speed limit reductions where safe to do so is also part of the National-ACT coalition agreement.”
Speed limit changes in Rotorua were made in October 2022 following consultation.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) said at the time there had been 629 crashes, six people killed and 26 seriously injured on the roads between 2009 and 2018.
Community feedback included concern limits were unsafe on parts of SH5 and SH30, and requests for more consistent and some slower speeds.
Rotorua roads are included in the 49 sections of state highway under public consultation as to whether the speeds should stay as they are or return to the higher limit. Consultation will close in six weeks.
Included is a proposal to return the limit on SH5 south of Rotorua from 80km/h to 100km/h.
In 2023, both lanes of the 795-metre stretch south of Old Taupō Rd had an annual average daily traffic of 16,631 vehicles, including 26.7% heavy vehicles.
In 2022, NZTA said concerns included speed between the Hemo Rd roundabout and just south of the Waipa State Mill Rd.
“People told us it felt unsafe as there’s a blind corner and it’s busy with logging trucks and cars coming in and out of Waipa State Mill Rd,” it said on its website.
Mountain Bike Rotorua director Takurua Mutu did not support raising the limit back to 100km/h on the busy stretch.
“There’s a whole industrial park going in there.”
Beyond that, it was the hub for the third-busiest mountain bike park in the world, he said.
“I don’t think it’s a very good idea.”
Historical data collection showed at least 1000 people a day entered the forest via the main bridge in Waipa during peak summer months.
Mutu called this conservative as it did not include other Waipa entrances.
Timber company Red Stag is based at Waipa. General manager Tim Rigter said it had supported lowering the speed on that stretch.
Visibility dropped with the blindspot and having it at 80km/h “made sense”, he said.
Asked if dropping the speed limit had helped, he said it was “certainly safer” but found residents took a while to get used to it.
Concerned Rotorua resident and former council candidate Ryan Gray said he spoke with businesses, mountain bikers and others about the proposed speed limit increase. There was “massive concern” for what was already “a dangerous and tricky intersection” used by mountain bikers, walkers, families, tourists and heavy trucks going to the mill.
Gray was putting together a petition calling for the limit to stay the same and asked people to “make their views known”.
He said while some of the proposed changes were “fine”, this one was dangerous and would result in “injuries and potentially deaths”.
Gray said there would always be driver mistakes and it was better if they made them going slower and potentially avoiding an accident.
Tapsell said her personal view was the Waipa stretch of SH5 was a “dangerous spot”. She and the council had previously requested funding for safety improvements.
“I would be reluctant to see it return to 100km/h without improvements.”
She supported speed limit increases where it made sense and encouraged the community to take part in consultation, via the NZTA website.
Other areas for consultation are sections of State Highway 30 between Rotorua and Whakatāne.
In a response to Local Democracy Reporting questions, Bishop said the Government was determined to improve road safety and had invested $1.3 billion in the Road Policing Investment Programme.
This would “help target the leading causes of deaths and serious injuries on our roads – drugs and alcohol”.
“Just this week, we had the second reading of legislation that will enable roadside drug testing and police have significantly increased the number of roadside breath tests for alcohol.”
Investment included encouraging safer driving behaviour, promoting safer vehicles, road policing and enforcement such as safety cameras and building safer infrastructure, safer drivers, and requiring safer vehicles to enable people to travel safely and efficiently.
When he announced the changes Bishop said “the previous Government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and roads.
“National campaigned on reversing the blanket speed limit reductions at the last election, and over 65% of submitters during consultation on the [rule] agreed.”
Labour transport spokesman Tangi Utikere said the party did not oppose raising speed limits where safe to do so.
“However, the Government’s making many of these changes based on a campaign promise, rather than evidence.
“I would like to see the evidence that it is safe to raise speed limits on these roads, not the National Party opinion that it is.”
Automatic reversals in Rotorua
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist since 2019.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.