Speed limits across the entire highway network in Hawke's Bay could be dropped, as well as in parts of its bordering regions.
Photo: RNZ / Screenshot
Next year, Waka Kotahi will review the limit from Norsewood, between Danniverke and Waipukurau, to just south of Gisborne, as well as the road from Napier to Takapau.
This comes after much angst in the region over the decision to lower the speed on the Napier-Taupō road to 80 km/h.
Wairoa is between Gisborne and Napier - its residents rely on the highway to travel to the bigger centres.
Wairoa mayor Craig Little said a potential speed change would be a "major step backwards".
"Don't worry about electric vehicles, we might as well go back to horse and carriage," he said.
The road is full of sharp corners, narrow bends and winding hills, but Little thought the speed limit did not need to drop along the entire road.
"Lots of that road from Napier to Wairoa, it's fine to do the 100ks on, and there's some sections - if they want to drop it to 80, maybe in those areas drop it to 80 - but don't blanket drop it, for goodness sake."
He thought this would anger his community.
"It will take them another 15 to 20 minutes to get to Napier or Hastings from Wairoa and that will make grumpy people on the road. Grumpy people don't drive well."
Road Transport Association New Zealand chairman Ian Emmerson shared a similar view.
"We're quite concerned about the creation of impatience of motorists generally trying to maybe pass trucks or each other, if the speed limit is taken too low," he said.
He wanted Waka Kotahi to think a bit harder about its consultation next time.
"I'd like them to evaluate it a little bit more thoroughly and consider the 90 kilometres an hour first. If that doesn't work for whatever reason, well there's the alternative of taking them down further."
He thought the jump from 100 to 80 was excessive.
"It's quite extreme going from 100 for most road users to 80 - that's a 20 percent reduction, and it's pretty dramatic, I think it's an overkill."
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the proposal was a bit of a shock.
"This is the first time we'd actually heard about this proposal at [the last] regional transport meeting. It did come as a surprise, given the enormous investment that has certainly happened south of Hastings on State Highway 2."
She said local transport, council officials and the like would form a steering group, to advise the transport agency on the region's highways and "hold Waka Kotahi to account".
Central Hawke's Bay mayor Alex Walker called on the transport agency to work closely with her community over the speed limit changes.
Much of the proposed change will go through her district, which is south of Napier and Hastings.
"We need to get this process right," she said.
"It can't turn into the contentious debacle that we've seen on State Highway 5, we've got to get some good outcomes."
"It is our community who are travelling on these the most ... we have to have a review of the speed which is sensitive to how community live and work.
"With these state highways running right through the district, they run past schools, they run through the middle of some of our towns as well as open road highway driving. What we are really going to need to see is a sensitivity to how Waka Kotahi goes through this process, that is going to work through all of those things.''
Waka Kotahi told RNZ its staff were too busy to be interviewed so instead provided a statement, attributed to its director of regional relationships Linda Stewart.
The speed limit review's part of the agency's Road to Zero strategy, trying to reduce deaths and serious injuries across Aotearoa by 40 percent by 2030.
"Waka Kotahi recognises there is a need to build public understanding and support for road safety action in order to achieve the 2030 targets for reduced deaths and serious injuries," the statement read.
"As part of this, we will work to engage with our partners, such as local councils and iwi groups, earlier in the process to support more of a co-design approach and better understand the on the ground challenges and opportunities.
"We have also committed to completing an evaluation of the new, safer speed limits for State Highway 5 between Rangitaiki and Esk Valley 12 months after the new speed limit has been in place, which will consider the safety, economic and social impacts. This will also help inform our approach going forward."
Waka Kotahi could give no word on what the speed limits could change to.
"Any new speeds are determined by a through speed review process," Stewart's statement read.
"We are not able to pre-empt the safe and appropriate speed for the road ahead of this process being undertaken."
