National roading body Waka Kotahi/NZTA is looking to reduce the 100km/h speed limit on most of Northland's 880km state highway network. Photo / Tania Whyte
National roading body Waka Kotahi/NZTA is looking to reduce the 100km/h speed limit on most of Northland's 880km state highway network. Photo / Tania Whyte
ON THE ROAD
I was talking to an Aucklander at a memorial service in Palmerston North a couple of weeks ago. He related an experience with a new car on the Desert Road a few years earlier.
"I was driving this new car on a wide-open road with not another car in sight – so decided to see what it could do. I easily got to 150km/h when a flashing light appeared on my tail."
"The officer said, I could take your licence off you right now, but he let me off with a $510 instant fine and I have never gone beyond the speed limit again."
Another middle-aged hoon who has learned his lesson.
The proposal of a blanket 20 per cent reduction in speed limits across Northland state highways raises the question about what else might be possible, as opposed to slowing everyone down to a speed that doesn't make sense.
What about improved enforcement solutions that ensure that we all keep within the law?
According to the Road to Zero action plan two years ago, the following changes were indicated in enforcement:
• Double officer-issued speed enforcement tickets within three years
• Increase mobile speed camera deployment hours to 100,000 by 2020-21
None of these is likely to be achieved within those timeframes.
You could add into these, the likelihood the traffic penalty levels have been signalled as being reviewed this year. Traffic violators are still paying the same fine levels as they were in 1999.
The Road to Zero action plan two years ago indicated there would be another 500 speed cameras added within over a four-year period. Photo / NZME
If you think about how house prices, fuel prices and the cost of living have gone up in the past 23 years, then you can imagine how much we might be hit in the pocket if we are caught speeding.
Add into the mix that speed camera tickets do not incur demerit points, then you get the picture about what options might be out there to catch and punish speeding drivers. Just imagine if the middle-aged hoon mentioned earlier had copped a $1000 instant fine, had 50 more demerit points, and his licence immediately suspended for six months - what sort of deterrent that would have been. That level of penalty is pretty much in line with what speeders in most Australian states now pay.
But why do we speed? Professor Sam Charlton, of Waikato University, is an expert in the psychological aspects of transport. In a recent AA Directions article, he explains how people choose speeds for different reasons at points in a journey.
"For example, young people, in particular, go faster when they have friends in the car than if they are on their own or with parents. Habit plays a role - some drivers prefer driving about 10 per cent above the speed limit because they believe they are good drivers, and others prefer to drive about 10 per cent less than the limit and see themselves as driving defensively because of all the reckless drivers out there.
"People also have different thresholds for what speed reduction feels acceptable to them. If someone is going 2-3km/h slower than you, chances are that you will put up with it. If it's 5-7km/h, you'll start to get unhappy and look for a place to overtake. We all have a tolerance for where we are willing to sit back and relax, or whether we are going to take action."
Charlton believes if we want drivers to go slower, it needs to make sense. You do that with road markings and signs and by making the look and feel of the road such that it feels right to drive at a certain speed.
We are having that conversation now in Northland and we have had sensible consultation, feedback and action as a consequence. The scary thing is, though, that if we have mandated 20 per cent lower speed limits and a combination of quadrupling the number of speed cameras, doubling the number of speeding-ticket targets, doubling the fine levels; adding speed camera offences to the demerit points list and double demerits, then we have a veritable treasure trove of revenue gathering with no improvement in the roads.
A respected colleague has put to me that, "We could expect to see lower speeds, longer journey times, higher distribution costs, more driver frustration, more speeding fines, higher fines, and more disqualified drivers. We only hope that it's all worthwhile in terms of lives saved."
Better to catch and punish the speeders now than make us all drive slower.
