Green Party transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter thinks the Government has opened itself up to being judicially reviewed for failing to model safety impacts as part of its plan to increase speed limits on some roads.
The coalition has pledged to reverse rules implemented under the last Government that made it easier to reduce some speed limits. This new approach means speed limits in some areas will rise.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said the new way of setting speed limits will mean “economic impacts and the views of road users and local communities are taken into account, alongside safety”.
Genter told the Herald it was “possible” Brown could be judicially reviewed over the changes because a regulatory impact statement on reversing the rule included no modelling on whether the amendments would increase road fatalities.
“The proposed rule appears to ban councils and road controlling authorities from using the evidence-based safer speeds, e.g. 30km/h on residential streets and around high volumes of pedestrians, no matter what the safety and economic evidence says,” Genter said.
The original rule from 2022, which was later amended, was modelled to deliver a 14% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2030. The change did not mean blanket speed limit reductions, but if a road controlling authority (mainly councils) did decide to change limits, they would need to comply with the rule, which would mean the new speed limit would most likely be lower than the existing one.
Brown campaigned on getting rid of these changes and got his wish. The 2023 coalition agreement between National and Act said the Government would “reverse speed limit reductions where it is safe to do so”.
The regulatory impact statement did look at safety impacts, but it did not model them. It warned “increasing speed limits outside schools outside school hours may increase the risk of deaths, serious and minor injuries”, however, it said the number of any additional deaths was uncertain. It said introducing variable speed limits, which meant lower speeds during pick-up and drop-off
n the draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport published this year, Brown appeared to make good on his coalition agreement promise, saying: “GPS 2024 will also include investment in infrastructure to reverse recent speed limit reductions where it is safe to do so, enabling people to get where they need to go quickly and safely.”
By the time the final GPS was published some months later, the words “where it is safe to do so” had vanished from that sentence.
Brown downplayed the change and did not explain his decision to remove those words.
He said he was legally obliged to consider safety, regardless of whether those specific words were used in the GPS.
“As Minister of Transport, I am required by law to consider the safety of New Zealanders when setting the new speed limit rule,” Brown said