Myths and frequently asked questions about speed

“Speed isn’t a problem, bad drivers are”

While poor driving behaviour has resulted in crashes, more are a result of mistakes. Whether late for a meeting or work, or late dropping the kids off/picking up from school, everyday pressures can influence our driving behaviour and result in us making driving errors. These mistakes shouldn’t result in loss of life or serious injury, and the speed you are driving at by far has the greatest influence on the severity of a crash, which could be the difference between life, death or serious injury.

“If speed limits are reduced, my travel time will increase and cost me more in fuel”

Research has shown driving at a speed appropriate for the road is likely to only result in a very small increase in travel time. Other factors, such as lights, traffic, and intersections have a much greater effect on travel time.  

Trips reducing the maximum speed from 100km/h to 80km/h on a 10km length of road showed travel time increases ranged from 30-48 seconds.  For local trips, reducing the maximum speed from 50km/h to 40km/h showed travel time increases ranged from 11-42 seconds difference.

If the maximum speed limit around a typical town is 50km/h, your average journey speed is between 26km/h and 33 km/h. Safe and appropriate speeds actually result in significant fuel savings.

"It’s the road not the speed limit that needs changing”

Not all roads are created equal, nor are the risks necessarily identifiable by a driver and people do make mistakes. Travelling the right speed for the road and conditions can help minimise the impact of a crash. Speed is the difference between a correctable mistake and a fatal error, and even good drivers can hurt others if they are involved in a crash.

"Modern cars are safer and better, so there's no need for us to drive slower"

While modern cars have better safety equipment, our bodies don’t, and they feel the force of a crash the same way they did when the first car was invented. New Zealand's fleet is relatively old, and half the cars on the road today lack even basic safety features, like stability control or side airbags. Even the best technology won't stop another car from crashing into you.

Speed contributes to the severity of the impact when a collision does occur. For car occupants in a crash with an impact speed of 80 km/h, the likelihood of death is 20 times what it would have been at an impact speed of 40 km/h. New Zealand roads are often unforgiving and leave no room for error.

“Reducing speed limits is revenue gathering for the Police”

Police do not retain any of the money from infringements; the money goes to the Government. Collection of infringements comes at a much more significant cost to issue notices including Police time and energy.  Police would be delighted not to have to issue any infringements, as this would show everyone was driving safely and not putting themselves or others at risk. This would see deaths and serious injuries on our roads significantly reduced.

"You just want to drop speed limits everywhere."

No, we want to use local knowledge and data to make sure we've done everything we can to make your roads safer. This could mean road improvements so it's safer at the current speed limit, or it could mean lowering the speed limit. There may be places where speed limits could be increased. The aim is to make sure we have the right speeds on the right roads.

"Going a few kilometres faster or slower doesn't make any difference to safety"

Actually, it does. Speed is the difference between a correctable mistake and a fatal error. Every extra km/h increases the likelihood of someone being killed or injured in a crash. Regardless of what causes a crash, speed always plays a part.

“It's overseas drivers that cause the problems, they don’t know our roads and rules, locals know the roads well”

New Zealand drivers crash at a much higher rate than our visitors. Over the five years from 2012-2016, 6.2% of fatal and injury crashes involved an overseas driver, and not all overseas drivers involved in those crashes were at fault. Many of the countries that tourists come from have better engineered roads than us, with more finely tuned speed limits, and as such, tourists are quite often just driving at the safe and appropriate speed for the engineering of the road.

New Zealand drivers are used to driving faster on those roads as they are familiar through day-to-day journeys, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that those speeds are safe and appropriate for the engineering of the roads. Mistakes happen to everyone, even well-seasoned locals, but a mistake shouldn’t result in death or serious harm.

“It’s mostly young and inexperienced drivers that we need to worry about”

While it’s true that young people are over-represented in crash statistics, almost half of serious crashes involve a driver aged 35 or more. Anyone can make a mistake, so we need to create a safe road system that protects everyone.

“Slow drivers are the problem because people get frustrated and take unnecessary risks”

Last year, 377 people were killed on our roads. Travelling too fast for the conditions contributed to the cause of about a third of all fatal crashes. On the other hand, slow driving is not significantly implicated as a cause in serious crashes.