The recent replacement of 50km/h speed limit signs with 40km/h signs throughout the urban areas of this district has sparked debate and put a spotlight on how councils set speed limits.

On Monday (October 19) the Wanaka App reported (NZTA not to blame for 40km/h speed limits ) that the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) was responsible for the decision to reduce urban speed limits to 40km/h, not the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), as QLDC councillor Quentin Smith had asserted on social media. 

Quentin since clarified that he understood that any council in New Zealand reviewing its bylaw must do so in accordance with the NZTA rules and guidelines.  

“In this case an objective analysis of the road categories and guidelines undertaken by council staff, [consultants] ZQN7 and Abley resulted in the speed proposals in question. "

Quentin questioned aspects of the proposed speed reductions at the time. 

Councillor Quentin Smith did not support elements of the new bylaw.

“.. I didn’t support the review because of the foreseeable challenges. I expressed on many occasions the concerns about practicality and perception and I wasn’t the only one, with more than one race car driver on council,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Quentin cited Beacon Point Road, McDougall Street, and Mt Aspiring Road as areas where it is a “struggle” to remain at 40kph, but said speed limits can and should be adjusted in some areas, such as the town centre or the suburbs, with “little effect while making it safer for cyclists and pedestrians”. 

So, what process did the council follow to reach its decision, and why?

Speed limits review

In 2018 the QLDC began a review of its Speed Limits Bylaw 2009 and, after public consultation and a hearing last year, unanimously adopted a new bylaw with a raft of changes.

One of the changes reduced all 50km/h urban area speed limits to 40km/h. Why the council chose to do this was driven by a desire to improve road safety - and an interpretation of New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) guidelines and rules.

NZTA safety engineers team lead Roy Johnston told the Wanaka App that road controlling authorities (RCAs), such as the QLDC, have to follow the Land Transport Rule Setting of Speed Limits 2017 when reviewing and setting speed limits.

The rule (2.2) states RCAs must set speed limits for local roads in accordance with the rule which also states (3.4) the default urban area speed limit is 50km/h.

The speed has to be seen by road users as reasonable and reflecting the environment it is in or drivers will ignore it, said an NZTA spokesperson.

The rule goes on to say that RCAs may review this permanent speed limit but must take into account a number of factors including the function and use of the road, crash risk for all road users, traffic volume, relevant guidance from the NZTA on speed management, and the views of interested persons or groups.

“To then set a speed limit the RCA is required to consult, consider all the submissions and then make a decision,” Roy said. 

Council takes the lead

Early this week questions were raised regarding who holds the responsibility for the reduced speed limits. Roy said the ultimate decision lies with the RCA, which QLDC spokesperson Rebecca Pitt confirmed.

“NZTA did not require us to reduce the speed limit to 40km/hr but they do provide guidance through their Speed Management Guide and infrastructure risk rating tool,” she said.

To assist RCAs to identify the safe and appropriate speed limit the NZTA has developed the Megamaps tool to help RCAs ensure the speed limit “fits” the surroundings and produced the Speed Management Guide.

Consultants step in 

It is this guide on which the QLDC’s consultants ZQN7 based its findings when it was contracted to review the 2009 bylaw, make recommendations on whether to revoke, review or renew the bylaw and its structure, draft a report, and oversee the formal consultation and hearing process.

Council staff told the Wanaka App it had selected ZQN7 (headed by former QLDC manager Ruth Stokes), which had not conducted a speed limit review before, because of its “experience with the formal bylaw process, including public consultation and hearings.…”. Past QLDC speed limit reviews had been conducted in-house by experienced council staff but there was no “internal capacity” at that time, council said.

Abley Limited, a specialist company with expertise in transportation planning and engineering, spatial and data intelligence, provided the technical assessment of local roads and speed limits used in ZQN7’s findings.

“Abley used a mix of approaches to get insight on our local roads including reviewing local data (vehicle counts, crash data, speed infringements to name a few), research on existing plans and legislation, community requests, stakeholder engagement. This data is then fed into the speed management guide model which recommends a safe speed for a road,” Rebecca said.  

Why 40km/h across urban areas?

Even though the NZTA’s default speed limit is 50km/h in urban areas, RCAs are permitted to set their own permanent speed limits but their decisions must be evidence based and nationally consistent.

“It has to have something more behind it than just an idea that slower is safer,” NZTA spokesperson Frances Adank told the Wanaka App. 

The speed has to be seen by road users as reasonable and reflecting the environment it is in or drivers will ignore it. So it is not just a matter of putting a speed limit in place otherwise we would ask everyone to travel at even lower speeds, she said.

“There is a lot of evidence that points to lower speeds improving safety,” Rebecca said, adding that council’s intention was to set speed limits to support safety for anyone using the roads. 

In addition to the new 40km/h default speed limit, council has also introduced a number of lower speed limits in specific cases, such as in narrow residential streets around the Kirimoko subdivision, where 20km/h or 10km/h is signposted on roads considered “shared zones”. 

The QLDC monitors road safety and its reports on the number of fatalities and serious injury crashes on the local road network are included in the QLDC’s annual report.