Transport planner Bevan Woodward. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
A safe transport advocacy group is taking the government to court to stop it raising speed limits on a number of roads around the country.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop last month announced plans to reverse the former Labour government's speed limit reductions.
The government's plan would see sections of 38 state highways, which had their speed limits dropped under the previous government for safety, automatically returned from 1 July to their previous higher limits.
Transport planner Bevan Woodward, of the trust Movement, an alliance of national organisations that support safe and accessible active transport, said it was seeking an injunction to stop that from happening before a judicial review of the rules was considered.
The group lodged an application for a judicial review in mid-January, claiming the decision to reverse speed limits was inconsistent with the minister's objectives under the Land Transport Act.
"We are asking the court to request that the government does not proceed with all of these automatic reversals and waits until our case has been heard."
One of the grounds for the review was that it was "unreasonable and perverse" for the former Transport Minister to require the reversal of any speed limit reduction put in place because of the presence of a school.
"There were no blanket speed limit reductions, each one was carefully prepared and there were safety assessments carried out, public consultations and so forth," Woodward said.
"It was the local councils and NZTA, they were the ones that determined what the safer speed limits should be using professional advice.
"That's why there has been such a backlash around all over the country."
Research from the last four years showed lives had been saved on roads where speed limits were reduced, he said.
A section of State Highway 6 between Nelson and Blenheim was one of those areas.
"Every year we were getting two to three deaths on that road, since the safer speed limits were implemented in the last four years there has been one death... It doesn't count all of the serious injuries or the delays we get whenever there is a serious crash and the highway is closed," Woodward said.
"This is what's at stake and this is why we are taking this legal action."
In a minute issued by the High Court last month, Justice Dale La Hood said the country's Road Controlling Authorities (including district and city councils) had until 20 March to file an application to join or intervene in the proceedings.
A Transport Agency spokesperson said the agency had joined the judicial review as a second respondent.
"We are assessing our options, and NZTA will be represented when the application is heard. As the matter will soon be before the courts, no comment will be provided on the application."
A spokesperson for Nelson City Council said it would not be joining the proceedings.
A Tasman District Council spokesperson said it had seen the letter, sent to all Road Controlling Authorities asking if they wanted to join or intervene in the proceedings, but it did not yet have an established position on the matter.
