Drive to the Conditions Questions and Answers

What is the campaign designed to do?

The overall objective is to broaden the approach to speed management from reliance on enforcing speed limits to encouraging drivers to consider driving conditions and to include a focus on speed, within the posted speed limit, which is appropriate for the conditions. Drivers will be encouraged to adapt their behaviour to reduce speed, and therefore causing fewer, less severe crashes where safe negotiation of difficult conditions is required.
 
The campaign presents an emerging concept to drivers and the community challenging the belief that posted New Zealand speed limits are 'safe' in all conditions.

The key message of the campaign is 'Always drive to the conditions'.

What is the scope of the campaign?

The campaign which focuses on reaching drivers at 'the moment of truth' when they are considering a trip or when they are on the open road, has three elements:

• a national billboard campaign
• a national radio campaign
• community initiatives at local level

Over the next 12 months over 20 billboards will be erected in regions including Auckland, Waikato, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty, Wanganui, Wairarapa, Taranaki, Nelson-Marlborough, Canterbury, coastal Otago and Central Otago. Sites in these regions are being applied for on the basis of stretches of open road known to cause difficulties for motorists when travelling at 100km/h. The conditions may include weather, narrow roads with steep side drop-offs or twisting roads known to be slippery in the wet. Information about the sites has come from NZ Police or the Ministry of Transport crash database.

The radio campaign run through the RadioWorks network will feature weekday early morning and Friday afternoon spots where local police give reports about the daily driving conditions for regions throughout the country. This will be complemented by distinctive pre-recorded afternoon spots.

How did the campaign start?

The Minister for Transport Safety, the Hon Harry Duynhoven, was concerned about the fact that while mean speeds have fallen quite dramatically over the last five years, driving too fast for the conditions is still the major contributing factor to fatal crashes.

Ministry of Transport research shows in 2004 there were 172 deaths, 590 serious injuries and 2034 minor injuries in crashes where travelling too fast for conditions was identified as a contributing factor. That is 39% of all road deaths and 19% of all reported injuries from road crashes.

New Zealand's open road speed is currently 100 km/h which is set largely according to the amount of roadside development such as number of houses, shops or schools. Temporary speed limits lower than this may be set when there are particular conditions such as road works. However the safe "operating speed," that is a safe speed considering road, traffic, and weather conditions for many rural roads may be less than 100 km/h. Therefore a driver may be travelling too fast for the conditions despite being within the legal limit.

Last year a national workshop on speed with a diverse group of stakeholders, called for more information and education on driving to the conditions. ACC stepped in to fund and lead the campaign which has also had significant input from NZ Police, Transit New Zealand, the Ministry of Transport and Land Transport New Zealand.

How will 'driving to the conditions' be enforced?

The focus of the campaign is an education rather than an enforcement approach. The NZ Police are contributing strongly to this education effort.

Existing enforcement effort against excess speed - driving faster than the speed limit - will continue as usual.

NZ Police will continue to enforce driving in an inconsiderate manner. This includes those who drive so slowly they hold up following traffic and don't pull over to let following traffic pass when it is safe to do so.

Are there other initiatives relating to 'driving to the conditions'?

Yes there are a number of initiatives either being planned or underway. A speed zoning project announced late last year is looking at ensuring that the safety of the road is a key factor in determining the speed limits. Other initiatives are focused on road safety engineering and identifying unsafe stretches of highway throughout the country.