Motorists will soon be able to drive at up to 120km/h on Roads of National Significance. Photo: 123RF
The government has taken the last steps to reverse Labour's blanket speed-limit reductions, by signing off a new speed limit rule.
Minister of Transport Simeon Brown said by 1 July next year, speed limits would be returned to the previous settings.
Under the rule change, reduced variable speed limits would operate outside schools during pick-up and drop-off times, and motorists would be able to drive at up to 120km/h on Roads of National Significance.
Brown said the changes would improve traffic flows.
"Throughout the world 50 kilometres per hour is a speed used as the right speed limit to keep urban roads flowing smoothly and safely, and our sensible approach will bring New Zealand into closer alignment with other countries that have strong, safe records on their roads such as Norway, Denmark and Japan."
Road safety experts have been opposed to the move to change speed limits.
Earlier this month, local and international road safety and health experts penned an open letter warning that reversing speed limit reductions would increase deaths and serious injuries.
Brown said it was police breath-testing, not lower speed limits, that lowered the road toll during the last government.
"It's gone down because we've seen a significant increase in the number of breath tests undertaken by police. That numbers now well above three million in the last financial year. And there's been 37 fewer fatalities on our roads in that period of time."
Focusing police on high-risk times and locations would keep the road toll down, he said.
Reduced speed limits outside schools at pick-up and drop-off times would prioritise the safety of young Kiwis, he said.
"By 1 July 2026, local streets outside a school will be required to have a 30km/h variable speed limit. Rural roads that are outside schools will be required to have variable speed limits of 60km/h or less."
Experts had pointed to studies showing 85 percent of accidents around schools happened outside of when variable speed limits were operating.
In response, Brown said variable speed limits targeted the times with the highest risk, without slowing down drivers.
"The risk to children is 2.7 times higher during pick-up and drop-off times, and that's why we're focusing on those particular times of day.
"But as I said, it doesn't make sense to slow the tradie heading to work at 5 o'clock in the morning, to have to crawl around at 30 kilometres per hour."
The changes would support freight and economic activity, and more than 65 percent of submitters supported the plan, Brown said.
Labour's transport spokesperson, Tangi Utikere, said the government is ignoring the evidence on safety by raising speed limits.
He said the evidence that higher speeds result in more deaths is overwhelming.
"Simeon Brown can kid himself about very aspects of data, but the reality is very straightforward: The slower the vehicles are going when impact occurs, the increased likelihood that someone is going to come out of that in a better condition than if they were going to be speeding."
He said the government is overwriting local decisions, and the change will force councils to go back on decisions they made in consultation with their communities.
"This is clearly a government that is not concerned about decisions taken at a local level. They have proven through their actions that they have the mentality that they know best and they simply want councils to follow through and do what they want them to."