Low Carbon Kāpiti Blog

From the LCK Committee, 20 May 2023

KCDC is now looking for feedback on its first Speed Management Plan, which outlines how the transport network is expected to look in ten years time, with an emphasis on lower speeds, and our seeking the views of ratepayers. LCK plans to make a submission on the Plan and encourages everyone who wants safer roads and lower transport emissions to have their say too.

The proposal has two parts.

PART A covers speed limitations in “high benefit areas” as outlined by Waka Kotahi. For Kāpiti, it includes 20 schools, three road corridors and five town centres (28 sites amounting to 8 percent of the length of our road network) where speed limitations will be put in place by 2027.

PART B sets out possible long-term options for plans that deliver safe and appropriate speed limits as required by the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2022. These would be put in place between 2027 and 2033.

In this second part, KCDC is asking for feedback on the following four options:
Option 1: Expand speed limits in school zones.
Option 2: Expand 30 km/h neighbourhoods.
Option 3: Road corridors – install infrastructure to slow down traffic on these roads.
Option 4: Reduce speeds on all roads to 30 or 40 km/h.

If we are to halve our emissions by 2030 then getting people out of cars and into active transport is one of the most immediate ways we can get results.

However, the perception that cycling and walking are dangerous creates a major barrier to the uptake of these modes of transport. As KCDC points out, there is a close correlation between speed and deaths. At 60 km/h, if a car strikes a person, there is a 90% chance of death, at 50 km/h this reduces to 80%, at 40km/h to 30% and at 30 km/h to 10%. Therefore, by reducing speeds, death and serious injuries on our roads will be reduced and people will be more willing to make the change to active transport.

Therefore, LCK totally supports this transition to slower speeds. We support Part A, but would like to see greater urgency in its implementation. These changes will not be finally implemented until 2027.

For Part B, LCK will support Option 4 above, a reduction to 30 and 40 km/h on all roads. We would
also like to see seperate cycle lanes for any roads where speeds are not reduced to 40 km/h or less.
Also, it should be noted that these speed reductions will actually have minimal impact on the time it
takes for trips to be completed. For example, dropping the full length of Peka Peka Road from 80 to
60km/h adds only about 26 seconds to the time. (Council must now take into account what is “safe
and appropriate”, which is why the Peka Peka Rd speed limit would reduce from 80 to 60 km/h,
because of its significance as a cycle route.)

Overall, we feel greater urgency is required in implementing these changes. We need to get people
using active transport modes now, not in ten years time when we will be well past the 2030 deadline
for halving our emissions.

We also feel that enforcement is an important part of the change. There is little point in having these
speed limits if they can be easily ignored. In Queensland, the Department of Transport and Main Roads is piloting a road safety programme around schools, using portable hi-tech speed cameras attached to powered road signs. Cameras spot anyone above the speed limit and the fine can include demerit points. The Queensland Department also employs bicycle-activated warning signs, to alert and slow motorists on roads not often frequented by cyclists.

We would like to see everyone that wants safer roads and to reduce transport emissions to speak up in support of lower speed limits. To find more information and to make your own submission online, visit: https://www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/SpeedManagementPlan

If you would like to discuss this with KCDC please email <haveyoursay@kapiticoast.govt> or call 0800
486 486.

The survey closes on 9 June.

By Jake Roos, 22 December 2022

Low Carbon Kāpiti set up the ‘Don’t Burn Our Future’ campaign in July 2022 to try and stop the government from bringing in its planned biofuels obligation law. We’ve campaigned hard this year in a multitude of different ways which are documented on our campaign webpage and Facebook page. We have distilled everything, all our arguments and evidence, into our submission to the Environment Select Committee, who have the task early next year of reviewing the bill and recommending changes. Have a read – as you’ll see, it is a comprehensive demolition of the whole foolish concept of using the law to force people to use biofuels, when those biofuels are inevitably made from food crops and actually increase emissions.

But enough from us for now! We asked our supporters what they’d like to tell the Select Committee, and here’s what they said:

By Paul Callister, 17 November 2022

Every great city has a park at its centre. While Paraparaumu is not New York, we can learn from that city’s visionary planners. We now have the potential to create a park at the centre of our own community.

Due to a bankruptcy, 28 hectares of centrally located land is for sale in Paraparaumu. This is advertised as prime commercial or residential land, but much of it is wetland with seasonal standing water, as shown by a closeup view of the ‘For Sale’ sign. This land is flood prone and, aside from the low sand dunes, not suitable for development.

By Jake Roos, 11 November 2022

Asher Wilson-Goldman and myself presented to the Transport Select Committee inquiry on 27 October on behalf of Low Carbon Kāpiti regarding restoring passenger rail services between our cities. You can read our submission below, which was prepared in large part by Paul Callister (Thanks Paul!). Also, due to the action by Restore Passenger Rail protestors blocking SH1 at Johnsonville to coincide with it, there was added media attention at the committee. This article on NZ Herald about their action has some video of us presenting, as we were moved up when RPR’s audio failed.

We ended up having about 25 minutes to speak and answer questions. We stressed the need for rapid action to reduce emissions and that improved passenger rail could deliver this in the short to medium term with sufficient focus. Questions from National were relatively hostile, with Simeon Brown indicating he thought existing Intercity coach services were all NZ needs, while Labour and the Greens were more sympathetic.

By Jake Roos, 21 October 2022

Solar photovoltaic panels have become a mass-market product whose deployment is now being driven by market forces instead of government subsidies. Aotearoa NZ never had subsidies for solar PV – we are reaping the benefits of those set in other countries, some decades ago, that led to development of the industry and the subsequent plunge in costs.

In 2021, the world installed 168GW of solar generating capacity. By contrast, the entire electricity generating capacity of NZ is 9.7GW.

Despite the pandemic, global solar capacity doubled in 3 years from 2018, bringing the world’s solar fleet to 1,000 gigawatts (GW) in April 2022.