This petition is seeking Far North District Council support to reduce the speed limit along the entire length of Kapiro Road from 100 kph to 70 kph. This will achieve a tangible improvement in safety and a reduction in unnecessary road deaths and injuries with the associated social and monetary cost. Importantly, a speed reduction to 70 kph will also significantly improve local the community amenity values — especially for those people directly living, walking, running and cycling along Kapiro Road.

There are approximately 300 separate properties that either directly front Kapiro Rd or access it from minor no-exit side roads off Kapiro Road. That number excludes the established communities and many hundreds more properties located off both Purerua Road and Redcliffs Road that also access Kapiro Road.

Road safety is a daily concern in the lives of the many families, businesses, employees and contractors accessing Kapiro Road daily.

In addition to the homes located on Kapiro Road and its side roads there are numerous small home based businesses and some quite large enterprises such as Seeka, Kainui, T&G, Plant Zone and Little Dippers swimming pool. Many of the larger businesses are focused around the horticulture industry — in particular Kiwifruit, Citrus and Blueberry growing and packing and plant nurseries. There are large numbers of staff, distribution and maintenance contractors with tractors, spray units and trucks and customers travelling to and from these properties every day.

Many early childhood education, primary and secondary schools access Kapiro Road. Nurture by Nature Early Childhood Centre is located about midway along Kapiro Road and caters for up to 50 children daily. Inspiring Minds is another pre-school education facility located a few hundred metres off Kapiro Road catering for just over 30 children daily. The Bay of Islands International Academy catering for 92 students is accessed from Kapiro Road daily. Kapiro Road is a school bus route with a number of pick-up and drop-off stops for children attending public primary and secondary schools located in Kerikeri.

There are more commercial and community focused businesses and activities per kilometre along Kapiro Road than along either Puketona Road or Wiroa Road, where the speed limit has been reduced to 80 kph and 60 kph respectively. The speed limit along Kerikeri Road progressively reduces from 80 kph to 30 kph.

There have been too many road deaths, road injuries and crashes reported on Kapiro Road and the 100 kph speed limit is simply not appropriate for the local community’s needs. The latest road crash data provided by NZTA for Kapiro Road between 1991 to 2022 indicates a sorry state of affairs. The NZTA Crash Analysis System (CAS) data shows 123 vehicles were involved in crash incidents. Of those, 44 resulted in minor injuries, 9 resulted in serious injuries and 2 were fatal. Of the 2 fatal crashes both occurred in fine weather and bright sun conditions. The majority of all crash severity types occurred during fine weather and bright sun conditions.

Based on NZTA (and international road speed/injury data) a reduction of 30 kph in the mean speed from 100 kph to 70 kph is estimated to reduce road deaths by 100% and road injuries by 60%. For someone travelling the entire 5.8 km length of Kapiro Road at the current speed limit (which would be quite difficult and life endangering on many sections) a 30 kph reduction would increase the travel time by a maximum of just 89 seconds.

It is plain common sense that a reduction in the speed limit from 100 kph to 70 kph will be much safer for the community. The recommended speed for rural roads (without a median barrier) by the OECD (of which New Zealand is a member) is 70 kph.

It should be a very easy decision for any local resident, community member, business owner, road user, or local authority councillor, to support a 70 kph speed limit, a reduction in road deaths and injuries and enhanced community amenity values — weighed against a maximum 89 second saving in travel time (and much less for most people travelling only part way along Kapiro Road). Come on Far North District Council — it's time to lower the speed!

Please sign this petition in support of lowering the speed limit on Kapiro Road from 100 kph to 70 kph for a much safer community with enhanced amenity values focused on people not cars.