Martin Lowe's Waioeka Gorge Thoughts...
Sorry this is a bit long winded, but this article was what I was going to present at the advertised meeting at Lawson Field earlier this week and on arriving we all discovered this was not a meeting at all but a open forum and to me and others there, feel it looks like Transit's mind is all ready made up.
Gisborne north via the Gorge: I, a good citizen advent supporter of our fine town Gisborne, a Life Member and past President of Gisborne Local Car Club for over 15 years and having driven the Gorge road maybe over a thousand times over my life and never come across an accident nor had a incident myself or with any one else.
One wonders what this is all about.
Maybe its a few people that just don't know what is expected of them when they drive on rural state highways and a decent bit of driver training wouldn't go astray.
I myself have driven over steeper roads and Gorges in Europe (Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany) and have never seen limited 80 signage anywhere on similar roads and Gorges to our one in question. People over there are considerate and certainly drive to their ability and conditions.
Gorge 80? then why not the Wairoa to Napier Road as this is a more treacherous road. Less passing, more windy and steeper climbs.
You say at 80 only and that will add three and a half minutes to trip. That is if you are constantly doing the 100 to 80k comparison. You have to remember that most of the corners are not 80k and you would have to be doing 100k to make up that difference in what was stated on the radio news today.
Biggest thing is we need to encourage New Zealander's to drive to conditions rather than putting restrictions on everyone and the many who have total confidence in travelling this road with no hassles.
We seam to be molly coddling the minority once again. This country is getting far too regulated and it wont be long before we are putting safety barriers around our bath tub to stop kids falling in the baths and getting flashing lighted escorts to drive us round the roads, sound ridiculous but its getting close.
People need to drive to the conditions, I mean what type of vehicle you drive, the weather, your age which is relation to the cars we drive and who you or what you carry in the vehicle etc. Drivers just need to be alert and wake up to the fact that they are on a mountainous pathway.
In my opinion I believe the following contributes to our road issues in this Gorge:-
1) Really poor driver education and inexperience is New Zealand's biggest down fall. Not our roads.
2) Our road surfacing especially Gisborne's roads and more so the Gorge. You can encounter, hot mix to hard, to coarse seal then to loose seal all with in a short distance. This certainly doesn't give one driver confidence and security nor does it promote safe roads.
Maybe it is about time the Government made some decent effort to make Gisborne a better place to get in and out of.
Surely the Transit NZ is making a rod for its own back, more restrictions, more policing and more disgruntled people coming to Gisborne; wow I always thought New Zealand was Gods zone.
We have made Gisborne one of the hardest and most expensive places to get to in New Zealand. The bus service is basically non existent and diabolically slow, our rail link (only south) is poor and only for freight and our airfares are some of the most expensive flights anywhere in New Zealand.
Now we are talking about making our road trip even longer by trying to introduce 80K. Where are we heading?
By putting a speed restriction on this road maybe will force people to drive later at night when patrollers are not working. This will certainly cause problem late at night and is asking for trouble (Ice and animals on the roads etc).
We have to get it right, you are going to have a larger problem on your hands encouraging people to slow down over such a long road. The road is long enough, don't make the trip to Gisborne any longer.
PS. My own young son even made a good suggestive note after reading this. "If we are all worried about speed killing we should regulate our vehicles to the young and inexperience, like we do with motor bikes. e.g. no turbos and super charged vehicles or even cc rate them for restricted licences etc.
Maybe that is far better way of controlling fatalities".
Martin Lowe
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