Environment – Life in the slow lane

Speed limits in New Zealand have been like a political football. The need for speed is also part of a constructed cultural mindset. Speed is power, agency, and maybe even personal efficiency. It’s our ‘right’ to go as fast as the car will take us, and anyone slower should get out of our way. After all, car speedos go up to 180km, so the speed limit is arbitrary.

The 100km/h speed limit has certainly been treated like a target, or an arbitrary guideline by both the government and many drivers. Instead of prioritising safety of drivers and pedestrians, fuel efficiency and carbon emission reductions, and the amenity of those who live or play nearby roads, higher speed limits privilege those individuals behind the wheel in a hurry for places to go and people to see.
In some car drivers’ utopias, roads would all be straight and speeds would be unlimited. Nature, topography, geography, cost and amenity should be no obstacle for getting from A to Z as fast as physically possible.

But we also know that the faster you go, the bigger the mess. Car crashes are much more devastating for vehicle occupants, pedestrians and animals they may hit at every increment of increased speed. And those multi-lane highways that expedite speedy transit lay waste to ecosystems, forests, wetlands, archaeological sites, neighbourhoods, air quality and a stable climate, as well as peace and quiet. For those cocooned in modern cars, passing scenery from a motorway is a backdrop to some other anticipated future destination. The means is less important than the ends.

But just like slow food, slow tourism and slow fashion, there is another way. It’s the reason people walk the Te Araroa trail or ride their bikes when they could just fly or drive. You see and experience more when you travel slow.

In Rodney, to get north you have at least two choices which embody this dichotomy. You can take the State Highway 1 toll road, which zips you up mostly efficiently, through the middle of the island over viaducts and through a tunnel, where the government has changed the speed limit to 110km/h along most of the Orewa to Warkworth section. Which is achievable if everyone hasn’t also left for their holidays at the same time to sit in the traffic they’ve all caused at the beginning or end of the Johnstones Hill tunnels, or where the motorway ends, currently in Warkworth.

Or you can take the Twin Coast Discovery Highway, with its views of estuaries and native bush. A slower, more beautiful meander along the coast and ridges with opportunities to stop and swim or take a breather along the way.

In my utopia, we’d barely need to drive at all. And we’d all be happy to take the slow lane, the road least travelled. But if we all did that, it could also be a problem – and lead to frustrating congestion. So, the fast and the furious can keep to their lane, and I’ll take the safe and sedate road to the beach.