About a dozen people attended the public forum of the Otago Peninsula Community Board meeting last week to express their dismay at the lowering of speed limits from 50kmh to 40kmh over large stretches of the peninsula road.
Local resident Tom Churchill said 40kmh limits should only be in the peninsula townships, for example Macandrew Bay and Portobello.
More than $100 million had been spent making the road safer by separating cars from pedestrians and cyclists, Mr Churchill said.
"I was in the fire service for 33 years and most of the crashes were outside these areas."
Dunedin City Council group manager transport Jeanine Benson attended the forum to address concerns.
She made an apology about three 40kmh speed limit signs that had been inaccurately placed in May.
The signs near Glenfalloch and St Ronans Rd, near the entry into Broad Bay, and between Bacon St and Seaton Rd had been moved back to where they originally were placed.
However, this had the effect of extending even further the length of road that was now at 40kmh.
Otago Peninsula Community Board chairman Paul Pope said locals were frustrated at the scale of the bylaw change from 50kmh to 40kmh.
"The problem is now we have got vast sections of the road where there are virtually no houses, which we must now drive at 40 kilometres an hour."
The road between Vauxhall and Taiaroa Head was about 26km and of that, just over half, or about 13.3km, now had a speed limit of 40kmh.
"People are so frustrated and I’m really concerned about the level of frustration."
Nazi swastikas had been spray painted on 40kmh signs recently.
"My real concern is that this frustration will boil over and, and someone will either do something stupid or they’ll get hurt."
Mr Pope said he and community board member Lox Kellas researched Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency road death statistics as part of their submission to the Dunedin City Council.
"What we discovered was there hasn’t been a motor vehicle death on the Otago Peninsula since 2000."
"The media love to have photos of cars in the harbour, every couple of months a car goes into the harbour, but the fact is most of those accidents are not injury accidents."
Lower speeds would have an effect on tourism.
"We’ve now added potentially another half an hour to travel time for people on buses," Mr Pope said.
Another issue were 40kmh signs installed on side roads off the main Portobello road, too close to the main road.
"They need to be set further back up the roads," Mr Pope said.
Ms Benson said she would look at the issue of the placement of signs on side roads.
Safety was at the forefront of reducing speed limits to minimise the risk to all road users, she said.
"The Peninsula Connection project has created a safe and accessible route for pedestrians and cyclists, however, we are cognisant of the many local residents needing to cross the road to access the cycleway," Ms Benson said.
"Reducing speed limits not only protects the safety of motorists, it also protects cyclists and pedestrians, including school children."
