I know I am limited to 90Kph when towing my mobile home on the open road , smart enough to know that may be too fast on some NZ roads that melons and their enablers have diverted infrastructure funding to “Cycleways” that few use and often just stand as a monument to “stupidityways”?

I am also aware that School Busses are limited to eighty Kph, possibly as the cargo is often unsecured, a speed that for passing vehicles in either direction when moving past a stationary school bus picking up and dropping off that precious cargo is 20 Kph.

There is a concerted program to avoid some of the endangering aspects of delayed maintenance and declining investment to arbitrarily reduce speeds for all, such as the very controversial move to reduce the Napier Taupo from Bay View to The Hauraki plains to a blanket 80 Kph when much of that road is perfectly safe for all but the grossly incompetents at 100 Kph.

During my heady days as a possible temporary citizen riding my two wheeler as a second rage at departing youth I soon worked out that getting caught speeding was pretty low risk as there was no front facing plate for the camera and unless deserving of trouble from failing to watch out for manned radar traps and patrolling cars, exceeding the limits was often indulged.

Then there is another often annoying aspect to speed limits temporarily imposed for road works. Don’t get me wrong I am totally supportive of such limits but the annoying for me comes when the signage management company, now separated from the construction crew places the cones and reduction signage sometimes days before the work begins and on occasions does not gather their litter up for days after.

Expecting respect and observance of laws that seems to be contemptible rubbish just lowers all respect for all laws.

Now that leads to what sent me off on this windmill tilting, what is the speed limit for trucks and busses except for school transport as already stated.

Easy to get this wrong as there are very few heavy vehicles not travelling at open road speed of 100 kph so long as the power is there and that includes most trucks and busses.

It is no longer a problem but in earlier days when the rig was not so helpful as the current gear, large trucks overtaking on Passing lanes was quite fraught with serious threats to stability from the “Bow Wave” accompanying the manoeuvre. So people, if it is a fact almost all trucks and busses, most that would be better able to avoid trouble with superior braking and road contact , much better than many overloaded cars on four tires towing a trailer unbraked, are travelling safe in the knowledge they will not trigger a response from cameras at speeds up to 100 kph why not accept the reality and make the limit the same for all vehicles. I would have little interest in a change for light vehicles towing but consider my current rig stable and sufficiently safe with electric braked Movan to be safe at a raised limit.

Two points here widespread ignoring of the 100 limit for heavy vehicles and the mindless trend for Transport NZ to use limiting speeds as a cop out for poor maintenance and upgrading of the network, leading for a disrespect for laws is corrosive. at the very least. Not perhaps a part of the unrealistic drive to zero road deaths for sure but maybe just removing the clear contempt involved could be progress.