The Dunedin City Council reduced the speed limit from 30kmh to 10kmh in sections of Princes and George Sts between May 15 and June 8 to encourage physical distancing among shoppers.
An Official Information Act request revealed police issued no speeding tickets to motorists for exceeding the 10kmh limit.
Council transport group manager Jeanine Benson said data revealed 28kmh was the average speed motorists travelled in a section of George St when the speed limit was 30kmh.
When the limit was reduced to 10kmh, the average speed dropped to 22kmh.
The speed data was collected from four tube counters in George St between the Octagon and Frederick St by council contractor Fulton Hogan.
When asked if the council was happy with motorists travelling at more than twice the posted speed limit, Ms Benson replied: “Motorists should always travel at the posted speed limit”.
Southern police district road policing manager Inspector Amelia Steel said the council made her aware of the reduced speed limit and to “support their intent”.
No road policing staff had been deployed to the area, Insp Steel said.
Road policing staff were primarily interested in the speeds motorists were travelling on highways, she said.
“We deploy to risk and the risk still remains on our open roads.”
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Comments
The police obviously have more common sense than the council.
Most drivers would be starting to get a bit annoyed at having to drive around in 1st gear ... either put the speed limit back up or make it pedestrian only.
All of these spots, bumps, and speed limits are getting too much and don't "enhance" the Dunedin experience for visitors to our once beautiful city ... maybe the coucil could try painting the main streets tartan and replace Robbie Burns with a statue of Mel Gibson saluting the English .. ;-)
A bit of a misleading headline there ODT.....!
I was expecting to read an article about those doing 200kph, avoiding a fine. Instead, I read about sane Dunedin drivers ignoring a stupid DCC rule to drive slower than bicycles and joggers.
Good on the Police for deciding that some rules are just begging to be ignored.
Just shows even the police thought this was ridiculous.
The Dumber City Council- the laughing stock of NZ!
At 10km/h, you could not make it through before the traffic light turned red.
No mention of people running red lights due to the extreme snail paced speed.