Wairarapa councils back Better Together: drive like cops are around
Wairarapa’s three district councils are backing a joint road safety push with Police and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA), with one message for everyone behind the wheel: drive like cops are around, because they are.
The Better Together campaign runs across Wairarapa throughout October and November. It pairs local advertising, supported by Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa district councils and coordinated by Wairarapa Road Safety Council, with a visible Police presence on the region’s roads.
“Better Together is exactly what it sounds like,” says Holly Hullena, Road Safety Projects Coordinator at Wairarapa Road Safety Council. “Police, NZTA and all three of our councils are saying the same thing at the same time. When the whole region backs one message, it’s a lot harder to tune out.”
Drivers can expect to be stopped anytime, anywhere. In Wairarapa the focus is heavily on four things: speed outside schools, speed on rural roads, seatbelts and child restraints, and driving impaired by alcohol or drugs.
“If you remember nothing else, remember the school gate and the school bus,” Hullena says. “Slow to the school zone limit when the signs are on, and drop to 20km/h past a stopped school bus, whichever way you’re heading.”
NZTA research shows only around half of New Zealanders believe they could be caught speeding or stopped for drink-driving. Hullena says that is the thinking the campaign sets out to change.
“Plenty of us drive differently when there’s a patrol car in the mirror. We ease off, we put the phone down, we check our seatbelt,” she says. “This campaign asks you to drive like that all the time. Not because of the ticket, but because that’s the version of you that gets home.”
“A lot of our roads are long, rural and quiet, and it’s easy to think nobody’s watching. Over the coming weeks, somebody will be.”
Hullena says the campaign is not about catching people out.
“Nobody involved wants to hand out tickets. If Police stop hundreds of drivers and every one of them is sober, belted in, off the phone and under the limit, that’s the campaign working.”
With Labour Weekend later this month and traffic building in the run to summer, she says the timing matters.
“Drive like cops are around, and drive like your family is in the car coming the other way. On Wairarapa roads, they often are.”
Speed reminders
• Outside schools: variable limits apply at school travel times, before and after the bell. The limit is 30km/h outside urban school gates and 60km/h or less outside rural schools on higher-speed roads. When the signs are on, that is the limit.
• School buses: 20km/h when passing a school bus that has stopped to pick up or drop off children. This applies in both directions, whatever the posted limit.
• Rural roads: the open road limit is 100km/h unless signs show lower. That is a maximum, not a target. Gravel, narrow bridges, blind corners, stock and farm machinery all call for less.
