Remutaka Hill woes

The answers to all of life’s problems: cutting speed limits and putting in traffic lights.

Yes, if you reduce the speed limit to zero there will be no crashes ( Remutaka Hill road speed cuts on way, Nov 30). Well, not in cars.

Traffic lights. We already have several sets on State Highway 2 that cause huge delays for the people who pay taxes for roading. Put in more lights, I say, and hit drivers with a green tax too, because, while they sit at the lights, they are creating more carbon emissions.

The speed limit could drop as there can be no way to get anywhere near the limit with the congestion on the hill. But have you seen why? Mostly it’s slow-moving hatchbacks, which will happy drive over the hill between 20kph-30kph without pulling over once.

But the other major contributor are trucks. Follow one and watch – as Dennis Page points out, trucks get stuck. But not only that, on my last count the truck I followed crossed right over into the other lane 13 times so as to be able to manoeuvre around a tight bend.

Should Waka Kotahi be imposing truck-size limits on the hill to reduce risk and congestion? Jeff Calton, Upper Hutt [abridged]