There used to be an investigative crash tv series where they'd look at the driver, the car and the environment.  On so many of those it was a combination of faults for example car not up to WOF standard and one other item such as weather or driver error.  In all of them I saw where the road condition was suspect there was always a second factor.

If the road condition is poor yet you're driving to the conditions in a safe car you should be fine.  It's when however you're distracted with a change of radio station causing you to miss detail of the road that you can quickly get yourself into trouble.

Although this massive database of accidents details lots of things such as time of day, light, road surface type etc it's a shame that it doesn't detail road condition :

Crash Analysis System (CAS) Data (nzta.govt.nz)

Edit: there's a guide suggesting that data is actually collected but to view it you need access to another portal.

https://nzta.govt.nz/assets/planning-and-investment/docs/published-research-reports.xlsx - search this for "crash" or scan the keywords column.

Googling around suggest the issue is not so much road surface condition, but rather road design.  This report is for cycling accidents: Research Report 606 Towards a safe system for cycling: Development and application of a cycling safety system model Preparing New Zealanders for utility cycling - March 2017 (nzta.govt.nz) but includes a lot of interesting detail.

Research Report 545 - The relationship between crash rates and rutting | Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (nzta.govt.nz)

pniti-network-options-report-jan-2021.pdf (pncc.govt.nz) - Council admitting that the grid nature of Palmy causes a lot of crashes

MadEngineer:

There used to be an investigative crash tv series where they'd look at the driver, the car and the environment.  On so many of those it was a combination of faults for example car not up to WOF standard and one other item such as weather or driver error.  In all of them I saw where the road condition was suspect there was always a second factor.

If the road condition is poor yet you're driving to the conditions in a safe car you should be fine.  It's when however you're distracted with a change of radio station causing you to miss detail of the road that you can quickly get yourself into trouble.

 

Although this massive database of accidents details lots of things such as time of day, light, road surface type etc it's a shame that it doesn't detail road condition :

Crash Analysis System (CAS) Data (nzta.govt.nz)

 

Edit: there's a guide suggesting that data is actually collected but to view it you need access to another portal.

That's exactly what I linked to :p

Also the cycling report mentions it a total of five times

Geektastic: Changing speed limits is all very well, but as anyone who has spent time driving in any modern European nation will tell you, there is just about zero enforcement here in comparison.

To achieve similar enforcement, using cameras, we need a few more. As an example, the UK has 7000 and we have 48.

I'd say we need at least 500.

Also camera tickets should include 30 points and be at least $300.

mudguard:

Geektastic: Changing speed limits is all very well, but as anyone who has spent time driving in any modern European nation will tell you, there is just about zero enforcement here in comparison.

To achieve similar enforcement, using cameras, we need a few more. As an example, the UK has 7000 and we have 48.

I'd say we need at least 500.

Also camera tickets should include 30 points and be at least $300.

Do cameras in the UK do demerits? I always thought it was the logistics of proving who was driving that prevented it here.

Last week I actually got passed by someone as I drove past a speed camera. For those in Auckland there a few sort of internal rural roads that have dropped to sixty. This was around Riverhead. Anyway it used to be eighty and a camera was installed. I dutifully driving bang on the limit (which is probably five less with speedo margin) as the camera was just ahead around the bend. The guy behind me either got fed up or didn't know it was now sixty and pulled out passed right as we went past the camera. I'd love to know his reaction when he gets the ticket.

SheriffNZ:

Technofreak:

 

No one is saying we should increase the speed limit, rather, that decreasing it isn't the correct solution to many of our roading problems. 

 

 

 

I don't know what your definition of a rural road is but in my experience a good deal of then are most definitely suitable for a 100 kph limit. Sure there's stretches that require lower speeds but any driver should be able to work that out without having to have a lower limit defined for those sections of road. 

 

 

 

One piece of road that has lower limits of recent times is the Karangahake Gorge. Sure there's spots where there is no way you can drive at 100 kph but equally there are places where speeds above the new limit are safe and practical in the right conditions. It would seem the new limits have been put in place because too many people cannot drive adequately and adjust their speed to the conditions.

 

I’m not sure the final two sentences of your 2nd and 3rd paragraphs are compatible. On one hand, you say people should be able to work out that they should drive slower, and then you say people can’t work it out? Perhaps that’s why we need new limits?

Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I should have been.

Those statements are compatible. 

Sure there's stretches that require lower speeds but any driver should be able to work that out without having to have a lower limit defined for those sections of road. 

and

It would seem the new limits have been put in place because too many people cannot drive adequately and adjust their speed to the conditions.

As I said in an earlier post, we're legislating for idiots. While a driver should be capable of adjusting to the conditions it seems that some drivers are incapable of doing so.

If you take that one step further, should those drivers be licensed to drive on the roads? This leads to another question, How much driver training focusses on adjusting to road conditions and what part of the driving test examines this aspect?