Despite our small population density, horrible terrain and fickle weather New Zealand is actually doing pretty well on the road deaths chart versus peers.
There is a lot more nuance in the stats, which should really be by passenger mile and take account of the presence of pedestrians, but it helps to look up sometimes and say we are doing ok.
Now – back to work. No death on the road is acceptable, and we need to get to Zero Harm as soon as reasonably practical. Zero Harm on the roads inevitably means taking away control from drivers and making all vehicles at least semi autonomous for the most busy roads. That will increase the allowable density of traffic, remove once and for all the issue of drunk driving and turn unproductive commuting time into productive commuting time.
Meanwhile please stop putting up those motorcycle killer wire safety barriers.
Lance Wiggs 
I also wonder how long unreliable and mistake-prone humans will be allowed to drive at speed instead of a human-designed and thoroughly tested autonomous controller that will have far more stringent standards set on it than the average driving test. The plus side of autonomous vehicles should be that the should have an unlimited capped speed… At the same time that human drivers should be restrained to highly survivable low-energy impact speeds, on public roads (go nuts on the track instead!)
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