Review of Speed Limits at Schools and 70 km/hr restrictions

The proposed speed limit on the streets that front the schools is 40 km/hr as a permanent speed limit. The 40 km/hr speed limit proposed to start at a point 90 metres in advance of the existing PW2 School warning signs.

The signs are to be the RG1 with the School Zone supplementary.

Background

Following a review of speed limits in November 2017 – which was mainly related to growth in the townships and extending the 80 km/hr rural speed limits – it was decided that speed limits at schools be reviewed due to the public submissions received as part of the consultation which requested lower speed limits at schools.

Where speed limits in townships were changed as part of the 2017 review, the 70 km/hr speed limits were reviewed and reduced to 60 km/hr or 50 km/hr in line with the NZTA Speed Management Guide. The remaining 70 km/hr speed limits were reviewed along with the school speed limits.

Urban School Speed Limits

The majority of urban schools are within the 50 km/hr urban speed limit. They have school warning signs in place and have the high activity times at morning and afternoon.

Many schools also have activity outside of the peak times including weekends. Feedback from NZTA as part of the 2017 review suggested a 40 km/hr speed limit on some of our new subdivision roads. It was considered that if a permanent 40 km/hr speed limit is considered appropriate for those urban streets (and maybe urban streets generally in the future) then it should be appropriate for outside schools that have much more activity than those subdivisions. So this has been used as the starting point.