Changes to speed limits around local schools
By Dunedin City Council | Posted: Tuesday May 16, 2023
Improvements to road safety are part of the Government’s “Road to Zero” national road safety strategy where the vision is a New Zealand where no one is killed or seriously injured in road crashes.
Dunedin City Council has responsibility for setting speed limits on local roads within the city. This does not include state highways which are the responsibility of Waka Kotahi.
Our speed management plan
To meet new regulations and align with the Waka Kotahi ‘Road To Zero’ national road safety strategy, we developed the Interim Speed Management Plan (ISMP). The ISMP sets speed limits around school zones to meet a regulatory interim target of 40% of schools in a reduced speed zone by 2024.
Public consultation ran from November to December 2022, and a Hearings Committee was held on Friday 17 March 2023 for members of the public to share their feedback in person. The changes were approved at Council on 27 March 2023 and the school zones and their limits have been set to 30km/h. Some schools will have a permanent 30km/h limit for their zones, and others will be variable, which means the 30km/h speed limit only applies during set times.
Speed limits have changed around schools
School zones have been developed for each school that incorporate school entrances and surrounding streets. In our consultation, we asked submitters to give us feedback on whether school zones were wide enough. You can view the confirmed school zones for schools in the maps.
We also proposed that schools sit within a wider 30km/h permanent speed zone. For other schools we proposed variable school zones, where the speed limit will be reduced to 30km/h before and after school times. Some schools will have a combination of both permanent and variable speed limits, e.g. St Mary’s Dunedin and Andersons Bay School. Please see the tables (below) for the schools and their speed limits.
School times are: 35 minutes before the start of school; 20 minutes at the end of school (beginning no earlier than 5 minutes before the end of school); 10 minutes at any other time when children cross the road or enter or leave vehicles at the roadside.
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