Outside Auckland’s Point Chevalier School, the speed limit is 30km/h all day, every day.
But that could soon change.
“It concerns me as a principal, it concerns me as a member of the public, and it concerns me as a father as well,” said principal Stephen Lethbridge.
“For the sake of a minute of driving, we could stop injuries – we could stop death.”
The Government wants to introduce variable speed limits, so cars can drive faster when fewer kids are expected to be on the street.
It’s part of a plan to reverse the blanket speed limit reductions introduced in 2020 by the previous government.
If the law is passed, many state highways lowered to 80km/h would return to 100km/h and local roads moved to 30km/h – including those around schools – would go back to 50km/h.
The Setting of Speed Limits 2024 consultation document states that the proposed change “removes the ability for permanent speed limit reductions around schools”.
“The streets surrounding the school will need to reverse to their previous speed limit, and introduce variable speed limits on the stretch of road outside school gates, by July 1, 2025.”
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said lower speed limits will be in place during pick up and drop off times – the “most important times around schools”.
“We think that’s the priority,” he said.
The proposal defines school travel periods as 8am-9.30am and 2.30pm-4pm on school days.
Earlier this month, Regulation Minister David Seymour said traffic, and the economy, had needlessly slowed down.
“We’re gonna make sure that every speed limit change has some evidence behind it, not just ideology slowing people down for the sake of it,” Seymour said at the time.
Only in this case, there is some evidence.
An economic assessment commissioned by Auckland Transport in 2022, done by Flow Transportation Specialists, concluded “around 85% of the DSI [deaths and serious injuries] that occurs within 400m of a school gate, occur when variable school signs are not expected to be operating”.
“What we see is our children head home, they then come back to school on their bikes, they run back to school, they play on the playgrounds, they head off to football practice, they’re always in the community,” said Lethbridge.
Bike Auckland chairwoman Karen Hormann agreed, saying schoolchildren “are moving around schools all the time”.
“At the moment, the proposal is just a bubble of safety around the school drop off and pick up time and it’s actually quite a small bubble of about a 150-metre radius of the school.”
Lethbridge said he’s seen the consequences of speed around schools.
“I attended the funeral of a young man, about 10 years old. He was hit by a car as he rode his bike in a 50km/h area. that could have been different if it was 30km/h around that school.”
Kiwis can have their say on the proposed changes on the Ministry of Transport website.
Public consultation closes on July 11.
