Chance for Rotorua residents to give feedback on speed limit changes

Traffic build up on Te Ngae Rd. Photo / File

Rotorua residents have less then a week to give feedback on proposed changes to speed limits on roads and state highways across the district.

Consultation on the 2021 Speed Limit Review closes on Wednesday April 21.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Rotorua Lakes Council are working together to improve the safety of the transport network and one of the actions to achieve that is to review speed limits in Rotorua, the council said in a statement recently.

Infrastructure group manager Stavros Michael said reviews were an important process to ensure the transport network in Rotorua remained safe, efficient and consistent with speed limit standards across the region and the country.

"Council broadly reviews posted speed limits approximately every three years to ensure consistency. A review of a particular speed limit is generated by the council's safety audits, sometimes prompted by feedback from our community, in response to vehicle crashes and consequent police crash investigation reports.

"An example of ensuring consistency with standards is the removal of 70km/h zones. Waka Kotahi is looking to phase out all 70km/h zones and we need to ensure our local network is in line with the national network," Michael said.

Another important aspect of this review was appropriate speeds around rural schools.

"This is a result of the Rural School Road Safety Review that we have undertaken to understand the safety needs of each rural school and what can be implemented to address those needs," Michael said.

NZTA was proposing new speed limits for State Highways 5 and 30 and wanted to hear from the Rotorua community before decisions were made.

Between 2009 and 2018, six people were killed and 26 seriously injured in 629 crashes on the two highways.

NZTA director regional relationships David Speirs said SH5 and SH30 were used for everything from commuting, freight and tourism to people trying to get their children to school or head out for a mountain bike ride.

"The best thing we can do to prevent people from dying or being seriously injured is to make speed limits safer. Safer speed limits are safer for all road users."

Consultation opened last month and residents could submit feedback for speed limit changes using the council's online engagement hub Korero Mai.

Hard copy Waka Kotahi submission forms and a list of the proposed local road changes could be found at Rotorua Lakes Council's Customer Centre.

The council and NZTA will also be taking submissions at the Transport Info Days this week.