Drivers are urged to pay extra attention when students return for the start of term two as new 30km/h speed limits will also be in place around all Hamilton schools. Photo / Hamilton City Council
Drivers are urged to pay extra attention when students return for the start of term two as new 30km/h speed limits will also be in place around all Hamilton schools. Photo / Hamilton City Council
As of today, 30km/h speed limits are in place around all of Hamilton’s 58 primary, intermediate and high schools.
The new speed limits aim to make the roads safer for children and will replace the previous 40km/h limits around the city’s schools.
Hamilton City Council city transport unit manager Gordon Naidoo said the council had determined for each school location individually if the 30km/h was a permanent speed limit or if the 30km/h only applied around drop-off and pick-up times.
For schools located on roads considered to be important for moving people and freight, variable speed limits will be in place.
“We also worked with schools to better understand the journeys that their students take,” Naidoo said.
“As a result, in some areas there will be additional side streets and back entrances covered by the 30km/h speed limits, to better reflect how students are getting to and from school.”
Naidoo said there was a relationship between speed and road injuries.
“By reducing speed limits around schools we are taking practical steps to help protect our youngest road users.”
He said he hoped the change would also give tamariki more confidence to walk, bike or scooter to school, which was not only good for their health but also helped reduce traffic congestion around schools.
Research shows that if a pedestrian is hit by a car travelling at 50km/h, they have a 10 per cent chance of survival. However, the survival rate increases to 90 per cent if the car is travelling at 30km/h.
“Children travelling to school can be easily distracted by their surroundings. They may also find it difficult to judge distances and could step into the road without warning, so it is important that drivers are patient, take extra care and stick to the speed limit when driving near schools,” Naidoo said.
Naidoo also reminded drivers of the importance of not parking across driveways, footpaths, yellow lines, cycle lanes or bus stops.
Knighton Normal School deputy principal Materoa Collins said she welcomed the reduced speed limits.
“Having safer speed limits around schools keeps our tamariki at the heart of all that matters to us. It puts their safety first and foremost,” Collins said.
The speed-limit change was approved at the council’s traffic speed limit and road closure hearing panel last December, following full consultation with schools and the public earlier in 2023.
The council said it received strong support for the change from schools, and 293 comments were generated from 177 respondents during public consultation.
Gordon Naidoo said he hoped the speed limit change would also give tamariki more confidence to walk, bike or scooter to school. Photo / Hamilton City Council
Of the 293 comments, 63 per cent (186 comments) were supportive of speed reductions, while 19 per cent (55 comments) opposed the changes.
The news of the implementation of the speed limit change comes after the council announced it would remove 10 projects from its 2023-24 transport programme, including four projects intended to improve safety at crossings near schools.
The decision was made by the Infrastructure and Transport Committee in March and requested that council staff cease work on raised safety platforms at existing signalised crossings near St Joseph’s School, Fairfield intermediate and primary schools, and Hamilton Christian School.
The introduction of the 30km/h speed limits around schools aligns with the Hamilton speed management plan (2022) and the council’s vision zero goal where there are no serious injuries or deaths on our roads.
