New and safe speed limits on more than 600 roads across Auckland will come into force from 30 June 2020 onwards.

As part of Auckland Transport’s (AT’s) Safe Speeds programme, there will be lower speed limits for Auckland’s city centre, and on some roads in the Rodney local board area and in the Franklin local board area.

Speed limits on approximately 100 other roads across the region will also change.

In 2018, 54 people died on our roads and an additional 595 were seriously injured. In each of these crashes, speed determined the seriousness of the injury.

Speed management is one thing that AT is doing among a range of road safety improvements.

AT is committed to bringing deaths and serious injuries on the Auckland road network to zero by 2050. Setting safe and appropriate speed limits is one of the fastest and most cost effective way to save lives – while AT works on other improvements for the road network.

Thousands of people call Auckland city centre their home. Streets are shared by children, senior citizens, people driving, walking, cycling, scooting or motorbiking. To keep them safe, and to make speeds survivable in case of a crash, most speed limits will go down from 50km/h to 30km/h. However, Nelson, Hobson and Fanshawe Streets will each have a new speed limit of 40km/h, down from 50km/h. Some shared streets like Federal Street will continue to have a 10km/h speed limit.

Roads in Auckland’s rural areas are tricky to navigate - even for experienced drivers. With several sharp bends, narrow high-speed lanes and low visibility, a simple mistake can lead to devastating consequences. In Franklin, between 2014 – 2018, there were 89 road deaths or serious injuries; and in Rodney, between 2014 – 2018, there were 108 road deaths or serious injuries.

AT’s executive general manager of safety, Bryan Sherritt, says AT wants to make Auckland’s roads safe for everyone – whether that’s people walking and cycling, kids outside schools, senior citizens or people driving.

“We are guided by the Vision Zero approach to transport safety, which priorities human safety over other measures like minor time savings. Setting safe and survivable speeds for our road network is the quickest and most cost-effective way to immediately reduce death and serious injury.”

“Setting safe speed limits is just one part of a significant road safety investment between 2018 and 2028.”

AT encourages everyone driving to be aware of the new and lower speed limits on some of the roads they may travel on. AT asks people to drive within these new limits.

“We can all make some minor changes while we drive - so that one by one we can all help save lives and keep everyone safe… because everyone deserves to get home safely,” Mr Sherritt says.

To see an interactive map showing the changes:

https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/vision-zero-for-the-greater-good/safe-speeds-programme/speed-limit-changes-around-auckland/

Notes for Editors:

• AT is following the Auckland Plan 2050 and the Regional Land Transport Plan goals to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Auckland roads.
• Keeping in line with this objective, in October 2019 the AT board approved the Speed Limits Bylaw; and a month earlier (in September 2019), it approved the Vision Zero strategy for the Auckland region.
• It also follows the Auckland Council Planning Committee’s September 2018 resolution to “request Auckland Transport to accelerate the road safety and speed management programmes and seek input from partners to make Auckland a Vision Zero region” - Resolution number PLA/2018/83.
• Setting safe speeds is one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads. AT’s Safe Speeds programme supports the Vision Zero goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on the road network by 2050.
• In 2018-19, AT delivered approximately $45 million of safety engineering improvements, as well as increased road safety education.

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