New speed limits categories and schedules

A new approach to setting speed limits on New Zealand roads has been finalised by the Government and came into force on 30 October 2024.

The new Rule sets out how speed limits on New Zealand roads will be managed in a way that supports economic growth, boosts productivity, and enables people to get to where they are going efficiently and safely.  

The Rule supports a targeted approach to speed management by focusing future speed reviews on areas of high safety concern, supporting NZ Police to meet speed-related enforcement targets and using variable speed limits outside schools. It also standardises road classes and their speed limits, specifying speed limit ranges for each road type.

As part of the new Rule, there is a binding schedule of speed limit classifications which specify permitted permanent speed limit ranges available for each road category. These classifications have been introduced to encourage a consistent approach by Road Controlling Authorities (RCAs) and must be used when proposing/setting speed limits.

Schedule 3 within the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024, outlines both urban and rural categories, the description of what the class of road means, and the permanent speed limit or speed limit range that class of road should be.

Some of these categories apply to local roads managed by other RCAs, and some apply to state highways managed by NZTA. The categories are similar to, but not an exact match, to the One Network Framework (ONF) classifications that RCAs use for asset management planning. For example, Schedule 3 speed categories include:

• Urban streets - Residential and neighbourhood streets, and streets that provide access to and support businesses, shops, on-street activity and services, which would have a speed limit of 50 km/h.
• Civic spaces - Streets mainly intended for localised on-street activity with little or no through movement, which would have a speed limit of 10 – 20 km/h.
• Urban connectors - Streets that provide for the movement of people and goods between different parts of urban areas, with low levels of interaction between the adjacent land use and the street, which would have a speed limit of 50 – 80 km/h.
• Transit corridors - Urban motorways and corridors that provide for movement of people and goods within an urban environment, which would have a speed limit of 80 – 100 km/h.
• Stopping places – Rural destinations that increase activity on the roadside at a certain point on the corridor, and directly uses the road for access, which would have a speed limit of 50-80km/h.
• Peri-urban roads - primarily provide access from residential property on the urban fringe or in a rural residential area, where the predominant adjacent land use is residential, but usually at a lower density than in urban residential locations. These roads would have a speed limit of 50 – 80 km/h.
• Rural connectors - provide a link between rural roads and interregional connectors, which would have a speed limit of 80 – 100 km/h.
• Expressways – state highways that are median divided, with two or more traffic lanes in each direction, grade separated intersections, access controlled, with a straight or curved alignment. These would have a speed limit of 100-110km/h under today’s design standards. In the future, NZTA will investigate the potential of speed limits up to 120km/h.

Schedule 3 also has an additional table that outlines ‘alternative permanent speed limits’ for certain locations, to take account of specific terrain or design standards - including unsealed rural roads; urban streets with no footpaths; intersection speed zones; and roads where the alignment is tortuous (mountainous or hill locations).

Due to their length, changing terrain, roadside activity or nearby destinations, many roads and state highways will end up with different categories applied to different locations, meaning the speed limits could change along a driver’s route. Speed limit signage is erected along the route to help drivers know the speed limits when they change. An example of how a state highway’s speed categories change along its route is illustrated in the following figure.

Schedule 3 within the Setting of Speed Limits Rule 2024