Road to Zero 2020–30 is the Government’s strategy to guide improvements in New Zealand’s road safety. It sets us on a path to achieve a New Zealand where no one is killed or seriously injured on our roads with an interim target of a 40% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2030 against a 2018 baseline.

The 2021–24 NLTP will invest $2.9 billion from the Road to Zero activity class to deliver on the strategy. This investment is focused on safety infrastructure, speed management, road policing, road safety promotion and system management.

Funding at this level places us on a trajectory towards a 10-year target of a 30–35% reduction in deaths and serious injuries, if there is insufficient catch up in later NLTP periods.

To align the investment level within the activity class range the approach taken was to limit investment in new infrastructure improvements, while maintaining investment in speed management and safety cameras. While safety infrastructure and safety cameras offer similar reductions in deaths and serious injuries per comparative dollar spent, New Zealand has fallen well behind good practice when it comes to automated enforcement, and the full safety benefits of speed management changes will not be realised without safety camera related enforcement.

Although it is unlikely the strategy’s target could be met with sustained limited investment in new safe system infrastructure treatments (such as median barriers), the role of more widespread safe and appropriate speed limits across the network will become increasingly critical. This will need to be supported in the short to medium term by enforcement, speed management planning and safety cameras.

Road to Zero strategy