One of the key action items in the New Zealand road safety objectives 2024 document is to set safe variable speed limits outside all school gates by July 2026.
Government Policy Statement on land transport 2024-34(external link)
Setting safe variable speed limits outside all schools prioritises the safety of children arriving at or leaving schools during busy pick-up and drop-off times.
The Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 (the Rule) requires road controlling authorities to use reasonable efforts to ensure that all their schools have safe variable speed limits set by 1 July 2026.
Each school, in conjunction with the road controlling authority, can determine the roads outside that school, as sometimes there is more than one access gate.
Schools will be grouped into two categories to determine the appropriate safe variable speed limit. The new Guidance – Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 guide provides more information on this.
Guidance – Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 [PDF, 1.8 MB]
- Category one schools must have a variable speed limit of 30km/h. The Rule allows for an existing permanent 30km/h speed limit outside a school to be retained, in cases where the permanent speed limit is also 30km/h on the road in question, and it does not fall into the category of a Specified Road that would need to have the speed limit reversed.
- Category one schools are more likely to be in areas with existing 50 km/h speed limits. These areas, typically in built up urban areas, potentially have high numbers of more vulnerable road users in the vicinity (adult/child pedestrians, cyclists, micro-mobility users) with consequently higher risk.
- Category two schools must have a variable speed limit of 40km/h-60km/h. The Rule allows for existing permanent 40km/h-60km/h speed limits to be retained, in cases where the permanent speed limit is also 40-60km/h on the road , and it does not fall into the category of a Specified Road that would need to have the speed limit reversed.
- Schools in Category two are more likely to be in areas with less comparative risk to vulnerable road users (for example, where pupils are generally driven or bussed to school, as distances make active transport modes less practical, and pick up/drop off space is provided off-road). Existing speed limits may, for example, be 60-80 km/h.
- This may also include school areas where safety infrastructure will mitigate risk of higher speed roads (for example, there are dedicated cycle lanes or traffic bays off main roads).
A new amendment to the traffic control devices rule (Land Transport Rule: Traffic Control Devices (School Static Variable Speed limit) Amendment 2024) enables road controlling authorities to use new static variable speed limit signs for variable speed limits outside schools.
Sign specifications — Schools(external link)
