School safety drives lower speed limits in Western Bay

Speed limits around Western Bay of Plenty schools will be lowered to 30 kilometres per hour (kph) during peak times, following the adoption of Western Bay of Plenty District Council’s Speed Management Plan.

Outside of school drop-off and pick-up times, the speed limit around rural schools in the District will drop to 80 kph, while around urban schools it will remain at 50 kph – unless the speed limit is already lower, in which case it will remain unchanged.

Further changes under the plan include lowering the speed limit in Ōmokoroa and Te Puke town centres to 40 kph, in line with Waihī Beach town centre, which became 40 kph in 2021 through a previous bylaw process.

Katikati’s main road is a state highway, and a 40 kph limit is intended by the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) Waka Kotahi, which Council fully supports.

Speed limits will also be lowered in areas where Council received significant feedback from the community to do so, including Fairview Estate (all roads within the estate 30kph), Matakana Island (all roads 60 kph unless currently lower), Te Puna from State Highway 2 to Tauranga Harbour (all roads 60 kph unless currently lower), Pahoia Road from the railway to the existing 50 kph area (60 kph) and Wilson Road North in Maketu (extension of the 50 kph and 70 kph zones).

It is likely the new speed limits will come into effect within the next two years. The timing and cost of implementing the changes will be shared between Council and NZTA, subject to resource and funding availability.

All other rural roads which currently have a speed limit of 100 kph will retain this limit. No speed limits will increase.

Council is also working with marae, on a case-by-case basis, to provide safer connections for their communities.

“We want people to be safe on all our roads, but special care needs to be taken in areas where there are more pedestrians, like schools, marae and town centres. We hope the new speed limits will raise driver awareness and reduce the risk in these locations,” says Mayor James Denyer.

“No-one knows local roads more than the people who drive them, which is why there was a strong focus on local knowledge when setting the new speed limits. During the consultation process, we received close to 200 submissions which helped us shape this plan. And, as our District continues to grow and develop, we will keep having conversations with the community around this important topic.”

Council’s Draft Speed Management Plan went out for consultation in October last year. At that time, a 50 kph speed limit was proposed for all urban roads and 80 kph limit for rural roads, with the exceptions of schools, marae, town centres and priority areas identified by Council.

Of the 197 submissions received, there was the most support for reducing speed limits around schools during peak times, and not much support for the blanket 80 kph limit for rural roads.

“The legislation that the draft plan was prepared under has changed under the new government, and a speed management plan is no longer mandatory,” explains Mayor James.

“However, we are still going to use the plan and people’s feedback to guide speed limit changes, as we think it’s a good way to have a kōrero with the community on road safety and speed limits.”

A national speed limit register is now the legal tool used to set speed limits, and Council’s Speed Management Plan, which will be reviewed every three years, will guide what’s included in the register.

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