Speed limits around schools to be lowered

Thursday, 6 July 2023

Christchurch’s rangatahi will have a safer time getting to and from school after city councillors voted to cut speed limits on nearly 2000 streets.

Drivers travelling in school zones can expect a limit of 30kph or 40kph in surrounding neighbourhoods.

Councillors voted nine to three in favour of the reductions as part of a speed management plan for the city discussed at a meeting on Wednesday.

New rules set by the Government in 2022 required councils to set a 30kph limit in all school zones by 2027.

Cr Sara Templeton said the council choosing to act now and include more areas was about being proactive.

“We shouldn’t just be reacting to current death and injury,” she said.

Between 2018 and 2022 there were 1316 crashes that caused injuries on Christchurch’s road network, including state highways, according to data referenced by council staff.

Thirty-four of those were fatal, leaving 74 people dead. Another 355 caused serious injury.

Of the crashes involving vulnerable road users (cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists), 61% involved cyclists, 18% pedestrians, and 21% motorcyclists.

Public consultation on the interim speed management plan saw 24% of the 1136 people and organisations who gave feedback in support of it and 11% opposed. A further 66% did not give a preference, but offered suggestions.

Many people asked for additional roads to have their speeds reduced.

Some changes were approved on Wednesday, while others will wait for the final plan.

The neighbourhoods reducing to 40kph were predominantly residential and considered as being the start or end of journeys.

Streets which are busy thoroughfares will only have speed limits cut during school hours.

Cr Tim Scandrett said he had been campaigning for reduced speed limits around schools for over a decade, and was “over the moon” about the proposal.

He said even if it added more time to his journey to work, he didn’t mind waking up five minutes earlier.

Councillors cited a submission to the plan by professor Simon Kingham, an urban transport expert and chief science advisor for Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, who said reducing speed limits had minimal effect on overall journey times.

Lower speeds “smooth out journeys” as people stop and start a lot less, he said, while reducing speeds also cut fuel costs and carbon emissions, as well as saving lives.

“I call it the most obvious no-brainer policy,” he said.

Cr Andrei Moore voted against the plan because he wasn’t convinced public consultation provided a clear mandate. He urged the council to be “careful not to tell people we know what’s best for them”.

Cr Victoria Henstock also opposed it, saying better enforcement of anti-social behaviour on the road and infrastructure could be better solutions.

She also wasn’t convinced there was a mandate, and asked council staff how satisfied they were that the feedback was “fair, true and accurate”.

Staff member Hannah Ballantyne said an interactive map – part of the consultation process – was viewed over 25,000 times during the consultation period.

Around $35,000 was budgeted for marketing the proposal, similar to that spent on promoting the council’s annual plan.

A final speed management plan, which will consider the speed limits on other streets, will be open for public consultation later in the year.

Mayor Phil Mauger and councillors Sam MacDonald, James Gough and Yani Johanson, who are overseas on a council trip, did not attend the meeting.

*** *CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story suggested 1316 crashes had caused injuries between 2018 and 2022. That figure was for crashes involving vulnerable road users - cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists - rather than the total number of crashes causing injuries in that period. (Amended 4.41pm, July 7, 2023)***