Call for 40km/h limit around schools as term begins

Electronic speed sign at Waitakere Primary. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Calls are growing for a 40km/h speed limit around schools at peak times, as police prepare to crack down on drivers exceeding 55km/h on urban roads.

Police are planning a national speed-camera campaign from next Tuesday - when most children head back to class - against drivers clocked at 56km/h or faster within 250m of urban school boundaries, or 106km/h on the open road.

This follows 34 deaths of school-aged pedestrians or cyclists, and 2053 injuries, on week days before or after school in the five years to the end of December.

The police campaign will involve a reduction of their normal speed tolerance - up to 61km/h before they issue tickets in 50km/h zones - and will run from 7.30am to 9am and 3pm to 4.30pm each school day.

But the Automobile Association said it would prefer a standard 40km/h limit at key times around schools in the longer term, a goal shared by the Parent Teacher Association and Waitakere City Council.

The council has over the past two years imposed 40km/h zones around two primary schools on its rural fringes, Waitakere and Oratia, but said stringent conditions prescribed by Land Transport New Zealand turned these into difficult and costly exercises.

Waitakere's deputy mayor, Carolynne Stone, said much of Australia imposed speed limits of 40km/h in school zones before 9am and after 3pm each week day and New Zealand was out of step with countries such as Canada and the United States too.

"In New Zealand we don't have a general road-safety mentality with our drivers," she said.

"We are not very good at looking after vulnerable road users."

Ms Stone said Waitakere hoped to create 40km/h zones around two more schools this year, Henderson Valley and Woodland Park, but the cost of remotely controlled flashing signs required by Land Transport NZ was prohibitive, at more than $30,000 a set.

She believed that making 40km/h the standard maximum speed while children were on the move would reduce the need for such expense, as motorists would know they had to slow down when approaching schools, without prompting from flashing lights.

Waitakere is believed to be the first North Island council to create special speed zones.