We are proposing reduced speeds around each school in Palmerston North.
One of the key actions in the Government’s national road safety plan is to ensure there are safe speed limits around all schools by the end of 2027.
As we are the local road controlling authority for Palmerston North, we are responsible for consulting with our community on the streets around each school where these speed limits would be in place.
The map below shows our proposal for schools in our city, and we are now seeking public feedback on whether we’ve got this about right.
Our Elected Members will make a final decision after hearing your feedback. Our interim plan is to have the proposed speed limits in place by June 2024. Following this, our plan is sent back to Waka Kotahi – NZ Transport Agency for certification.
Speed limit changes are no longer restricted to the school gate and are now focused on the streets surrounding each school.
We are changing speed limits on the streets around each school using a combination of permanent and variable speed limits. Variable speed limits are electronic signs that apply during school pick up and drop off times only – we are proposing these on our busier roads. Most of these lower speed limits will be 30km/h. A small number of schools are in 70km/h areas, and these will be lowered to 60km/h.
The Government also requires us to look at speed limits in other busy areas, such as our city centre. We will be reviewing those later this year and we will again seek public feedback.
Submission period has now closed.
See the proposed changes around each school
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You can also download and print a copy of our consultation document(PDF, 6MB)
to see the maps and proposed changes of all schools.
We’re starting with the areas shown on this map.
Before we make these changes, we want to hear from you if you think there are any roads around schools that we’ve missed, or if you think the zones where speed limits are proposed should be longer or shorter on each street.
Navigate the map above by zooming and clicking on the icon for the school you’re looking for. You can also use the search box to find the school you’re interested in. Click on the link in the pop-up box or the search results to go to a page with more information about the proposed changes for roads around that school.
Check out the FAQs page if you have any further questions about the proposed changes.
Crash statistics (2018-2022)
In the past five years:
- 3,562 crashes occurred in the city
- 561 occurred in the school zones (15.7%)
- 78 occurred in school zones during school peak times (2.2%)
- 1,171 night time crashes (6pm to 6am) in the city (16.2% occurred near schools)