We want everyone who uses our roads to get to where they’re going safely. To save lives and prevent serious injuries, we can set safer speed limits.
- Implementing safer speed limits is a key part of New Zealand’s road safety strategy, Road to Zero 2020-30, and the Safe System approach which acknowledges even responsible people sometimes make mistakes when driving and aims to minimise the impact of those errors. Any proposal to drop speed limits is driven by the need to improve safety and reduce harm for everyone who uses our roads.
- The safety features of a road and the speed vehicles travel on it influence both the risk of a crash and whether it is survivable.
- Speed limits need to reflect the risk of the road. We know many of the current speed limits along State Highways 24, 29 and 29A are not safe for the way people use the road.
- There’s a mixture of people using the road between Te Poi and Matamata, over the Kaimai Range and through Tauriko to Te Maunga (Baypark) and it carries commuting, freight and farming traffic.
- These roads have been identified nationally within the top 10% of the roading network that, if speed management was put in place, would get the greatest reduction in deaths and serious injuries.
- We’ve heard concerns from people in the community about the speed people are travelling through Te Poi and over the Kaimai Range.
- These roads are popular routes for trucks. We are reviewing the speed limits to ensure all road users are safe, and so truck drivers feel comfortable pulling out into traffic without putting themselves or anyone else at risk
- Concerns have been raised about safer access and speed zones for the various schools along these roads.
There’s been a high number of crashes on these roads. Between 2010 and 2019:
- On SH29 between Te Poi and Tauranga, 18 people have died and 66 were seriously injured.
- On SH29A between Tauriko and Te Maunga (Baypark), six people died and 39 were seriously injured.
- On SH24, between Matamata and the SH24/SH29 Hamilton turn off, four people died and 13 were seriously injured on this road.
Something needs to be done to turn this around.
SH29, SH29A and SH24 speed engagement information sheet [PDF, 1.8 MB]
