Changes to the speed limits around our school
Otago Girls' High School is set to have a variable speed limit change to 30km/h during school drop off and pick up times.
Interim Speed Management Plan
Road to Zero is the Government's vision where everyone, whether they are walking, cycling, driving, motorcycling or taking public transport, can get to where they are going safely. Dunedin City Council supports that vision and our speed management plan is intended to turn the vision into a future reality.
Safe and appropriate travel speeds help to minimise the severity of crashes when they occur. Lower speeds give road users a second chance to either avoid a crash or at least walk away from one if it happens.
Speed limits outside schools
The Setting of Speed Limits Rule 2022 (the Rule) introduces a number of specific requirements relating to the speed of traffic on roads outside of schools. In future all schools will require a 30km/h speed limit, either permanent (all day every day) or variable (during school drop off and pick up times).
The Rule allows us to determine what sections of road are classed as a road outside a school and are subject to a 30km/h speed limit. This determination is made based on typical or expected routes for pedestrians to access the school and for the purpose of making people feel safer to walk or cycle to and from school.
In a number of cases this means that the 30km/h speed limit is not just along the school frontage but also on several surrounding streets. In a number of areas we have the option of extending a 30km/h school speed limit to become an area wide speed limit.
We are required by the new legislation to have set a 30km/h speed limit outside at least 40 percent of our schools by 30 June 2024 and all schools by the 31 December of 2027. We intend to exceed this target and introduce 30km/h speed limits around all schools in Dunedin by June 2024.
Otago Girls' High School is set to have a variable speed limit change to 30km/h during school drop off and pick up times. School times are: 35 minutes before the start of school; 20 minutes at the end of school (beginning no earlier than 5 minutes before the end of school); 10 minutes at any other time when children cross the road or enter or leave vehicles at the roadside.