With 130 roundabouts helping to manage traffic flow in Hamilton – and more planned to be installed in the future – Hamilton City Council is continuing to work towards making our city’s intersections safer for everyone.

Safety doesn’t just mean slowing traffic down or building facilities for pedestrians and people on bikes. It also involves educating and reminding road users on how to navigate roundabouts, how to use them responsibly and respectfully, and how to follow the rules to keep everyone safe.

Council’s latest road safety campaign, Know Your Way Around a Roundabout, asks road users to stick to three golden rules:

• slow down and give way
• be aware of who’s around you
• respect everyone.

City Transport Unit Director, Gordon Naidoo, said that everything we do – whether it’s upgrading infrastructure or educating the community about road safety – links back to our Vision Zero goal to achieve zero deaths and serious injuries on our roads.

Installing raised safety platforms at the approaches to roundabouts, which encourage drivers to slow down and provide a safe location for pedestrians to cross, is one example of Council’s efforts to improve safety, however that’s not always enough.

“While we work to make our roundabouts as safe as possible, it is ultimately up to individual driver behaviour to ensure we all get to where we need to be,” said Naidoo.

From 2015 to 2020, there were more than 1000 reported crashes at roundabouts in Hamilton involving vehicles, pedestrians and people on bikes.

“More than half of these crashes were a result of vehicles failing to give way to their right, or not noticing a stopped vehicle in front of them causing a rear-end accident,” Naidoo said.

“These are factors that ultimately could be avoided if people are doing the right thing, highlighting the importance education has to play in this issue.”

Naidoo said there are many things that drivers, pedestrians, and people on bikes can do to reduce their chances of being in an accident at a roundabout but doing our part to understand the road rules and ensuring we pay attention to our surroundings are critical steps towards achieving Vision Zero.

“A first step could be refamiliarising yourself with the New Zealand Road Code, but it’s also important to remember that people do make mistakes.”

“Make sure you stay alert and respect everyone using our roads.”

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