School Speed Letter To Gerry Brownlee

Dear Mr Brownlee,

Congratulations on your appointment as Minister of Transport. If you want to improve our lifestyle and make lives safer on the roads, then you have a huge job ahead of you. As yet your Government has done little to address either, especially where children and other vulnerable road users are concerned.

The re-build of Christchurch, should have given you some indication of what this country actually aspires to. As a country we are becoming more aware of lifestyle issues, but New Zealand being a modern country is mainly built for motorised vehicles. We need safer roads and more opportunities to use the roads in different modes of transport. The clean and green image of New Zealand is portrayed to attract tourists to our shores, yet building roads is less ecological than building safe footpaths and cycle routes that we can all use. If you can’t build safe routes for all users then at the very least you should look at changing the laws so that vulnerable road users can safely use the roads.

This all ties in to my reason for writing to you. For some years now I have been pushing for a National School Speed Limit of 40km/h or less. At the moment there is no such thing outside schools in this country. In urban areas you can have speed limits as low as 20km/h, yet there are many rural schools where the speed limit remains 100km/h. At 100km/h the minimum stopping distance is 88 metres and even if you lowered rural speeds outside schools to 70km/h, as I have heard suggested you will still have a very high likelihood of mortality if a child was hit! We need one maximum speed limit outside schools at the very least when children are making their way to and from schools. Consistency of a speed limit, when you see a school sign is the same as people knowing that they should stop at a stop sign. You may counteract this by saying that many drivers don’t stop at stop signs, but at least they slow down, which they rarely do outside rural schools. Here in New Zealand the law is on the side of the motorist speeding at 100km/h past a school, not on the side of the unpredictable child, who is trying to get to school to be educated.

Rural students also make good use of school buses. My teenage children are some of the many who use this mode of transport to get to and from school. These school buses need to be fitted with flashing lights, as at the moment nothing obvious differentiates them from other buses. The rule that requires motorists to slow to 20km/h when a school bus is dropping or picking up children is useless if drivers aren’t aware of the school bus status, which is why the flashing lights are a necessity. TERNZ has researched different 20km/h signs and have come up with one that is most noticeable. Also all school travel needs to be included by one department in Government. At the moment school buses are in the care of Education Minister and roads outside schools in the jurisdiction of local councils or your Ministry of Transport. Surely responsibility of school buses and roads outside schools should be under one consistent umbrella?!

At the moment we have inconsistent speeds outside schools, yet even NZTA have suggested that 40km/h is the maximum safe speed outside schools and United Nations recommend no more than 20 or 30km/h. Any speed above 40km/h whilst children are coming and going from school, is totally unacceptable, yet these ridiculous speed limits remain. A consistent speed limit is needed. A trial is being held in Selwyn District Council where advisory signs encourage drivers to slow to 40km/h when children are present. In essence this is a good idea, as it puts the onus on the driver, however the sign should not be advisory. Instead drivers should slow to 40km/h when children are present, or drivers should end up with a hefty fine. Mobile speed cameras as have been successfully used in other countries could be employed to monitor speeds outside schools and school buses.

In New South Wales, authorities started with a 40km/h speed limit in urban areas, whilst rural areas had a 70km/h, however they have now reduced all areas to 40km/h and many other countries have the same speed limit in all areas. Once again consistency is the key.

My daughter has just come in and read this letter and says that this won’t persuade you to make any changes to the roads and speeds travelled outside schools as your predecessor Steven Joyce did before you. She suggested that I take you to your roots: You as a former teacher should have more compassion towards children’s’ views and opinions, as well as those many parents who fear for their children every time they send them off to school to be educated. She also suggested that you look at Christchurch where nothing was done to strengthen buildings. Lives were lost, including parents of my children’s friends and these tragedies could have been prevented, had strengthening been done. Why let tragedies happen, before you do something? Surely the life of a child is worth more than it would cost for a National School Speed Limit of 40km/h or less to be implemented outside all schools and lights to be fitted on school buses.

And my hope is that you will prioritise “School Travel Safety”. You should start with our future, who will ultimately use these experiences to become better drivers and prevent the road toll that we have lived with for so long. Please don’t sit on the fence, quoting the “she’ll be right” mentality, but look at what I and many other organisations have to suggest and put together a strategy that will make children and other vulnerable road users more visible and hence safer on our roads.

Your thoughts on this matter will be much appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Lucinda Rees
Mother of School Children and School Speed Limit Campaigner

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