Fewer crashes and reducing the risk of serious injury or death is at the heart of NPDC’s plans to drop speeds in some busy and high-risk areas across the district.
Feedback is now open on our draft Speed Management Plan, which proposes introducing lower speed limits to the busy urban areas in Waitara, Fitzroy and Westown and Inglewood and two high risk rural areas.
NPDC is also talking with marae trustees about safer speeds outside their marae.
For New Plymouth district the proposals are:
These proposals follow the introduction of lower speeds outside the district’s schools last year, and a 40km/h trial on roads around Taranaki Base Hospital.
“We know that lower speeds make for safer roads – in New Plymouth’s CBD, we’ve had a 45 per cent reduction in crashes since the 30km/h speeds limit began in 2012,” says NPDC Manager Transport Rui Leitao.
“Unfortunately, our road safety stats throughout the district are getting worse. Deaths and serious injury crashes on our local roads increased by 30 per cent in the last year against our goal of reducing them by 40 per cent by 2030.
He says the draft Speed Management Plan is about focusing on improving road users’ safety in other parts of our network.
Stratford and South Taranaki district councils are also consulting on speed plans for their areas.
NPDC is holding three drop-in days for residents to find out more about the proposals and share their thoughts:
A copy of the draft NPDC Speed Management Plan, including a 10-year vision for speed management is available online at trc.govt.nz/transport. Feedback closes on 29 October.
Fast facts:
Caption: Fitzroy is one of four busy urban areas proposed to have lower speeds.
Page last updated: 10:19am Mon 18 September 2023