School Speed Letter To Gerry Brownlee

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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