Three more 40 km/h School Zones ready to go

12 March 2004

Three new 40 km/h School Zones providing low speed zones for six Christchurch schools, are set to be ‘switched-on’ on Monday 15 March.

The new 40 km/h School Zones will be located on:

• Innes Road, covering both Our Lady of Fatima School and Mairehau School;
• Breezes Road, covering both Aranui Primary and Aranui High Schools; and
•  Breezes Road, covering Avondale School and Chisnallwood Intermediate.

The 40 km/h School Zones are designed to improve safety of children on their journey to and from school. Electronic signs with flashing lights are installed near the school access that are activated at the beginning and end of the school day to warn motorists to reduce their speed to 40 km/h.

“The Council’s award-winning 40 km/h School Zones are a successful innovation in road safety because they slow drivers down and keep our children safer. The bonus with these new school zones is that they will provide coverage for six more Christchurch schools,’ says roading projects consultation leader, Lee Kelly.

Background: The Christchurch City Council launched its first 40 km/h School Zones in 1999 at five Christchurch schools. Since then, the City Council has established 11, 40 km/h School Zones providing low speed zones for 15 Christchurch schools.

At the first Road Safety Innovation Awards in February 2004, Christchurch City Council in partnership with High Technology Systems, a software firm who designed the electronic signage for the zones, jointly won the award for ‘Road-Based Innovation,’ for the 40 km/h school zones - which are a New Zealand first, and have been proven as an effective way of slowing traffic.

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