One councillor says improving public safety on the capital's streets is a council priority. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Wellington City Council is a step closer to implementing a city-wide speed limit of 30kmh.
A draft plan was tabled to councillors this morning and ultimately agreed upon to take to public consultation.
It looks to turn about 90 percent of Wellington's roads into 30kmh zones by 2029, starting with roads near schools first from as early as next year.
As part of the government's Road to Zero strategy, council is required to introduce safe speed limits of 30kmh near 40 percent of its schools by June 2024.
All streets and arterial roads within city and town centres, near childhood centres and schools, suburban shops and "where cycling or pedestrian safety warrants lower speeds" would be reduced to 30kmh.
A tiny percent of arterial roads, such as Cable Street and Kent Terrace, will be reduced to 40kmh.
The decision today does not change any of the speed limits immediately, as public consultation will open in mid-May before the plan is tabled again in September.
However, councillor Ben McNulty said today, "speed limits are changing, [either] we choose to do it, or Waka Kotahi does it for us".
Last year Waka Kotahi made it easier for councils to make speed reduction changes.
Two of three Eastern Ward councillors had issues with the plan - noting that it could disproportionately affect residents in their areas who have to travel a distance to get into the city.
Concern over slowing down buses
Councillor Sarah Free, who was against the blanketing of 30kmh said there were important routes, like Evans Bay Parade, which a lot of the city's heavy goods were transported on.
"For us to be going out now without any kind of detailed information about what that does to our bus service, which we're trying to speed up, and to me this is a bit counterintuitive," Free said.
"Our community are not experts on this, and neither are we. I would have liked a lot more information to be really confident we're putting something robust and workable in front of our community."
However, councillor Teri O'Neill said she would prefer a bus to not be travelling at 50kmh.
"I've been on a bus before that's hit a teenager, it's not a nice thing and I think that if we're reducing all speeds it makes sense to do that for buses as well."
Councillor Tamatha Paul says lower speeds will lessen the impact of crashes. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Council data showed that in the 10 years from 2012, there were almost 4000 injuries from crashes in the city's urban network and 30 percent involved pedestrians or cyclists.
Chair of the committee councillor Tamatha Paul said extra data and analysis were not necessary when the next step was to consult the community.
"This decision today is about being brave, and like the mayor said, this is our priority. Our priority is for people to be safer on their streets, for children to be able to move around their community safely and to reduce the impact of potential crashes that might happen on our streets," Paul said.
The draft ultimately passed - with councillors Diane Calvert, Tim Brown, Sarah Free, Tony Randal and Nicola Young opposed.
Public consultation will begin in mid-May and continue until the end of June.
