In a bid to get drivers to slow down, 30 school buses in mid-Canterbury have been fitted with illuminated flashing 20km/h signs - the legal speed limit when passing a stationary school bus.
The active signs were launched in Ashburton this week as part of a national trial that aims to get motorists to slow down when passing a school bus that’s stopped to let children on or off.
Each year, more than 270 000 pedestrians lose their lives on the world’s roads. Many leave their homes as they would on any given day never to return. Globally, pedestrians constitute 22% of all road traffic fatalities...
Pedestrian safety: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners (2013)
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) will begin a trial of variable speed limits outside rural schools in June as part of the agency's ongoing effort to reduce serious crashes and improve safety on rural New Zealand roads.
The NZTA media release (18 May 2012) says five schools in the North Island will initially take part in the trial, with the first step being the introduction of a permanent 80 km/h speed limit at four of the trial schools (with a 100 km/h speed limt remaining at the fifth school).
We have a green flyer that you can place in people's letterboxes asking them to cut back vegetation that is a footpath obstacle.
You can order Vegetation Fliers by email to: accounts [at] livingstreets.org.nz.
Councils and other organisations can order print runs with their logo included. Or find a sponsor and we can get them printed for you with your sponsor's name.
Vegetation Flyers are available free to members and individuals at local meetings or we can send small numbers to members direct. Larger numbers by arrangement.
Best practice walking environments require a safe walking space. Poor design and low maintenance of walking surfaces and roadside furniture can reduce safety, walking ambience, and cause inefficient walking speeds. In New Zealand around 700 pedestrians are admitted to hospital each year due to slips, trips and stumbles in the road environment, with many more unreported accidents, yet little is known regarding the specific physical characteristics that foster pedestrian accidents.
This paper describes the main findings of the Auckland Self-Explaining Roads (SER) project and outlines some actions and recommendations for advancing the SER concept in New Zealand.
In seeking to optimise the use of existing infrastructure and develop more vibrant shopping centres by creating places/spaces that people want to visit, many Councils are seeking to reallocate road space.
The New Zealand Agency (NZTA) investigated the relationship, if any, between school travel plans and improved road safety, in particular for pedestrians and cyclists.
Using crash data within a 500 m radius around eleven schools in Auckland City over a 10 year period, this assessment indicates that the following decrease in reported crashes occurred since the launch of the travel plans:
_ 57% involving cyclists and pedestrians aged five to thirteen
_ 30% involving all pedestrian and cycling
The 2009 Walk21 conference in New York was an opportunity to see at first hand the pedestrian revolution taking place around Times Square and other areas of Manhattan.
The main driver for New York’s plan was not pedestrian congestion, but road safety. In 1990 there was one pedestrian death every day on the cities streets. This has been reduced to the lowest figures since records began in 1910, with senior fatalities on the pavements dropping 43% in just one year, due to the ‘streets for seniors’ plan.
Living Streets Aotearoa is the New Zealand organisation for people on foot, promoting walking-friendly communities. We are a nationwide organisation with local branches and affiliates throughout New Zealand.
We want more people walking and enjoying public spaces be they young or old, fast or slow, whether walking, sitting, commuting, shopping, between appointments, or out on the streets for exercise, for leisure or for pleasure.
