Thank you for taking the time to give your feedback on this project. We received 184 submissions, mostly in favour of reducing speed limits.

About the project

Rotorua Lakes Council and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency are working together to review local road and state highway speed limits in and around Rotorua. Reviewing and setting speed limits aims to make the transport network safer for all users.

The community is encouraged to provide feedback on what’s proposed to help Rotorua Lakes Council and Waka Kotahi make decisions in setting speed limits.

There are 56 local roads with proposed speed limit changes. This includes:

• Some roads that require formalising of speed limits
• Roads with posted 70km/h speeds (70km/h is being phased out nationally)
• Roads outside rural schools.

For some roads, the proposed speed limit change is for specific sections only - see the FAQ section for these.

As the local road controlling authority, Council is responsible for reviewing and setting speed limits on all local roads in the district. Council conducts speed limit reviews approximately every three years. The last review took place during 2017/2018.
Reviewing and setting speed limits aims to make the transport network safer for all users.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency review and set speed limits for all state highways across Aotearoa.

Waka Kotahi sought public input into proposals to set new permanent speed limits on State Highway 5 and State Highway 30, Rotorua Old Taupō Road/Hemo Road Roundabout.

Between 2009 and 2018, there were 629 crashes, six people were killed and 26 were seriously injured on these roads. We need to do something to turn this around.

We talked to Rotorua Lakes Council, locals, community groups, businesses and a range of user industry groups about the current speed limits in urban Rotorua. We heard people say the current speeds on SH5 and SH30 were unsafe and they’d like to see more consistent speeds and some lowered.

People are concerned about the speed between Hemo Road roundabout and just south of the Waipa State Mill Road – there’s a blind corner and the number of logging trucks and cars coming in and out of Waipa State Mill Road makes it unsafe.

We have other projects in the area, including our work on the SH30 Eastern Corridor. We know there are other changes people want to see, like making some busy roads four lanes. Reviewing the speed doesn’t mean we can’t make other changes, but it is one of the best things we can do now so simple mistakes don’t end in tragedy.

Our priority is to make this state highway network safer as soon as possible so that everyone can get where they are going safely.