Dr Jamie Hosking: Healthy Auckland Together spokesperson on the removal of 24-7 speed reductions around schools

There’s been push back against the Government's plan to scrap around the clock speed limits outside schools.  

The Coalition's reversing speed limit reductions implemented over the past four years under the previous Government.  

The draft report wants speed limits in place at the start and end of each school day as opposed to the current 24-7 system.   

Healthy Auckland Together spokesperson Dr Jamie Hosking told Mike Hosking that kids are outside schools much more than just the first and last 30-minutes of the day.  

He says five out of six deaths and serious injuries that happen around schools are outside those times, when the variable limits wouldn't be operating. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Change is coming to a road near U. Speed limit
reductions are often new rules are including the idea of
one hundred and twenty k's on major roads of national significance.
Doctor Jamie Hosking is with the Healthy Auckland Together group
and is with us very good morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
You go Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
So where are we at you? You seem to be
interested I think in the school side of the equation.
Does that change dramatically under this new proposal?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, it does mean big changes unfortunately, And yes, being
with Healthy Auckland Together, we're particularly interested in city streets
and some of the safe speed zones that we've gotten
in cities, and yes, including around schools. And what we've
got in a lot of schools at the moment is
these permanent thirty K zones, and we know they work

(00:44):
really well, but unfortunately the proposal is to change to
the variable zones and they only operate for thirty K
for thirty minutes at the beginning and the end of
each school day. Whereas we know that five out of
six deaths and serious injuries that occur in those zones
around schools actually happen outside those times when the variable
limits wouldn't be operating, So I don't think that's the

(01:05):
right thing to do.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Well, a couple of questions, how many deaths are there
around school zones and are those school pupils in those
school zones or just deaths outside of the school area.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, this certainly includes not just not just the kids
who are going to these schools, and so I think
these benefits that we see for the permanent zones outside
schools are for other people as well. But it is
for kids too, because kids are not just outside schools
when it comes to just the thirty minutes at the

(01:36):
beginning and the end of the school day. They might
be going there to use the playground later on, or
going there for sports events on the weekend, that kind
of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Do you have a view on the one twenty potentially
into the roads of national significance or the initial one ten?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Look, our focus is really on city streets and the
things that we're concerned about our city streets is not
with the changes at that kind of speed, but it's
more on the changes where we've got some safe speed
zones in place, and we've got some thirty K zones
that have been put in and we know that if

(02:13):
we reverse those thirty k zones and we increase the
speed limits to fifty ks. That's going to lead to
more people dying and being seriously injured. It will increase
injuries on those streets by more than half.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
All right, doctor I appreciate it very much. Doctor Jamie Hosking,
spokesperson for the Healthy Auckland Together group.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
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