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Motorists will have to slow down outside some schools on state highways in Auckland and Northland as the latest tranche of variable speed limits go live in the national roading agency’s safety programme.

The schools that will see the change this week are Ngātaki School, Oruaiti School, Pākaraka Schoo, Pāmapūria School, Te Kura o Te Kao and Umawera School in Northland, while in northwest Auckland, Woodhill School will have the variable speed limit imposed.

Most of the limits are lowered to 30km/h, except for outside Pāmapūria School and Umawera School, both on SH1, where the limit is reduced to 60km/h.

A further 10 schools should have variable speed limits placed outside them, with some subject to certification.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) said these speed limits target the times when children are most active around schools and electronic speed limit signs will display the limits, which are aimed to slow traffic down.

“Setting safe speed limits around schools improves safety for all tamariki [children] and whānau as they come in and out of school,” NZTA regional manager of maintenance and operations Jacqui Hori-Hoult said.

This is part of the Government’s new approach to setting speed limits on roads, which started on October 30 last year.

The new rule means schools that have gates alongside state highways must have variable speed limits of 60km/h or lower, depending on the road environment.

“The lower speeds will be set during school drop-off and pick-up times and are enforceable,” Hori-Hoult said.

A variable speed limit sign like this will manage speeds outside schools at certain times. Photo / NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi

“The school and NZTA may also turn the signs on for activities such as late starts, or early finish times, or school functions, when there is similar risk to tamariki.”

Schools will be placed into two categories to decide the appropriate safe variable speed limit.

Category one schools must have the variable speed limit at 30km/h and are more likely to be in areas with existing 50km/h speed limits.

NZTA said they tend to be in more urban areas and potentially have high numbers of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and micro-mobility users.

Category two schools will have a variable speed limit of 60km/h or less and are likely in areas with less comparable risk to vulnerable road users.

Existing speed limits may be between 60-80km/h and might also include school areas where safety infrastructure will mitigate risk of higher speed roads.