School plea to stop speeding traffic

Staff and board members at a remote rural school are calling for better road signage in a bid to slow down traffic speeding past the premises.

Ahuroa School sits on a sealed, almost straight stretch of road at the northern end of Ahuroa Road, in between two much longer metalled sections.

The buildings and grounds also lie up a driveway and are hidden behind high hedges and bush, making it less than obvious from the road.

Principal Wayne Steele says these two factors likely contribute to the fact that many cars, utes and trucks drive past the school entrance at well over the speed limit.

“The traffic goes past at more than 50km/h and around the school itself the limit should automatically be lower than that,” he said. “There are a lot of trailer trucks go past and they’re definitely not doing 50.”

The school’s Board of Trustees wrote to Auckland Transport (AT) to explain the problem and ask for more signage, but was given short shrift.

AT said existing 50km/h speed limit signs and school warning signs near Clifford Road and Ahuroa Valley Road were adequate.

In addition, the school was told that there had been no police-reported crashes in the last five years and Ahuroa Road had an official low-risk rating, “indicating that the area experiences a lower crash risk compared to others on the network”.

AT said based on that analysis, it was unable to justify making any further changes at this stage.

Staff and BOT members said it shouldn’t take a crash to justify making the road safer for the school’s 49 students or to make drivers more aware of them.

“Our little rural school is mostly hidden by bush, and has no budget for these things from AT or the Ministry of Education, so it needs some help,” trustee Tania Courtine said.

“The kids get dropped off and picked up opposite the school parking bay and it can be pretty hair-raising if you get a tradie shooting past at 100km/h.”

Ideally Steele and his team would like something outside the driveway and parking bay to make it obvious the school is there and that students might be present. The existing school warning signs are currently placed around bends out of sight of the school and around 200 metres before the driveway in each direction.

“AT said there was enough signage, but the signs are quite far back. Either they need to be closer to the school or something needs to be painted on the road. One of those flashing speed signs would be good,” Steele said.

“The previous principal told me AT had called in at one stage and said they wanted to do something about it, and talked about judder bars, or speed bumps, but nothing’s ever come of it.”

AT said last week the installation of judder bars was not something that had been planned or considered by engineering and road safety teams, and nor did it recommend any “vertical speed calming devices”, due to the road’s rural environment and otherwise permanent speed limit of 80km/hr.

There was some good news, however – a spokesperson said further investigation was needed to see if painting the road surface was feasible as part of its school investigation programme, and said the school would be getting a speed reduction.

“Ahuroa School is one of the schools where AT plans to implement a variable speed limit of 40km/hr during school drop-off and pick-up times by July 2026,” they said.

“This proposal will include additional signage to indicate the reduced speed limit on Ahuroa Road outside the school during these times.”