My Account
The installation of innovative electronic speed signs began this month in Waipu, at an intersection notorious for high crash rates.
The signs are being installed where Shoemaker Road crosses SH1.
When a vehicle enters the Intersection Speed Zone to cross or turn onto or off the highway, the electronic signs will temporarily reduce the legal speed limit on the highway from 100kph to 60kph.
The reduced speed limit will make previously high risk manoeuvres safer and easier for turning vehicles.
New Zealand Transport Agency acting director of safety and environment Lisa Rossiter says that Intersection Speed Zones are a simple, relatively quick safety improvement, which have proven effective here and overseas.
“These intersections are at locations that have a high risk of serious crashes involving turning traffic. By slowing down the oncoming traffic, Intersection Speed Zones will help prevent these crashes and reduce the risk of someone being killed or seriously injured if a crash does happen,” she says.
Intersection Speed Zones are sometimes called rural intersection activated warning signs or RIAWS.
There are already 13 operating on state highways around the country and in June the associate transport minister Julie Anne Genter announced that another 10 would be installed in Northland, Waikato, Canterbury and Otago.
