My daughter is about to turn five, and is heading off to primary school. Like most parents, it’s important to me that my daughter will be safe when she’s using the street outside the school gate, whether walking, cycling, scootering, or getting in and out of a car.
It’s also important to me that she can get to school in active, climate-friendly ways. It’s not just parents who want this, most kids care about these priorities too. As I’ve written previously, they prefer to walk, cycle, scooter to school with their friends. Safe speeds on residential and school streets enable active and climate-friendly travel.
Infuriatingly, just when my daughter is getting to an age where she could really use them, the Government and Auckland Transport are raising these speeds to dangerous levels.
A slow start on fast speeds
When I approached my local school about how they were responding to the speed limit increases outside their gate, it wasn’t initially a success.
First, I got no response to my email to the school board email address. After a couple of weeks I visited in person. I discovered that a change of staff meant my email hadn’t been seen.
In person, the initial response was “we can’t do anything about it”. The board secretary explained that Auckland Transport had informed the school about the change, but they had no outlet to respond. As far as they were concerned, it was happening whether they liked it or not.
“You might be surprised what your opposition can do,” I said.
“You might be surprised”
Opposition from school leaders and school communities is likely to be the most powerful response to the Speed Rule implementation.
I explained that other local schools had written letters, and even gone on the news about why the Speed Rule is a terrible idea. I started to see a change in attitude from the board secretary.
Then I explained that Hamilton and Dunedin hadn’t interpreted the Speed Rule in the same way as Auckland. They get to keep almost all of their safe speed zones. By this point, she was determined to do what she could.
“You’re right,” she said. “I need to talk to the Principal about this.”
I followed up the chat by sharing examples of letters from other Auckland schools. These were helpful in providing a guide for how my school could phrase their own letter.
Adding their weight
From there, my request went to the next board meeting and the school board agreed to act. They sent a well-written letter to the Minister, which I’m certain will add weight to the argument for safe speeds.
Later, I received a lovely email back, thanking me for bringing the matter to their attention.
I’m so glad I made the effort to ask a second time.
If you need help to inspire your local school, try sharing open letters from other Auckland schools. Below is a great example from Freemans Bay School.
Here’s how else you can help:
