Rodney District Council has introduced ‘School Gateway Treatments’ outside a number of schools in the District. The school gateway treatments have flashing lights, fluorescent bollards and red surfacing on the road with “School” markings.
These zones are designed to slow the speed of traffic approaching a school and raise awareness of motorists to the change in environment, and to the fact that they need to take care as there are likely to be children in the area. They have proven effective in reducing vehicle speed around schools.
It’s important to understand that the School gateway treatments are not pedestrian crossing points. Pedestrian crossings are easily identifiable as they have broken white line markings across the road.
Warkworth Primary School and Huapai District School will shortly have School gateway treatments carried out. Council staff, in partnership with the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and the school communities have been working to develop School Travel Plans for these schools, under the TravelWise programme. These Plans will help identify any improvements needed for children to get to school safely.
School gateway treatments have already been carried out outside a number of other schools such as Snells Beach, Matakana, Red Beach, Waitoki and Orewa North schools.
Monitoring of vehicle speeds before and after the school threshold treatments had been carried out indicates that at sites where have been installed, the number of vehicles exceeding 60 km per hour reduced by an average of 60%. At Matakana School the number of vehicles travelling at greater than 60 km per hour reduced by 68% after the new school threshold treatment had been completed. A general reduction in speed of 9 -13kph can be expected following the treatment.