Has the Christchurch Central City 30km/h zone worked?

In 2016, Christchurch introduced a 30km/h lower speed zone within a large part of the central city area, as part of the “Accessible City” transport rebuild plan. This has generated some controversy amongst residents and businesses who feel that it is greatly restricting access to and through central Christchurch.

However, preliminary analysis of crash data before and after suggests that there have been considerable reductions in crash numbers and injuries since its implementation, despite growing numbers returning to the city. Traffic delay concerns also appear to be misplaced, although this is complicated by ongoing roadworks and rebuild developments.

Glen presented these findings to the 2018 Transport Knowledge Conference in Wellington. This presentation will summarise the observed safety effects to date of the 30km/h zone, while also discussing some of the other related impacts identified and potential limitations of this analysis. You can view the presentation here. (Background information about the analysis can be found here)