Speed limits in New Zealand

Speed limits in New Zealand range up to and including 100 km/h. The most commonly seen are:

• 100 km/h, the current open road limit, is used in rural areas and on motorways, expressways and highways, as well as areas where there is little development on the roadside.
• 80 km/h is used where it would not be safe to use the 100 km/h open road limit, such as urban arterial routes or areas requiring extra care (such as Auckland City's Central Motorway Junction, due to its complexity). Before 1986, 80 km/h was the open road limit.
• 70 km/h in small country towns, urban fringes (often preceding a change from the open limit to urban limit), or where development is on only one side of the road
• 60 km/h in some built-up areas including arterial routes.
• 50 km/h in most urban or built-up areas; LSZ (see below) under adverse conditions
• 30 km/h through most roadworks.
• 20 km/h traffic travelling both ways past school buses that have stopped to unload or pick up passengers; and through accident sites.

Some vehicles are restricted to lower overall speed limits such as trucks and vehicles with trailers (90 km/h), and school buses displaying signs (80 km/h).

Signage tends to follow the European model of a number inside a red circle. Sometimes, the open road limit occurs as a black forward slash inside a thin black ring (similar to the UK's National Speed Limit sign).

The letters LSZ (Limited Speed Zone) indicate that the limit is 100 km/h unless conditions (visibility, road condition, rain, many other road users) would make this unwise, in which case it is 50 km/h. This type of speed limit can no longer be set since 2003 and is progressively being replaced.

There is no minimum speed limit but vehicles travelling less than the maximum must keep to the side of the road if any cars are following and pull over to allow others to pass as soon as it is safe.

References

• Speed limits, New Zealand Road Code.
• Policy and procedures for setting speed limits, Speed Limits New Zealand.