Rural road types - definitions and examples | Speed Management Review

Plan Approved 23 July

Subject to final approval by NZTA we'll make some speed limit changes in the coming months.

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Information presented for consultation

As part of the Speed Management Review, we've categorised our rural roads.

Click on each of the tabs to read more about the different road types, see some examples and see what each of the proposed options means for them.

Rural Residential Areas

These roads are within a residential subdivision in a rural area. They may have footpaths, no road markings and cyclist share the road with other traffic. They are generally only used by residents and these residents often use these roads for fitness and recreation. The number of these rural residential areas has grown in Tasman and we have had many requests from local residents to reduce the speeds of these roads. On our interactive map, roads in the Rural Residential Areas are shown as a local road or a peri-urban road.

In 2020, Nelson Tasman Community Speed Limit Feedback, 69% of respondents thought that a speed limit of less than 50km/h is appropriate for our Rural Residential Subdivision Roads [22% agreed with 40km/h limit (397 responses), 47% agreed with 50km/h limit (855 responses), 20% agreed with 60km/h (369 responses).

Provisions in relation to rural residential areas
Option 1: Do Minimum	Option 2: 60km/h Rural Residential, 80km/h High Risk Rural Roads and Adjacent Areas	Option 3:, 60km/h In Rural Residential Areas, 80km/h In Rural Areas	Option 4 50km/h Rural Residential and Unsealed, Winding, Narrow Roads, 80km/h Elsewhere
No change	60km/h	60km/h	50km/h
There are no changes to rural residential areas unless the street contains a school where speed limits will be reduced to 30-60 km/h outside schools.	Peri-urban roads will be reduced to 60km/h. There will be no changes for Peri-urban roads already 50 or 60 km/h.	Same as Option 2	Rural residential roads (Peri-urban roads and local roads in rural areas) will be reduced to 50km/h.

Examples of Peri-urban Roads

These roads a typical of those found in rural residential areas. Images © Google Maps.

Martin Conway Road

Examples of local roads

These roads are typical of local roads found in rural areas. Images © Google Maps.

Paton Rock Road

High Risk Roads and Adjacent Areas

These are roads that often feed into state highways. They have good road markings and hazard warning signage, but often little or no safety features such as wide shoulders, clear zones or guardrails and can have driveways with poor visibility. They have signs for vulnerable roads users such as horses and cyclists. There are no footpaths and cyclists must share the lane with other traffic, they often have a high amount of heavy commercial traffic. Our high risk roads such as Korere-Tophouse Road and the Moutere Highway have had a higher number of crashes than other roads. Reduced speeds on these roads may lead to alternative local roads being used which are not at the same standard as the likes of Korere-Tophouse Road and Moutere Highway. This may lead to fewer crashes on the high risk roads but more occurring on the adjacent roads. Therefore in order to reduce potential accidents overall, high risk roads and their adjacent areas have been treated the same. Tasman's high risk rural roads are listed below. (Note: State Highways are not part of this consultation).

Table shows the provisions in relation to High Risk Roads and Adjacent Areas
Option 1: Do Minimum	Option 2: 60km/h Rural Residential, 60km/h Winding/Narrow Unsealed Roads 80km/h High Risk Rural Roads and Adjacent Areas	Option 3: 60km/h In Rural Residential Areas, 80km/h In Rural Areas	Option 4: 50km/h Rural Residential and 60km/h Unsealed, Winding, Narrow Roads, 80km/h Elsewhere
No change	80km/h	80km/h	60km/h - 80km/h
There are no changes	The speed limit will be reduced to 80km/h for all roads that have been identified as high risk and adjacent roads are also included. If a road is either a rural residential road or a winding/narrow unsealed road, the speed limit will be 60km/h

High Risk Roads

These are our high risk roads and adjacent areas. Images © Google Maps

Moutere Highway

Examples of adjacent areas:

Malling Road, Greenacres Road, Neudorf Road, Dovedale Road, Motueka Valley Highway, Thorpe-Orinoco Road.

Please note that this is not a complete list of all adjacent roads, refer to the online maps for exact details.

Sealed Roads - Winding/Narrow

These roads have a range of traffic volumes and are often used for commuting, agricultural activity and recreation. These roads are sealed, but narrow, with one lane bridges and rural school bus routes. They have property accesses that can have poor visibility.

In 2020, Nelson Tasman Community Speed Limit Feedback, 81% of respondents thought that a speed limit of less than 100km/h is appropriate for our Narrow Sealed Roads. [32% agreed with 60km/h limit (580 responses), 49% agreed with 80km/h limit (891 responses), 19% agreed with 100km/h (341 responses).

Table shows the provisions in relation to Winding/Narrow Sealed Roads
Option 1: Do Minimum	Option 2: 60km/h Rural Residential, 60km/h Winding/Narrow Unsealed Roads 80km/h High Risk Rural Roads and Adjacent Areas	Option 3: 60km/h In Rural Residential Areas, 80km/h In Rural Areas	Option 4: 50km/h Rural Residential and 60km/h Unsealed/Winding, Narrow Roads, 80km/h Elsewhere
No change	No change	80km/h	80km/h
There are no changes	No change unless the road is identified as a High Risk road or adjacent to a High Risk road.	All rural roads will be 80km/h (unless rural residential which will be 60km/h)	The speed limit will be reduced from 80km/h to 60km/h for winding or narrow sealed roads.

Sealed - winding and narrow

Cable Bay Road

Straight Unsealed Roads

These are wider rural unsealed roads that are mostly straight with some large curves. There are no road markings, edge marker posts or warning signs. There will be forestry and agricultural vehicles using these roads.

In 2020, Nelson Tasman Community Speed Limit Feedback, 87% of respondents thought that a speed limit of less than 100km/h is appropriate for our Straight Unsealed Roads. [44% agreed with 60km/h limit (785 responses), 44% agreed with 80km/h limit (788 responses), 13% agreed with 100km/h (227 responses).

Table shows the provisions in relation to Straight Unsealed Roads
Option 1: Do Minimum	Option 2: 60km/h Rural Residential, 60km Winding/Narrow Unsealed Roads 80km/h High Risk Rural Roads and Adjacent Areas	Option 3: 60km/h In Rural Residential Areas, 80km/h In Rural Areas	Option 4 50km/h Rural Residential and 60km/h Unsealed, Winding, Narrow Roads, 80km/h Elsewhere
No change	No change	80km	60km
There are no changes	No change unless the straight unsealed road provides an alternative faster route to a High Risk road.	All rural roads will be 80km (unless rural residential which will be 60km)	The speed limit will be reduced to 60km/h for all unsealed roads.

Rural road types - definitions and examples

Plan Approved 23 July

Information presented for consultation

Rural Residential Areas

Examples of Peri-urban Roads

Martin Conway Road

Bronte Road East

Dawson Road

Examples of local roads

Paton Rock Road

Seddon Street

Bishops Road

Unsealed Road (Narrow or winding)

High Risk Roads and Adjacent Areas

High Risk Roads

Moutere Highway

Kerr Hill Road

Sealed Roads - Winding/Narrow

Sealed - winding and narrow

Cable Bay Road

Aniseed Valley Road

Riwaka - Kaiteriteri Road

Motueka River West Bank Road

Straight Unsealed Roads

Examples of straight unsealed roads

Kokorua Road

Baldwin Road

Todd Valley Road

Orion Road

See it on the map