It'll take even longer to get around Auckland City very soon, a confronting map shows, with almost every major street in the CBD to see reduced speed limits from June 30.
The interactive map, released by Auckland Transport (AT) at the start of the month, shows all the roads throughout the region where speed limits will drop as part of its Safe Speeds programme.
Many rural roads in the Rodney and Franklin districts will see reductions, while changes will also be made to limits on about 100 other roads across the Auckland region at the end of the month.
But it's in the inner city that speed limit changes will be most pronounced, with almost every single major road to be affected. AT says almost all 50km/h streets will fall to 30km/h - including the likes of Karangahape Rd, Symonds St and Quay St.
Some roads leading to and away from motorways - such as Fanshawe St, Hobson St and Nelson St - will drop just 10km/h to become 40km/h zones, while Federal St and Elliott St, which are shared with pedestrians, will be 10km/h.
AT says the city centre's streets are shared by children, senior citizens, drivers, walkers, cyclists and motorcyclists, and the changes are to keep all these demographics safe.
"To make speeds survivable in case of a crash, most speed limits will go down from 50km/h to 30km/h," a statement on the AT website reads.
The organisation's executive general manager, Bryan Sherritt, says the changes are "guided by the Vision Zero approach to transport safety" - a scheme that aims to prevent deaths on Auckland roads by "prioritising human safety over other measures like minor time savings".
In 2018, 54 people died on Auckland's roads and 595 others were left with serious injuries - but AT says it wants to see that number drop to zero by 2050.
"Setting safe and survivable speeds for our road network is the quickest and most cost-effective way to immediately reduce death and serious injury," he said.
"Setting safe speed limits is just one part of a significant road safety investment between 2018 and 2028."
