#78 Safety Around Schools (pt 2)

Having touched last week on vulnerable road users and active transport in the safety around schools short series (brief #77), Part 2 looks at speed zones and limits for school precincts. As noted, Austroads recently released new publications on this issue, including the Travel to School Guideline and related research reports.

School precinct speed zones and limits

Austroads (2026) recommends a maximum speed limit of 30 km/h for school precincts, in alignment with the promotion of active travel under Safe System principles. In practice, 40 km/h limits remain common in many places, consistent with the guidance in place when the zones were established or last modified.

Existing guidance in many jurisdictions supports 40 km/h speed limits around schools. However, a pedestrian hit at this speed is still likely to suffer serious injury or harm[1].

Figure 1: Education materials for Safe System principles (source: Austroads, 2026)

As such, the Victorian Speed Zoning Policy (2025) accommodates 30 km/h or 40 km/h school zone limits depending on local site conditions and circumstances. The lower limit is preferred in urban settings, including active travel precincts as well as school zones[2]. This reflects the increasing local and international evidence supporting lower limits, which has encouraged trial and/or full implementation of some 30 km/h areas in most Australian States and New Zealand.

Challenges and solutions

Barriers to realising a default, if not a universal 30 km/h limit for school zones, include:

• Public perception that lower and safer limits will increase travel times

• Design constraints of existing infrastructure that can limit compliance unless significant modification is undertaken (e.g., wide lanes, rural areas)

• Public perception that 40 km/h is sufficiently safe (considering the generally low frequency of crashes, despite potential high severity)

• Resources (including funding) to address all the above.

  
  

Potential solutions to overcome these barriers include:

• Public education programs: these may be school-based programs to specifically engage students, staff, parents and carers, and/or broader initiatives to reach the general public regarding mobility concerns as well as safety. These may also include promoting the benefits of active travel.

• Physical traffic calming measures (including broader Local Area Traffic Management): common treatments include raised platform crossings, speed humps, narrowed lanes, advisory signs (i.e., speed feedback), roundabouts, coloured pavement markings and crossing supervisors, among others.

• Enforcement initiatives: enforcement (whether actual or perceived) is one of the most effective measures to encourage speed limit compliance. With police resources typically limited, it is preferable to convey to road users that enforcement may be operating at any time, even if not obvious.

• Robust data collection, auditing and evaluation: reliable traffic data (i.e., traffic volumes, speeds, congestion, crashes) can help build a case in pre-treatment auditing for intervention such as a speed limit reduction. Post-treatment data then provides the foundation for evaluation of interventions, which, assuming positive outcomes, can be conveyed to road users to promote acceptance.

A further issue for consideration is the time periods for which school zone speed limits are active. These vary by jurisdiction but are generally determined by peak pedestrian traffic periods and school start/finish times. As there are often people moving to/from school outside normal school hours, there are valid arguments for school zone speed limits to extend across longer time periods (e.g., daylight hours) or even 24 hours as a permanent limit, although the latter is likely a contentious proposition currently.

Key references for further reading

• Travel to School Guideline (Austroads, 2026)

• Travel to School: Principles Underpinning the Guidance (Austroads, 2026)  

• Travel to School: Best Practice and Consultation Findings (Austroads, 2026)

• Speed Zoning Policy and Technical Guidelines (Victoria, 2025)

[1] Austroads (2026). Travel to School: Best Practice and Consultation Findings (AP-R751-26). Sydney, Austroads.

[2] Department of Transport and Planning (2025). Speed Zoning Policy Edition 3 (August 2025). Melbourne, Victoria State Government.