What is Vision Zero?

Hamilton has adopted a Vision Zero target when it comes to deaths on our city’s roads. 

Vision Zero means we will not accept the death or serious injury of any person on our transport network. We will design and deliver facilities that take human error into account, knowing that when we make a mistake, we should not pay for it with our life. The number of deaths and serious injuries will decrease when vehicles travel at the speeds appropriate to the conditions.

Our wish is for everyone to take personal responsibility for themselves and those around them when moving from here to there, and from now into the future.

Vision Zero – key areas

The focus areas for Vision Zero are:

  • infrastructure improvements and speed management to improve road safety in our city
  • road user choices – encouraging safer choices and safer behaviour on our roads.

Transport choices, infrastructure programmes and transport use

Choices

Find out about transport choices like walking, biking, taking public transport, driving, and using micro-mobility devices like scooters, skateboards, e-bikes, and mobility scooters.

Infrastructure programmes

Our Biking and Micro-mobility Programme and our infrastructure improvements also help to inform our Long-Term Plan, Biking Connectivity Programme, Eastern Pathways and other projects and strategies, through infrastructure management and other road safety considerations.

How we are using transport and getting around

View our report card for a recent snapshot of our transport system and how people have been using it.

See our ‘real time’ data counts for vehicles, pedestrians, people on bikes, scooters and skateboards.

Safer roads, safer speeds Hamilton

We want everyone who calls Hamilton home, or visits our city, to be safe when using our streets and roads. That means in our busy city we need the right speeds on the right roads for all, whether walking to the shops, biking to school, using micro-mobility devices, driving to work or making deliveries.

The key to safer roads is driver behaviour, but Council is also doing its part to encourage safer driving behaviours. Some parts of Hamilton have Safer Speed Areas. These are where speeds are reduced to 30 or 40 km/h. These areas are usually residential where lots of people are out and about using active modes like bikes, scooters or walking, or in busy pedestrian areas like the central city, or outside schools.

We're currently trialling safer speeds of 30 km/h outside some selected schools in Hamilton. These safer speed zones are to give drivers more time to react to a situation and protect our most vulnerable road users (pedestrians, bikers and school children).

Get more information on speed from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.

What else are we doing to help keep our roads safe?

We're also putting in a lot of work to improve our roads and make them safer for all users. This includes installing raised safety platforms in areas where there is a lot of foot, or wheel traffic, and upgrading intersections so that they're safer for everyone.  

Related pages

Speed management

Find out about our work to make our roads safer for everyone.

Workplace travel planning

Get advice on planning your journey to and from work.

School travel planning

​​We want you and your family to travel safely and get home safe, every day. An effective school travel plan encourages…

Related information

Strategies

Plans

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Last updated 11 July 2022