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Haumarutanga rori - taiohi

Road safety - young people

The Travel Safe team work alongside schools and communities to increase active travel and keep students safe on their way to and from school.

School Travel Safe Action Plans

School Travel Safe Action Plans are community led and embedded in neighbourhoods across Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty.

  • Educating with in-school programmes
  • Encouraging different ways to get to and from school like walking, biking, busing, and scootering
  • Engineering better routes to school with improved crossings, school speed zones, and shared paths
  • Enforcing parking regulations around schools.

Travel Smart and Travel Safe Leaders

For more than 15 years our Travel Smart (Primary) and Travel Safe (Intermediate) leaders have been supporting the action plan by helping to deliver programmes at school and doing important voluntary work like monitoring crossings. Student leaders know what’s happening in and around their schools and address any safety issues they see. 

Parking Behaviour 

Drop off and pick up are busy times that pose a safety risk at the school gate. Travel Safe help schools to communicate things like parking time limits, drop off and pick up zones, parking over the kerb and other safety risks at the school gate. We deliver an in-school parking and safety programme named Peaceful Parker, and partner with council parking officers to do school visits when requested by schools or the community. 

Kids Can Ride 

Kids Can Ride is Travel Safe’s year 5-6 cycle skills programme. It is based on the BikeReady curriculum, an established initiative by Waka Kotahi. 

Experienced cycle skills instructors visit schools to help students learn to navigate local streets and intersections with structured learning outcomes. 

Kids Can Ride consists of two grades: Grade 1 (year 5) – Preparing for on-road riding, and Grade 2 (year 6) – Introduction to on-road riding. Students will complete grade 1 learning before being able to undertake grade 2.  

Grade 1 is held at school, usually in a field or on a court and is designed to encourage and develop basic bike control skills. The session also covers how to check and fit a helmet, and a basic bike safety check. 

Grade 2 takes place on quiet local roads and is designed to give students real cycling experience to build skills and confidence for making short journeys on local roads. Grade 2 covers how to see and be seen, communication, road positioning and cooperating with other road users. 

It’s Travel Safe’s goal to see Kids Can Ride delivered in every school in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty.

For more on Kids Can Ride contact travelsafeschools@tauranga.govt.nz.

Kids can ride



Intermediate Schools' Bike Safety

The Intermediate Bike Safety programme is a natural progression from Kids Can Ride and focuses on ‘real time, real environment’ on-road cycling. 

It involves a road rules refresher, bike and helmet safety checks, school cycle safety procedures, and how to navigate intersections. The programme includes a practical skills assessment and sees students riding in their local area with an instructor.

Ruben the Road Safety Bear

Ruben the Road Safety Bear visits pre-school and younger children with his minder to talk about keeping safe around roads and traffic.

Ruben has his own song and dance – The Ruben Rock, and his focus lies in four key areas: safe passenger (child seats, seat belts and booster seats), safe pedestrian (crossing the road), playing on the street and sneaky driveways, and supervised cycling and helmet use.

For more on Ruben the Road safety bear including some fun resources visit his website.

Register for Ruben the Road Safety Bear

 

Ruben the Road Safety Bear

Kids on Feet

A Kids on Feet walking school bus is a fun, safe and active way for children to travel to and from school with adult supervision. It involves students walking together with at least at least one adult ‘driver’ and picking up children at designated stops on the way to and from school.

Walking school buses are flexible to meet the needs of schools and supported by Travel Safe with guidance and resources for students and parent/caregiver volunteers.

For help with Kids on Feet contact travelsafeschools@tauranga.govt.nz

Design Your Own Helmet Competition

Download the template and submit your design to be in to win your own one-of-a-kind helmet airbrushed by a local artist. 

Entries closed Friday, 28 February 2025.

Car Restraints

Looking for Support around car seat restraints? Contact one of our local car seat technicians at travelsafeschools@tauranga.govt.nz. We offer free car seat installations, checks, and will help answer any questions or concerns regarding your car restraint. 

Young Driver Workshop

Free young driver workshops are aimed at road users aged between 16 and 24, who hold a current learner or restricted driver licence. Participants will leave with improved knowledge, confidence, and skills.

Each workshop includes:

  • A 60-minute one-on-one driving lesson with a certified instructor
  • Waka Kotahi NZTA roadworthy vehicle check (what to check to ensure your vehicle is safe and roadworthy)
  • Driver behaviour awareness (speed, impairment, restraints, distraction, and fatigue 
  • Awareness session on sharing the road with heavy vehicles

Parents/caregivers are strongly encouraged to attend but it’s not compulsory. The four-hour workshops are held during school term holidays, usually between 9am and 1pm.  

Drive has everything you need to prepare for your learner, restricted and full licence tests.

Visit the Drive website

Young driver workshop

Feet First

The Feet First programme encourages active travel to and from school to support reduced congestion around schools and associated health, social, environmental, and economic benefits.

The programme is based on healthy fun competition through the collection travel data, celebrating healthy ways to travel, and student-led initiatives for promotion. The programme is flexible and can easily be adapted to meet the needs of the school community.

Related news

New waterfront boardwalk and rail underpass enhance coastal experience in the city centre

New waterfront boardwalk and rail underpass enhance coastal experience in the city centre

Another milestone in connecting our city centre with Te Awanui Tauranga Harbour is complete with the opening of the city centre’s new boardwalk and rail underpass today.

The shared pathway, a 170m long boardwalk, hugs the water’s edge, connecting the southern end of The Strand to the rail underpass next to the Harbourside restaurant.

Now, residents and visitors alike can enjoy a stroll or cycle from the city centre along the harbour-edge and up through the new Tunks Reserve walkway to Elizabeth Street.

Features of the boardwalk and rail underpass include several seating areas, pathway lighting and a large platform space for people to take in the harbour views.

Tauranga City Council City Development and Partnership General Manager, Gareth Wallis, says it’s great to see members of the community already using the boardwalk to enjoy the harbour, or to find a quiet moment to relax on their lunch break.

“Coming into Spring with warmer weather and longer days, I’m loving seeing so many of our community experiencing the freshly opened space already. There’s plenty of room to take in the tranquil harbour views, to pause and reflect while enjoying being close to our natural environment.”

Project Manager Ali Mehr says the project’s completion marks another chapter in the city centre as it continues along its revitalisation journey.

“The boardwalk and railway underpass focus on reconnecting the city centre to its rich waterfront heritage while acknowledging the site’s significance to mana whenua.”

The opening of the boardwalk and railway underpass joins the recently reopened and upgraded Masonic Park, as part of the city centre transformation.

For more information about these and all the other projects happening in the city centre, please visit: www.tauranga.govt.nz/ourfuturecitycentre

Posted: Oct 15, 2024,

Related information

Staying safe on scooters. Information about staying safe on your scooter.

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