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Transport/Road safety/Travel Safe/Road safety - young people

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.

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.  

Register for the July workshop

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

Visit the Drive website

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.

 

Young driver workshop


 

Kids can ride

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Design Your Own Helmet Competition

Five Tauranga school students received a huge surprise in May when they were presented with their winning helmets as part of Travel Safe’s ‘Design Your Own Helmet’ competition, while filming a video about the importance of wearing one. Read the full media release.

The competition will reopen again in October this year.

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.

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

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. 

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

Related news

Knowing your flush: Book now for wastewater open days

Knowing your flush: Book now for wastewater open days

Join us in the world of wastewater treatment this November during our Chapel Street open days.

On Friday, 8 and Saturday, 9 November 2024, we are opening the gates to the Chapel Street wastewater treatment plant for free guided tours. With limited spots available on both days, these will book up fast. 
This isn’t the first time Chapel Street has been open to the public. Tours held in 2018 and 2019 proved popular with the community, and these tours are predicted to be the same. 

Wastewater Treatment Manager Louis Du Preez says these tours will give people a behind-the-scenes look at the journey wastewater takes once it reaches the plant. 

“The plant provides full biological treatment, producing an effluent ready for final stage (tertiary) disinfection at Te Maunga. This is a chance to see environmental science in practice.

“This is our chance to showcase the wastewater treatment plant operation and the consequences of flushing inappropriate items down the toilet, including the impact on our pipes.”

The tours will be held at Chapel Street (75 Chapel Street), with start times at 12pm and 1.45pm on Friday and 10am and 11.45am on Saturday. They are estimated to take around one-and-a-quarter hours.

Participants need to be able to climb stairs and deal with heights and uneven surfaces. The tour is not suitable for prams, wheelchairs or mobility scooters. Children over the age of eight are welcome but no more than two children per adult. 

Those attending the tours will also need to wear appropriate clothing (being sun-smart is best) and closed, flat shoes (no high heels or jandals).

Secure your free spot. 

Note: A booking form is required for each individual attending the tour.

The tours are subject to weather – tours will be cancelled in the case of bad weather. 
 

Image captionChristen Thompson from the Chapel Street wastewater treatment plant is ready to welcome the public during the open days.
Posted: Oct 25, 2024,

Related information

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

 
 
 

Phone +64 7 577 7000

Email info@tauranga.govt.nz

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