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.

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 2025, while filming a video about the importance of wearing one. Read the full media release.

The 2026 competition is now open. Entries close on Friday, 27 February 2026.

Design your own helmet competition entry form (178kb pdf)

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.

Ruben the Road Safety Bear

Help steer the future of Mercury Baypark Stadium

The community is invited to have its say on the future of Mercury Baypark Stadium and whether it supports the continuation of speedway activity on the site, with public consultation now underway.

Under current agreements, Speedway is set to operate at Mercury Baypark until 2029. Tauranga City Council is now considering a proposal that would extend Speedway operations until 2039 — and is seeking feedback on whether the community supports this direction.

The proposal would see Speedway Racing Ltd purchase the North Stand (15,600 seats) for $1 and be responsible for its maintenance, while leasing the land from Council through Bay Venues Ltd. Council would retain ownership of the land, and the North Stand would be returned to Council at the end of the lease in 2039 for $1.

Tauranga City Councillor Kevin Schuler says before any decisions about the proposal are made, the Council wants to understand how the community’s views Mercury Baypark Stadium and speedway operations.

“This consultation is about testing the community’s support for the proposal and weighing up what Mercury Baypark Stadium’s future should look like for the next decade,” says Kevin.

“The proposal provides a way for Speedway to continue operating without placing immediate costs on ratepayers. However, if there’s not strong community support for this approach, we’ll explore alternative options for the site beyond 2029.”

Kevin says Mercury Baypark has hosted Speedway events for more than two decades, but the North Stand is in poor condition and requires investment to remain operational. It is used almost exclusively for Speedway events, around 15 times a year.

“If Speedway continues until 2039, it would be under new arrangements that shift the immediate cost and responsibility for maintaining the stand to Speedway Racing Ltd.

“If not, there are potential opportunities to reimagine the site for future recreational or commercial uses that could serve the wider community from 2029.”

Consultation is open from 5pm Monday, 26 May 2025 and closes 5pm Monday 23 June 2025.

Community consultation drop-in sessions will be held at Mercury Baypark Arena Suites, where residents can meet with Councillors and learn more about the options:

Monday, 9 June, 5:30pm–7:30pm
Saturday, 14 June, 10:00 am –12:00 pm

To learn more and share your views, visit letstalk.tauranga.govt.nz/baypark

Posted: May 27, 2025,