Our Community Road Safety Fund works with other organisations to support community-based road safety initiatives. It evolved from the Road Safety Trust, a former Crown-established charitable trust, which was wound up in June 2013.
Purpose of the Community Road Safety Fund
The Community Road Safety Fund contributes to a safer road system through funding, in partnership with others, value-for-money, high impact community projects which might not otherwise occur.
Community Road Safety Fund Advisory Committee
An Advisory Group, made up of representatives from the Transport Agency, ACC, NZ Police, the Safe and Sustainable Transport Association, and the AA, will be responsible for setting the direction of the Community Road Safety Fund and making investment decisions.
Funding the Community Road Safety Fund
A portion of the profits from the sale of personalised plates provides the funds for the Community Road Safety Fund.
Current projects
Four major projects are currently being funded by the Community Road Safety Fund.
Community Driver Mentor Programme and the Community Learner Driver Programme
These two programmes seek to address some of the barriers young people face when trying to get their restricted drivers licence, such as access to a safe car and petrol, or an appropriate mentor to give them the driving practice they need.
Following two successful pilot programmes, a number of communities have been selected to implement the programmes: Porirua, Te Kuiti, Christchurch East, South Auckland, Gisborne, and Northland. These six programmes involve the Transport Agency, the AA, local councils and community groups. Delivery of these programmes is also made possible through the generous sponsorship of Chevron New Zealand (who markets the Caltex brand) and Hyundai New Zealand.
The Transport Agency and the AA cannot run the programmes in all communities, so have produced the following guide to help communities run a Driver Mentor Programme on their own.
Download the Community Driver Mentor Programme , a guide for community programme providers and also check out this video describing how the programme model works.
Please note that at a minimum the following resources are required to implement a programme based on the guide:
- A coordinator to manage the programme, based in the community where the programme is being run
- Office space and equipment for the coordinator role
- A car and secure storage for it
- Budget for petrol, professional driving lessons, and mentor training lessons.
Community Driver Mentor / Learner Programme Co-ordinators
| Northland Programme Co-ordinator - Carly Lammers at People Potential Email: carlyl@peoplepotential.co.nz Phone: 09 437 7593 or 021 144 2540 | South Auckland Programme Co-ordinator - Dianne Troup at Counties Manukau Sport Foundation Email: Diannetroup@gmail.com Phone 021 621 117 |
| Gisborne Programme Co-ordinator: Trish Atkins for Tariawhiti Roads (at Passrite) Email: pda.east@passrite.co.nz Phone: 06 281 0250 or 027 284 7517 | Te Kuiti Programme Co-ordinator: Deisree McKenzie at Te Kuiti Community House Email: Communityhouse@tekuiti.net.nz Phone: 07 878 5272 or 027 814 4663 |
| Porirua Programme Co-ordinator: Henry Samia at Partners Porirua Email: henry@partnersporirua.org.nz Phone: 04 237 1097 | Christchurch East Programme Co-ordinator – Keran Tsering at the Salvation Army Email: Keran_tsering@nzf.salvationarmy.org Phone: 021 709 341 |
Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD)
The Transport Agency is the principal funder of SADD, which is an entirely student led initiative throughout secondary schools nationwide. SADD seeks to address the culture around dangerous driving by educating and empowering each new generation of young people to make healthier, safer and better choices.
In the three decades since SADD began at Mahurangi College in Warkworth, a lot has happened to reduce the harm caused on our roads by drunk drivers:
- law changes
- steadily increasing enforcement and efforts to target dangerous driving behaviours
- penalties for drunk drivers have increased
- national campaigns have helped raise the consciousness of the public
- the media has taken this issue to heart and reported on it widely
- information has become readily available and statistics are in the public domain.
At a student-level, SADD has been a constant presence in working to educate and drive culture change amongst youth about drunk driving and other dangerous driving issues.
This multi-layered and community-wide approach has certainly improved the outcome for New Zealanders, with alcohol-related fatal crashes dropping 69% and the associated deaths reduced by 68% in the three decades since 1986.
Rural schools road safety programme
The Transport Agency has been supporting this programme since 2013 to improve road safety around New Zealand’s rural schools. There are three main parts of the programme:
- A trial of variable speed limit signs to reduce the speed of traffic travelling past a number of rural schools where there is an identified risk from turning traffic and/or to pedestrians. Following a successful pilot at seven schools, the trial was extended to 23 rural schools.
- Assessing the degree of road safety risk around all rural schools and identifying actions to improve safety at the highest risk ones.
- Publishing a Safer Journeys for Rural Schools Guide which can be used by schools and road controlling authorities to assess, and if necessary improve, road safety at rural schools.
More information about the rural schools safety programme is available here , and by reading and the Associate Transport Minister’s media release .
Refugee Driver Licencing
The Community Road Safety Fund is also supporting Refugees as Survivors to provide Road Safety Education sessions at the Mangere National Refugee reception centre for newly arrived refugees. The Fund is also helping some refugees to gain their Learner Drivers Licence.
Research reports from the former Road Safety Trust
How does the level of road lighting affect crashes in New Zealand ; a pilot study
Quantification of safety benefits resulting from road smoothing
An exploratory study of barriers to child restraint use in New Zealand
Annual reports of the former Road Safety Trust
Community Driver Mentor / Learner Programme Co-ordinators contact details
Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD)
The Transport Agency is the principal funder of SADD, which is an entirely student led initiative throughout secondary schools nationwide. SADD seeks to address the culture around dangerous driving by educating and empowering each new generation of young people to make healthier, safer and better choices.
In the three decades since SADD began at Mahurangi College in Warkworth, a lot has happened to reduce the harm caused on our roads by drunk drivers:
law changessteadily increasing enforcement and efforts to target dangerous driving behaviourspenalties for drunk drivers have increasednational campaigns have helped raise the consciousness of the publicthe media has taken this issue to heart and reported on it widelyinformation has become readily available and statistics are in the public domain.
At a student-level, SADD has been a constant presence in working to educate and drive culture change amongst youth about drunk driving and other dangerous driving issues.
This multi-layered and community-wide approach has certainly improved the outcome for New Zealanders, with alcohol-related fatal crashes dropping 69% and the associated deaths reduced by 68% in the three decades since 1986.
Rural schools road safety programme
The Transport Agency has been supporting this programme since 2013 to improve road safety around New Zealand’s rural schools. There are three main parts of the programme:
A trial of variable speed limit signs to reduce the speed of traffic travelling past a number of rural schools where there is an identified risk from turning traffic and/or to pedestrians. Following a successful pilot at seven schools, the trial was extended to 23 rural schools.Assessing the degree of road safety risk around all rural schools and identifying actions to improve safety at the highest risk ones.Publishing a Safer Journeys for Rural Schools Guide which can be used by schools and road controlling authorities to assess, and if necessary improve, road safety at rural schools.
More information about the rural schools safety programme is available here , and by reading and the Associate Transport Minister’s media release .
Refugee Driver Licencing
The Community Road Safety Fund is also supporting Refugees as Survivors to provide Road Safety Education sessions at the Mangere National Refugee reception centre for newly arrived refugees. The Fund is also helping some refugees to gain their Learner Drivers Licence.
Research reports from the former Road Safety Trust
How does the level of road lighting affect crashes in New Zealand ; a pilot studyQuantification of safety benefits resulting from road smoothingAn exploratory study of barriers to child restraint use in New Zealand