High tech approach to improve safety on New Zealand’s state highway 1

A new high tech warning system, which will help to improve road safety, has been installed on State Highway 1 in New Zealand. The Rural Intersection Active Warning System at the turnoff to Moeraki Boulders is now operational and the variable speed limit is now legally enforceable.
June 26, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
A new high tech warning system, which is intended to help to improve road safety, has been installed on State Highway 1 in New Zealand. The Rural Intersection Active Warning System at the turnoff to Moeraki Boulders is now operational and the variable speed limit is now legally enforceable.


The new warning system detects vehicles approaching the right turning bay at Moeraki Boulders Road and vehicles waiting to turn on to the highway and automatically adjusts the speed limit in the area to 70km/h to allow the approaching car to merge safely with oncoming traffic.  The 70km/h variable speed limit will apply 170 metres either side of the SH1/Moeraki Boulders Road.

The work is part of a wider programme of safety improvements being proposed along the highway.

Between 2006 and 2015 there were 21 deaths and 114 serious injuries on this stretch of the road and the government is committed to making these roads and roadsides safer to help prevent further tragedies.

“The variable speed limit will help to reduce the severity of crashes at the Moeraki Boulders turnoff by lowering the speed of highway traffic when necessary for the safety of other road users, while maintaining the current 100km/h speed limits when the intersection is not in use. This high tech system is a great alternative for all drivers in the region when compared with permanently reducing the speed limit in the area,” says associate minister of Transport Tim Macindoe.

Air Quality & Weather Systems Enforcement

Related Content

  • Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    March 17, 2017
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h
    Read More
  • Sensys Networks for critical traffic safety applications
    April 26, 2023
    Sensys Networks’ US supply chain qualifies for federal funding that favours key traffic safety applications. The company is here in Dallas to highlight how its products provide results around the world and point out that in the US, funding is set aside specifically to implement traffic safety solutions. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 provides an additional $32.5bn dedicated to traffic safety over five years.
    Read More
  • Deaths of US pedestrians rise sharply, says GHSA report
    April 2, 2019
    Pedestrian deaths across the US have risen to their highest number in nearly 30 years. Many factors are responsible - including the rise and rise of SUVs - according to a worrying new GHSA report ore pedestrians died on US roads last year than in any year since 1990. The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) suggests that 6,227 pedestrians were killed in 2018 – a 4% increase on 2017. Pedestrian deaths as a percentage of total motor vehicle crash deaths increased from 12% in 2008 to 16% in 2017, whi
    Read More
  • Highways Agency plans to increase capacity of M4
    March 19, 2014
    The UK Highways Agency is holding a series of public exhibitions to inform road users, local residents and businesses about proposals to transform the M4 into one of the longest stretches of ‘smart motorway’ in England by 2021. The improvement, on a 32-mile stretch between junction 3 at Hayes in London, and junction 12 at Theale in Berkshire, would increase capacity, improve journey reliability and maintain safety. The proposals are part of the Government’s investment into England’s motorways and majo
    Read More

Highlighted Content