The speed limit in several suburban areas of Wellington is being reduced to 30 kilometres an hour.
The Wellington City Council has made the move after hearing 600 submissions in favour of lowering the speed through the centre of Berhampore, Khandallah, Northland, Ngaio, Wadestown and Happy Valley Road.
Twenty-one suburbs reduced their speed limits in 2009 and recent surveys of those areas showed that, on average, drivers have slowed down by about 4km an hour.
Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said today's decision would increase safety in the shopping centres of each suburb.
Patrick Morgan, from the Cycling Advocates Network, was one of the submitters and said it was more important than people realised.
He said the 20km speed difference was literally the difference between life and death because the consequences of a crash at 30km/h was much less than at 50km/h.
