Downtown Mount Maunganui will be engulfed in orange today, as more than 700 primary and intermediate school students march and wave banners in the Road Safe Orange Walk.

Tauranga City Council Mayor Mahé Drysdale said the event is a chance to acknowledge and celebrate the contribution of student road safety volunteers.

“Road Safe Orange Walk is an opportunity to reward the efforts of our Travel Safe and Travel Smart students, and road patrols who work hard to keep their community safe.

“It gives students a voice and helps raise awareness of road safety and active travel around schools.”

The event is a joint initiative between Travel Safe (Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District Councils) and New Zealand Police with generous support from Road Safe Traffic Management, and has been held annually since 2007.

Western Bay of Plenty Mayor James Denyer said in the Western Bay, which has both urban and rural schools, road safety is a vital part of daily life.

“It’s great to see so much energy and passion from our young people, who are leading the way.

“We have even had some tamariki present to Council about the road safety infrastructure they would like to see – which is leading to real, on the ground results.

“The Road Safe Orange Walk is a fantastic celebration of our students’ efforts to keep our roads safe, and I am looking forward to being part of this great event again this year.”

Mahé said the banner competition is a highlight of the day, with each school producing a banner that focuses on a particular issue affecting their school community.

“An incredible amount of effort and creativity goes into the banners and these students have a real awareness of the roads around their schools. The safety and active travel messages they are sharing are very relevant to their schools.”

In 2023 Mount Maunganui Intermediate won top prize for best road safety message for their banner If the red man starts flashing, don’t start dashing.

The sheer number of hours volunteered by the school road patrols each year paints an incredible picture of the volume of work across the region.

Forty-nine crossings operate for fifty minutes a day, two-hundred days of the year for a staggering 8,166 collective hours per-year.

The day begins at Coronation Park 9.15am with speeches from Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale, Western Bay of Plenty Mayor James Denyer, and Senior Sergeant Wayne Hunter.

The walk starts at 9.30am, following a return route along Maunganui Road, and around the roundabout at Pacific Avenue. Temporary road closures will be in place (see map below).

Friends, family, locals, and visitors are encouraged to line the route, make some noise, and show their support for the students.

After the walk the banner competition prizegiving will take place at Coronation Park, then the students will make their way to Baywave for a swim and a celebratory BBQ cooked by police.

For event updates visit facebook.com/travelsafebop.

A map showing temporary road closures. Image: Tauranga City Council