Skara Bohny

reports on the problematic Waimea Road.

Waimea Rd is a congested nightmare that divides Nelson communities literally and metaphorically.

While the debate rages back and forth over how to ease congestion on the busy arterial route, little has been done to help traffic flow and its clogged nature has become a daily headache for commuters – both those in cars, and for pedestrians and cyclists who must brave the constant flow of traffic.

The city council through its works and infrastructure committee is investigating ways to make Waimea Rd a ‘‘liveable arterial’’.

Part of the investigation includes considering whether pedestrian crossings would be suitable for the road, and what kind of crossing would suit it best.

The project began in 2016, investigating, among other things, ways to help pedestrians get more easily across Waimea Rd, through the introduction of pedestrian crossings.

In a 2016 meeting, Mayor Rachel Reese said Waimea Rd was ‘‘absolutely failing’’ to cope with the amount of traffic using it, with multiple intersections on it having an F rating - the lowest standard for safety and ease of use.

Given the ‘‘compromised’’ state of the road, Reese said her ‘‘real concern [was] how long it’s going to take us to address something’’.

At a status report update in March this year, two years on, group manager of infrastructure Alec Louverdis reported that work had commenced on consulting residents, and initial feedback had been received.

Reese then urged staff to sped up the process of getting the pedestrian crossings, as residents had been waiting for the crossings for long enough.

‘‘My expectation is that the resolution of council be carried out, which is to make a liveable arterial, which is having the crossing point put in place so kids can get across to go to school and back home at the end of the day,’’ she said.

Nelson Intermediate School principal Hugh Gully said he didn’t think adding pedestrian crossing points would encourage more students to walk or cycle to school, but said they would ‘‘certainly make it safer’’ for students who had to cross the road.

‘‘Our students report that using the [existing] pedestrian refuges works well, and that although there is a great deal of traffic, drivers are really helpful in that they will stop to allow the students to get all the way across,’’ he said.

However, not everyone is keen for the crossings.

Rachel Boyack, who lives on Waimea Rd, said congestion was a more pressing issue, and pedestrian crossings could even have an adverse effect on safety.

‘‘I think pedestrian crossings on Waimea Rd would have the opposite effect to easing congestion, and would cause massive safety concerns for pedestrians,’’ she said.

‘‘Frustrated drivers lend themselves to an accident, and that will lead to someone getting hurt.’’

Whether new crossings would make the road safer depended on where the crossings might be, and said a crossing near the corner of Waimea and Market Roads, by Caltex, would be particularly unsafe.

She said it was well known that people began to increase speed in that area long before the 70 kilometre per hour zone.

‘‘All it would take is a moment’s inattention and you’d have an acci-

Reese said yesterday she believed the staff working on the report would be investigating if any intersections were suitable for traffic lights, and refuges that allowed pedestrians to cross half the road at a time. ‘‘We’ve got to find ways to improve [Waimea Rd]. I really hope doing nothing is not the answer we come to,’’ she said.

She was disappointed by part of the committee debate which had people arguing to ‘‘abandon a project for a safety issue to avoid giving support to the Southern Link investigation’’.

She said the issues were not mutually exclusive, and work on one did not either promote or avoid work on the other.

‘‘There isn’t some other agenda operating here, this isn’t a council agenda to promote the Southern Link investigation,’’ Reese said. ‘‘This is actually something that started in 2010, to make our city more liveable.’’

She said the congestion on Waimea Rd was due to the heavy traffic — up to 25,000 vehicles every day — using a road which had ‘‘never been designed for that’’.

She said it was a growing issue, and the council was making moves to address it. ‘‘We’ve invested more into the public transport; and this [pedestrian crossing points] is part of that, getting more people walking and on bikes.’’

Reese said people living on Waimea Rd were in easy cycling distance to town, but many didn’t because they felt Waimea Rd was unsafe.