Link study puts handbrake on city transport planning
As the local government elections loom, Skara Bohny looks at some of the big issues facing Nelson city. This week: transport.
Transport solutions for Nelson have been hampered by the drawn-out Southern Link process, community groups say.
Much of Nelson City Council’s transport work is a collaborative effort with the NZ Transport Agency. It’s a model that sometimes leads to unexpected changes in direction, like the abandoned noise reduction work on State Highway 6, or unexpectedly long processes, like the overhaul of Nelson bus ticketing due to be implemented later this year, and the much-awaited speed limit reduction work at Atawhai.
However, nothing has put a spoke in the council’s wheel on transport so much as the neverending debate over the Southern Link, transport and cyclist groups say.
The study into the alternative arterial route into Nelson city, renamed the Nelson Future Access (NFA) project, is still making its way through various investigations and consultations. The detailed business case is expected to be finished in September next year.
The council’s group manager of infrastructure, Alec Louverdis, said the Nelson Future Access study was something of an obstacle to potential
‘‘big-ticket items’’ in Nelson transport infrastructure, including considering traffic lights at the intersection of Hampden St and Waimea Rd, a key location in the study.
‘‘When we look at the bigger picture, there’s many things that the Nelson Future Access strategy will deliver different solutions for,’’ Louverdis said.
‘‘We still do work outside the NFA, but where, for example, it’s a $1 million project, a big-ticket item, we’re not going to do that.’’
He said this was out of a desire not to waste ratepayer money and potential NZTA funding on projects which in theory could be made irrelevant or undone by the chosen Nelson Future Access project.
The exception was that serious safety concerns would be addressed, Louverdis said – like the intersection of Motueka St and Waimea Rd, which had traffic lights installed in 2013.
However, sustainable transport group Nelsust’s convenor, Peter Olorenshaw, said the push for the Southern Link had seen transport neglected with ‘‘almost no visible progress’’.
‘‘There’s been about three years of inaction from the council,’’ he said. ‘‘They’ve done little things like putting wi-fi and GPS tracking on the buses, and they should get credit for those, but it has been small things.
‘‘We’ve got a few good cycle paths, but they just don’t link up. The classic example is going to be Rocks Rd – we have a great path on Haven Rd, and now there’s one on the other end, but they don’t connect up.’’
The Tahunanui pathways project, meant to connect more of Tahunanui with shared pathways to encourage and enable active transport in the area, started the planning process in 2016.
The first stage, in Annesbrook, was completed late last month. The rest of the pathway connecting through to Tahunanui Beach is expected to be completed in March next year.
Olorenshaw said that regardless of the progress or lack of it on the future access project, Nelsust wanted the next council to be more active in reducing congestion and improving transport options.
He said Nelsust was hoping for changes that would make cycling or walking to school safer for children, making traffic ‘‘like school holidays all year round’’.
He said the regional transport committee should also be advocating for changes to enable more people to live closer to the city centre, and for clearways for express buses.
‘‘Until you make buses faster than cars, you won’t see a rise in bus commuters.
‘‘NBus is pretty good, but it takes about half an hour to get from Richmond to Nelson, as opposed to the 10 to 15 minutes it takes by car. If the trip is twice as long, even if you have wi-fi, that’s still a burden for commuters.’’
John-Paul Pochin of Bicycle Nelson Bays shared Olorenshaw’s frustration at the lack of progress, and said he was ‘‘really disappointed’’.
‘‘The last few years have been quite frustrating. I think we’re a long way off from where we could be,’’ Pochin said.
‘‘At the latest workshop [for the Nelson Future Access project], it felt
‘‘I think we’re a long way off from where we could be . . . [and] still talking about things we were talking about five years ago.’’ John-Paul Pochin, Bicycle Nelson Bays
like we’d achieved nothing in the past five years. It seems projects have really serious compromises, so we get half a project, or things get seriously delayed.
‘‘We were part of it, the Southern Link or future access, because we were told anything was on the table – we didn’t think we needed a new road, but if it was needed in the future, we wanted everything else considered first.
‘‘The last workshop was de ja vu. It felt like the same presentation.’’
Pochin said traffic congestion was primarily caused by the ‘‘incredibly inefficient’’ use of transport infrastructure, citing a lack of public transport clearways on arterial routes, disconnected cycleways, and free parking in the central city, which he said encouraged driving as a commuter option.
‘‘I would really hope that the next council really focuses on the climate crisis, and really deals with it as a crisis and not an excuse for the Southern Link.
‘‘We’re sleepwalking into this, and still talking about things we were talking about five years ago.’’