Safety bid at crossroads
2004: Council first asked to consider a refuge for pedestrians at the bottom of Days Track.
2010: Petition started in support of the refuge.
2011: Residents make a submission to council, council resolves to prioritise the project and complete it before the end of the year. Severe rainstorm hits in December, causing damage and slips which close Days
Track.
2012: Design of the refuge reveals the need to for council to repair or replace a water main that had previously failed.
2013: Residents consulted over location for the refuge, some are opposed and council decide to consider it as part of the study into the shared pathway plan for the waterfront. 2017: Roger King is hit while crossing Rocks Rd and the issue of the pedestrian refuge is raised again. A group of Nelson residents is frustrated that its concerns about pedestrian access on Rocks Road at the bottom of Days Track have gone unanswered for more than a decade.
Greg Bate and Peter Butler are part of a group that has long wanted to see safer pedestrian access across Rocks Rd.
They first raised the issue of installing a pedestrian refuge at the bottom of Days Track with the Nelson City Council in 2004.
Butler said he had often worried about kids crossing the road but he hadn’t even thought about the increasing number of elderly people who were trying to navigate the road.
That changed two weeks ago when his neighbour, Roger King, was hit by a car on Rocks Rd while crossing it to get home.
The 77-year-old remains in Nelson Hospital with a broken pelvis.
Butler said he was ‘‘really angry and upset’’ when he heard that King had been hit by a car.
‘‘What I was most worried about was the kids,’’ Butler said. ‘‘I never thought of old people but of course it is mainly old people getting older on the hillside.’’
He said the accident highlighted both how difficult and dangerous it could be for people to cross Rocks Rd.
Despite being told it was a ‘‘priority’’ by council, the 2011 floods, opposition from some residents and problems with a water main in the area meant the project has been on hold.
In that time, there have been several surveys completed to determine how many pedestrians use the footpath and how frequently the car parks along that stretch of Rocks Rd are used.
There was opposition from some residents who had raised their concerns over the access to their homes and a reduction of about 13 parking spaces on the seaward side of the road.
Butler said he stepped back from the issue in 2013.
‘‘At the end, we’ve just despaired, you know after 12 years you just think OK, this insane it’s not going to happen.’’
Bate said it was frustrating that the refuge had been approved and deferred by council three times since 2004.
He said Days Track held historical significance in the region and it was an ‘‘iconic route from the city to the beach’’ that had been used for a long time.
The stretch of road in question was particularly popular with swimmers and fishers.
People could access the sea by a set of stairs opposite Days Track that led down to the water but had nowhere close to safely cross the road.
While there hadn’t been many other pedestrian injuries in the past 10 years along Rocks Rd, Bate said that was beside the point.
‘‘You do these things to avoid injuries, you don’t wait for them to happen.’’
He said installing a pedestrian refuge seemed so ‘‘self-evidently sensible’’ it was strange it hadn’t happened.
NZ Transport Agency system manager Frank Porter said it hadn’t made a decision whether a pedestrian refuge was the best solution to increasing safety on Rocks Road near Days Track.
‘‘We are working with the Nelson City Council to find ways to improve safety in this area,’’ he said. The closest pedestrian crossing points to Days Track are 1 kilometre north at the intersection with Richardson Street and 400 metres south near The Sands apartments.