Hampden St to be cut off
Controversial street closure planned for crash-plagued intersection
‘‘Has anyone tried education first, before going to the extreme of ‘We’re going to close your street’?’’
Andrea Taylor, resident
Nelson city’s Hampden St west is going to be cut off from Waimea Rd to prevent crashes.
The intersection between Hampden St west, also known as Hampden Tce, and Waimea Rd has been highlighted by the NZ Transport Authority as one that has a high risk of crashes involving vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians or cyclists, which could be fatal or cause serious injury.
The intersection has been the site of 14 crashes in the seven years since 2012. Of those, six were vehicles versus cyclists, with one serious injury and four minor injuries, and one was an accident involving a car hitting a pedestrian, causing minor injury.
Five of the cycling crashes were caused by cars turning right into Hampden St west, or by cars going straight across from Hampden St east. Cyclists tended to ‘‘T-bone’’ cars crossing the cycle lane.
Nelson City Council’s works and infrastructure committee has decided to trial a closure of the Hampden St west-Waimea Rd intersection, which will last up to a year.
A review of the closure and its effect on traffic movements will be done six months into the trial.
Several Hampden St locals were present at the meeting, having only recently found out about the potential closure. Only 22 of 47 residents and businesses contacted by the council responded, and no attempt was made to contact residents in streets surrounding Hampden St.
Resident Andrea Taylor said she needed to be convinced that there was a problem, and it was an extreme measure to close the intersection.
‘‘The first we heard about this was a letter saying, ‘As you are aware, there are issues’ – and I have to honestly say no, I’m not aware, having lived there for two decades.’’
She said the only times there were problems were around school drop-off and pick-up times.
‘‘School holidays, there’s no problem. Outside of those 15 minutes, there’s no problems . . . has anyone tried education first, before going to the extreme of ‘We’re going to close your street’?’’
She also raised concerns about ‘‘rat-running’’ down Locking St, a 30kmh shared pedestrian and car zone, which runs from Kawai St to Wellington St.
Other residents of the street, who did not make formal presentations at the public forum, said their food truck was not able to be driven down the other streets, so the intersection was the only way they had to easily reach Waimea Rd.
Councillor Gaile Noonan said she was ‘‘concerned’’ about the consultation process, and that all road users had a responsibility to think about safety. ‘‘Cyclists have been observed riding right through the pedestrian crossing when children are supposed to be crossing.’’
Council transport engineering adviser Sue McAuley said the intersection had been ‘‘an issue for a number of years’’, but work on it was neither proposed nor carried out while waiting on the Nelson Future Access or Southern Link investigation.
‘‘Any work on that section of road has been on hold for a number of years awaiting that outcome,’’ she said.
‘‘We consider we’ve got to a point where we can’t allow that intersection to carry on as it is. We have to do some form of intervention.’’
She said the intersection could become a ‘‘significant item’’ in the Nelson Future Access strategy, but closing it was ‘‘an option we can put in quickly and at low cost’’.
Councillors Noonan and Mike Rutledge and deputy mayor Paul Matheson voted against the closure.
Rutledge said he was not convinced that such a long trial closure was necessary.
‘‘We’ve heard that the only
times there are issues here are during school time . . . why we need to trial this through the long summer holidays, I don’t know,’’ he said.
‘‘I do have real concerns with this, and do have concerns that we had a lot of residents turn up saying that they don’t feel they’ve had input in the process.’’
He also said a large portion of the crashes were due to ‘‘user behaviour’’, and more care from turning vehicles and cyclists coming down the hill at speed could have an effect on crash numbers.
The trial motion passed with support from councillors Luke Acland, Matt Lawrey, Tim Skinner and Stuart Walker. The intersection is expected to be closed in October.
Acland said that in his professional experience, he had seen many ‘‘very, very serious injuries to cyclists’’ caused by drivers unintentionally failing to see them, and he was also concerned about the potential legal or moral obligation the council had now that it was aware of the risk.
‘‘What happens when the NZTA says there’s a very high risk of there being a fatality or very serious injury to a cyclist, and the council says, ‘Thank you very much, but we’re not going to do anything about that’?’’
Councillor Ian Barker, who is not a member of the committee and was not able to vote, said the closure was ‘‘not addressing the real problem’’.
‘‘We’re awaiting, as we’ve just been told, the Future Access study, and in the meantime the numbers of cars and vehicles using our streets is getting more and more,’’ he said.
‘‘[The closure is] a Band-aid that probably is necessary, but the real root cause is not being addressed.’’