More traffic, more stress
‘‘Getting into traffic on this road here is absolutely hazardous, it’s perilous.’’ Clarry Hunter, Oakwoods Village Residents Committee chairman
Oakwoods resident Lydia Milne waited 20 minutes one morning to turn right from the Richmond retirement village into an increasingly busy Lower Queen St.
‘‘I timed it,’’ Milne said. ‘‘I went out at 8 o’clock and I was still there at 20 past. In the end, it was a man in a Sollys truck who stopped and let me in.’’
Two vehicles in front of Milne had to join the traffic on Lower Queen St that morning before she had the opportunity. Fortunately, one of them turned left – otherwise, the wait would likely have been longer.
‘‘You can’t make specialist appointments [in Nelson] around 9am or even possibly 10 o’clock when school’s in,’’ Milne said. ‘‘You can’t get out from here, and you’re going to be late.’’
Oakwoods Village Residents Committee chairman Clarry Hunter said few people wanted to give way in the frequent ‘‘solid’’ line of traffic along Lower Queen St.
‘‘You’ve really got to take a chance coming out of here sometimes, you really do,’’ he said. The committee represents about 300 residents.
A long-time Nelson and Tasman resident who has lived at Oakwoods for almost three years, Hunter said the growth in the amount of traffic had been ‘‘astronomical’’.
‘‘It’s just so horrendous now. I was a truck driver for many years, I know how to cut into traffic, but getting into traffic on this road here is absolutely hazardous, it’s perilous.’’
Tasman District Council traffic counts show the increase on Lower Queen St, from just over 9500 average daily traffic movements one week in October 2010 to almost 12,300 daily during one week in October 2019.
Average daily counts for May also climbed, from just over 8200 one week in 2009 to 11,855 one week in May 2019.
Village residents committee secretary Alec Waugh said the congestion was going to get worse over the next few years with large residential and commercial developments in the area under way and in the pipeline.
About 1200 homes are expected to be built within seven years in the Richmond West Development Area, many of which are already under way. A commercial subdivision has also been created on the other side of Lower Queen St, while Gibbons has announced a development that will include a cinema complex on a 59,000square metre site between Oakwoods and the Waimea Plains
retirement village, which is under construction.
Hunter and Waugh said they believed the best solution would be to create a road through a corner of Richmond Park linking Lower Queen St with the Richmond Deviation, bypassing the Gladstone Rd intersection.
However, in the short term, the extension of ‘‘no stopping’’ yellow lines opposite Oakwoods on the other side of Lower Queen St would help, they said.
Increasingly, vehicles were parked all day opposite the village, they said, which left motorists with little space when turning right.
‘‘I’m thinking of the more aged drivers who need a little bit more room to get round,’’ Waugh said. ‘‘I’ve seen two minor scrapes in the 18 months I’ve been here – a collision on the turn, and one into a vehicle on the road.’’
Council transportation manager Jamie McPherson said requests for an extension of ‘‘no stopping’’ lines could be made directly to the council.
He confirmed that planned roading projects for the area included an upgrade of the intersection of Berryfield Drive and Lower Queen St in 2023-24, including the likely installation of traffic lights; a widening of Lower
Queen St between Gladstone Rd and McShane Rd, including the addition of a larger median strip from 2028; and an upgrade of McShane Rd in 2027-28.
However, with the development at Richmond West happening at a rate exceeding all expectations, council staff thought that the proposed timing of those upgrades needed to be reconsidered, McPherson said. This would be a decision for councillors during the development of the Long Term
Plan 2021-31, when they weighed all the priorities facing the district.
Richmond ward councillor Trevor Tuffnell, who recently moved into the Waimea Plains village, said development in the area was happening much faster than anticipated, creating more traffic. ‘‘It is getting diabolical.’’ Tuffnell said that to attend morning council meetings, he turned left on to Lower Queen St and then travelled along McShane Rd, the Appleby Highway and the back streets of Richmond to reach the council chamber, because ‘‘it’s got that bad’’ trying to turn right on to Lower Queen St. He said he supported reconsideration of the time frames for the proposed upgrades. Meanwhile, Oakwoods residents will continue to rely on the kindness of other drivers to allow them turn right.
‘‘You have to rely on courtesy – and it’s usually a man in a truck who stops,’’ Milne said.