Funding boost for ‘safer, greener’, better transport
Richmond, Nelson and Motueka are the big winners from millions of dollars of government funding to make New Zealand’s transport infrastructure ‘‘safer, greener and more efficient’’.
Transport Minister Michael Wood announced the $350m Transport Choices 2022-24 package on Sunday, and Nelson MP Rachel Boyack confirmed that the Nelson City and Tasman District councils were to receive some of the funds.
While Tasman mayor Tim King was not able to provide figures as to how much was awarded, he said he was ‘‘cautiously optimistic’’ that the Tasman council would get a ‘‘significant amount’’ of what it had asked for.
Projects on the cards include a network of separated cycle lanes for Motueka, as well as traffic-calmed slow speed areas, ‘‘safe roundabouts’’, bus shelters, and secure cycle parking.
Richmond is to get 1.2km of separated cycleways, 460m of traffic-calming areas in the town centre, six roundabouts with raised tables and 13 ‘‘speed tables at key crossing points’’, and four ‘‘protected cycle parking’’ stations.
A ‘‘raised table’’ was similar to what had been installed by the Countdown roundabout, or opposite Waimea College, King said. ‘‘Speed tables at key crossing points’’ amounted to ‘‘the same thing, just not at a roundabout’’. An important distinction was they weren’t ‘‘all necessarily pedestrian crossings’’.
The Nelson City Council said it had been awarded $5m, which would make up 90 to 100% of the budget for improved transport connections between the Brook and Waimea Rd, including ‘‘protected cycle paths, safer pedestrian crossing facilities, and dedicated speed control measures’’.
Deputy mayor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens said being awarded the funding was ‘‘super exciting’’.
‘‘It’s going to enable us to accelerate some of that really important safety work, especially in an area where we know we’ve got significant community concern around some of those safety issues.’’
King confirmed that parking would be removed to create separated cycleways, but said detailed designs were yet to be completed.
‘‘On those key routes, there is a tradeoff between parking and cycleways,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s kind of inevitable, and not necessarily that popular with those who lose their parks.’’
King said that without the funding the works would have been done in the latter part of the 10-year plan, with the Transport Choices funding. However, his understanding was that the projects had to be completed by the end of June 2024.
‘‘A lot of that design would have been done later. It’s now going to have to be bought forward to meet the time frames of the funding.’’
There were two advantages from the funding, he said – the work would be done earlier, and the funding came from central Government.
‘‘The whole objective is to try and get a significant increase in the percentage of people who will bike or walk, particularly to school and work, within those urban communities.’’
Boyack said the work to upgrade New Zealand’s transport system would make it ‘‘safer, greener, and more efficient’’.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency manager urban mobility Kathryn King said the aim was to open up streets so everyone could get where they needed to go in ways ‘‘that are good for their health and the planet’’.