High School research highlights High Street traffic issues

June 25th
by David Armstrong

Results of research by Bruce Reid's Year 11 Community Issues class show that Motueka residents are concerned about traffic problems in High Street, and that the road's owner NZTA needs to work more on public relations so Motueka people feel better consulted.

The report, released today at a presentation by students to several of the community's leaders, was based on a term-long project to research the problems, develop a questionnaire, interview over 400 shoppers, and analyse results. Two students, Lucy Partridge and Natalie Cheyne, were chosen to show the results in PowerPoint presentations.

Tasman District Council's Transportation Manager, Gary Clark, said he would take the report back to TDC's Engineering committee for discussion and would use the findings also to make NZTA more aware of residents' concerns.

Most of the key findings aligned with some of the major details contained in TDC's Motueka Transportation Study, released a month ago. There was strong support from the 411 people interviewed for a new pedestrian crossing between New World and The Warehouse (78% agreed), traffic lights at Pah Street (67%), and roundabouts at the Whakarewa Street corner (71%) and the King Edward corner (66%).

There was also majority support for a crossing opposite New World to include pedestrian lights so pedestrians could cross in bulk while traffic was stopped. The numbers were split on whether or not there were enough pedestrian crossings overall on High Street.

Of concern to Gary Clark, TDC Counciller Barry Dowler and Community Board chairman David Ogilvie was the belief among most of those interviewed that they were not being consulted and that anyway they had no say in how NZTA controlled its road. Furthermore, 62% said they were not aware of the Transportation Study, despite it being well publicised in local news media this month.

Read the full report here »

Below is a photo of the class, with the community leaders who attended the presentation.

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