Wallace Street pedestrian crossing to be shifted

February 11th, 2015
[by David Armstrong]

The problematic pedestrian crossing at the entrance to Wallace Street is to be moved eastward about five metres, enough for a car to wait safely as a pedestrian crosses.

The idea was announced at the Motueka Community Board meeting yesterday by Gary Clark, TDC's manager of transportation, and network engineer Jenna Voigt.

It arose from feedback that Council had obtained in recent consultation about pedestrian crossings in High Street.

As is well known to all Motueka residents, the current layout (pictured below) does not allow enough room for a vehicle to queue on Wallace Street when starting to enter and then giving way to a pedestrian on the crossing. This often results in vehicles waiting on High Street, sometimes in the on-coming lane, while a pedestrian crosses Wallace Street.

This can cause delays to the through traffic on High Street, and poses a potential safety risk to pedestrians due to the perceived pressure on drivers to clear the traffic lanes on High Street.

The project, to be completed before the end of June, will see the pedestrian crossing move east, although it is not expected to change the site of the existing Kaka Beak sculpture.

To provide more car parking, markings will be changed to angle parking on the north side of Wallace Street, outside the chemist, to match the angle parking on the south side.

Some of the garden beside the sculpture will be asphalted to lead to the new crossing, but new garden beds will be placed on the corners of both sides of Wallace Street to stop pedestrians going straight across.

Council staff will talk with the family of Bruce Mitchell, who was the sculptor of Kaka Beak, to ensure they are happy with the change.

The community board was a little disappointed that a final plan was not presented for consideration, but agreed to support the project in the interests of greatly improved pedestrian safety and traffic flow.

The crossing will move about five metres to the left

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