Waka Kotahi Transport Agency NZ has set up a fund called Innovating Streets for People to be used for trial projects. The aim of the fund is to support communities to shape their towns and streets in ways that allow more people to move around safely and create interesting spaces for people to enjoy.
Tasman District Council has received funding for your neighbourhood. We are going to work with the community to trial changes to the streets to see if they work for your community and achieve what they were designed to. If that’s the case, we could discuss making permanent changes.
View the neighbourhood map for Golden Bay [PDF, 343 KB].
Streets for People: Tākaka intersection is aimed at improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians around the Rototai/Meihana intersection. These temporary improvements will supplement permanent changes that the Ministry of Education has planned for the Golden Bay High School.
To better understand the community concerns and ideas about the area, we set up an online survey, organised a community drop-in session in the Tākaka library and held a workshop with Golden Bay High School students. In the table below we have listed the most common community concerns, ideas and proposed improvements that could be achieved, within the scope of this project.
The majority of people were concerned about children’s safety crossing Meihana Street before and after school and crossing Rototai Road during pick up and drop off times. Many people also pointed out that the complexity of the intersection is compromising cyclist's safety. Students were concerned about the quality of the footpath and identified the area around the school as boring and unattractive.
As listed in the table below, the community also offered some ideas to address these concerns. One of the most popular ideas to address children’s safety was a pedestrian crossing on Meihana Street. Students also suggested closing off the road between Meihana and Commercial Streets to create a safe area for young people to mingle after school. Closing off this road for motorists would also reduce the confusion at the intersection and provide a safer cycle route for cyclists traveling from Commercial Street to Rototai Road. Another popular suggestion to simplify the intersection was to turn it into a roundabout. However, injury crash rates for cyclists at roundabouts are typically higher than at other types of intersection. You can read more about roundabouts on the Waka Kotahi website. After carefully considering the community suggestions the Tasman District Council Streets for People team proposed the following temporary improvements (please see pictures below).
| Issues identified | Community ideas | Suggested temporary improvements |
| Unsafe crossing on Meihana Street |
New zebra crossing Other crossing options like pedestrian traffic lights/tunnels/underpass etc |
Trial a zebra crossing on the temporary raised platform across Meihana Street |
| Unsafe crossing on Rototai Street during pick up and drop off times | Create additional crossing place on Meihana Street before the intersections with Rototai Road
Lower speed limits Turn the reserve into a drop off/pick up zone Create drop off and pick up area on Meihana Street |
Trial a reduced speed limit of 30km/h Temporary speed humps to emphasise the lower speed limit |
| Unsafe for cyclists | Shift all school entrances to Rototai Road
Turn the intersection into a roundabout Better signage Change the layout of the intersection Close off Reserve road Remove parking from house side on Meihana Street |
Close off the one-way link road between Meihana and Commercial Street (left turn slip lane)
The tight left turn at Meihana/Commercial Street will be eased by realigning the existing kerb and channel and moving the light pole. |
| Narrow/uneven footpath Not defined footpath |
Widen the footpath | Define existing road shoulder and footpath along Waitapu Road with colourful bollards
Better define the footpath along Meihana St and Rototai Rd with colourful bollards, Smooth out the pedestrian connection between Commercial Street and Rototai Road by providing alternative footpath for students through school grounds |
| Boring, unattractive neighbourhood | Create rain garden
Create a park that contains things like hammocks, basketball hoop, towers and rope parks, skatepark, giant chess set, playground |
Tables and seating Colourful artwork on the road between two reserves Shading |
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August 2020 |
We will work with the school and the community to identify opportunities and design solutions for improving safety in the Golden Bay High school area and the Commercial and Meihana intersection. |
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September – October 2020 |
We will construct furniture and start introducing some solutions to test how successful they are. |
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November – December 2020 |
We will continue installation and talking with the community to measure the success of the temporary solutions.
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January – March 2021 |
We will adjust the temporary solutions based on the gathered data and determine any permanent changes.
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There are many opportunities for you to get involved with the project:
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