Addressing residents concerns about roads and speed limits in our local area.

TDC Speed Limit Review 2019

TDC is beginning another round of speed limit review for various local roads and an official consultation is open until Friday 1 November. The changes proposed under this review have been influenced by the outcome of the TDC community survey earlier in May.

Some words from the review documents: The number of fatal and serious crashes on local roads has been increasing over the past six years. Sixty five per cent (65%) of crashes across our District are on our rural roads, of these 84% are lost control type crashes. Seventy four per cent (74%) occur on our Primary (such as the Moutere Valley Highway) and Secondary Collector Roads (such as Neudorf Road). Crashes on these road types are happening at increasing numbers.

As a result, TDC is proposing to change the speed limit on four sections of our Primary and Secondary Collector Roads and 13 low-volume rural roads.

 

TDC Age-Friendly Policy: Submission by MHRA

TDC's proposed new 'Age-Friendly Policy' states that

  • "Our urban and rural environments are people-friendly, well-planned, accessible and sustainably managed."
  • "Our communities are healthy, safe, inclusive and resilient."

The Moutere Hills Residents Association is of the opinion that these goals cannot be achieved in rural communities, so long as the only way to get from place to place - even over very short distances - is by motor vehicle. This is simply because traffic on rural roads is now too busy and dangerous, and there is no safe way to go alternatively by foot, bicycle, or any other way due to the general lack of dedicated foot and bike paths.

We have therefore submitted that the district-wide annual budget for public footpaths be significantly increased to counteract the above problem. Read our full submission here:

Contact us to let us to let us know what you think!

Speed Limit Changes on Some Local Roads

TDC advises that new, lowered speed limits will take effect on 18 December 2018 on the following roads:

Lower Queen Street (extended), Landsdowne Road, Best Island Road, Barnett Avenue, Blackbyre Road, River Road (Appleby), Redwood Road, Research Orchard Road, Pukeko Lane

Most of these roads are changing from 100 km/hr down to 80 km/hr.

See here for a more detailed list.

Also see the minutes of our recent AGM for notes on a new review process for speed limits being established at TDC and how to get roads added to that review. Old Coach Road and Central Road had already been mentioned at the meeting.

Active Transport Survey - Walk and Bike in Tasman?

Council is performing an online survey around alternative everyday transport - such as walking and cycling - in Tasman District. The survey takes about 5 - 10 minutes to complete.

This is your chance to have your say to influence future transport priorities in the district.

Please take some time to complete the survey - and forward to anyone who you think might be interested as well:

Click here to go to the survey

Community Transport Trust Proposal

Living in the country without your own vehicle?

A group of residents who are concerned about the transport needs of people living in the outlying communities are setting up a trust to help serve people either without the use of a private car or who are concerned about the effects of fossil fuelled car use.

This proposed trust would own vehicles, preferably electric, and use volunteers drivers to get people where they need to go, at an affordable fare. The vision statements and proposed benefits of this proposal are outlined below, and the organisers are calling for interested volunteers to get involved with their time and skills.

If you are interested to support this idea, please respond to us and we will put you in contact with the organiser Kate Malcolm.

Read more...

Proposed New Speed Limits - SH60 and Connecting Roads

TDC and NZTA are proposing lowering the speed limit on State Highway 60 from the Three Brothers roundabout in Richmond up to Maisey Road to 80 kmh.

In conjunction with this proposal, TDC is consulting on proposed lower speed limits on several local roads connecting to SH60 such as Lower Queen Street, Landsdowne Road, Redwood Road, and various others.

See here for the full proposal information, including an online survey form to provide feedback. The consultation closes 28 August.

Read more...

Thoughts about Road Safety at Prices Corner

Prompted by a recent vehicle accident at Prices Corner (intersection of Neudorf Road and the Moutere Highway) one of our association members has inquired whether the 'Give Way' sign (coming from Neudorf Road) should not perhaps be changed to a 'Stop' sign to make the intersection safer overall.

We have followed this up with TDC Transportation Manager Jamie McPherson, who explained to us the rules governing intersections:

Read more...

Gardner Valley Road Intersection - Community Survey

Recently we performed a survey among local residents to see if there is concern about the traffic and safety situation at the intersection of Gardner Valley Road and the Moutere Highway. Follow this link for a map view.

We have received around 20 detailed responses overall. Of these...

  • 50% of respondents consider the intersection to be a significant problem
  • 30% of respondents do not see problems, or do not see the issue as high priority

All results are an approximation only. We have collected resident statements for both sides below, followed by a section of suggestions for improvement, and a section of general thoughts on the issue.

Read more...

Holdaway Footbridge - Have Your Say!

As most local residents are aware the Holdaway footbridge on Holdaway Road suffered catastrophic damage due to the severe weather event which occurred on Wednesday 12 April.

TDC had been in the midst of repairing the bridge which was already closed to due damage caused by a vehicle accident. Those repair works are now of course redundant.

Council is now investigating whether it is worthwhile to replace the bridge and is asking for community feedback on this issue. So if you think the bridge should (or should not) be replaced, considering all costs involved, have your say now by sending feedback to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

We will collect all feedback received and forward this to Council.

TDC Plans 40kmh Zones Around Some Schools

More news around speed limits: Tasman District Council is planning 40km/h zones around some selected schools in the district.

In response to community concerns about the safety of children walking and biking to and from school, the Tasman District Council is proposing to install variable school speed zones for Motupipi, Hope and Ranzau schools.

“We’ve done a lot of work in response to the strong community feeling that more needs to be done to keep children safe on their way to and from school,” Engineering Services Committee chairman Trevor Norriss said. Cr Norriss said the Council will talk to the three schools before installing variable speed zone signs. [...]

“We’ll also discuss the installation of static “40 When Children Present” signs at another four Tasman schools – Brooklyn, Mapua, Lower Moutere and Mahana,” he said.

“Only three of the 10 highest-priority schools meet the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) criteria for a 40kmh variable school speed zone. That is why we’ve opted for static signs around other schools." [...]

Read the full article here.