Major road safety improvements are on the way for Richmond and Māpua with a significant funding boost announced by Waka Kotahi.

Richmond is to get $2.4 million, while $840,000 has been earmarked for Māpua to rapidly implement the beginnings of a complete network of safe walking and cycling spaces in our streets, which is a cornerstone of Tasman District Council’s Walking and Cycling Strategy.

Tasman Mayor Tim King welcomes the ‘Streets for People’ funding announcement and says it’s great news.

“We appreciate that Waka Kotahi has included funding for Tasman in this programme”

He says, “For many years our Council, and the wider local government sector, have been telling the Government and Waka Kotahi that the biggest limitation on making improvements to our road network is the Councils, and ratepayers, ability to pay for it – so to have them listen and now provide substantial funding and support is welcome.”

Over the next two years the Council will create and improve spaces for safer cycling on Salisbury Road, Wensley Road, Queen Street, Hill Street, Champion Road, and on Aranui Road in Māpua, linking places where people live with schools, commercial centres and the wider existing network of cycle trails.

The last New Zealand Household Travel Survey in 2018 showed nearly a third of all car trips are less than 2-kilometres, while earlier research by the Ministry of Transport showed that the percentage of primary school students walking or cycling to school has dropped from 54-percent in the late 1980s to 34-percent in 2015, reflecting the concerns people have about safety on our streets.

Tasman District Council Transportation Manager Jamie McPherson says the 2018 Census showed that in Tasman’s urban areas, about 19-percent of trips to work and school were made by walking or cycling - our strategy aims to increase this to 40-percent by 2030.

“Making it easier for our people to get around town without having to drive a vehicle to feel safe, is essential to meet our safety, livability and emissions goals while freeing up road space for our essential vehicles like freight and trades.”

McPherson says, “We’re disappointed that our Motueka project was not funded in this round of Streets for People, but we are actively chasing another opportunity to gain funding through a central government Carbon Emission Reduction Fund, also known as ‘Transport Choices’”.

He expects to hear whether that is successful by November.