From Thursday 24th July until Monday 25th August at 5pm you can check out the two options for Rocks Road and send your feedback to council. Details on how and where to do this are at the bottom of this post.
It’s great to see this effort to improve a critical transport and recreational route into and out of Nelson. We think there’s an opportunity here to give both walkers and cyclists a much better experience of this remarkable stretch of our coastline, and to make using the route safer for those who wish to cycle between Tahunanui and town, whether as commuters, shoppers, tourists, school children, or for recreational purposes.
As we’ve said before on this page, the best option will spread the available space more evenly, which will mean a different compromise to the one we currently have; least compromised at present are motor vehicles, most compromised are cyclists and walkers. Rebalancing this will mean some degree of loss of space for motor vehicles, primarily in parking.
We don’t have a view that one of these two Rocks Road options ‘must’ be implemented. Trying to meet a balance of walking, cycling, driving, parking and recreational use in the limited space available is a challenging task. It may be that we just don’t think this is possible, and that, after looking closely at the concepts, we can't support either of the options. But we like to make our decisions based on evidence, not on fear or on wishful thinking.
BNB has always supported conducting a thorough, independent feasibility study into improving this route. While another lobby group has attempted to block this opportunity to investigate what’s possible, and to stop Nelson residents having a say in the decision-making, we think this is too important an opportunity to be captured by narrow, interest-group politics.
BNB will look closely at the material provided by council on the project and will post our views on the options soon - once we’ve considered the designs and their implications. We welcome your ideas and opinions throughout this process. We all have a month to think this over carefully, so let’s do that.
A description of the concepts, including an online feedback form is on the Council website, here (from thurs):
http://nelson.govt.nz/services/transport/creating-travel-choices/rocks-road-walking-and-cycling
Displays on the concepts and background material will also be at the Stoke, Tahunanui and main library (Halifax Street), and at the Civic Offices, 110 Trafalgar St. You can also learn more and give feedback at the following Open Days: