Pushing ‘mode shift’ on Grey St is stupid

Roger Handford

Opinion

I have never heard or read of anything so stupid as the “mode shift” being pushed upon the citizens of Gisborne by the council, NZTA and a few blind enthusiasts of walking, cycling and skateboarding.

And of course, the self-proclaimed “protectors of our children” and the little group who have bullied their way into taking over Grey Street.

Stupid, illogical, unreasonable and undemocratic are just a few of the “un-” words that spring to mind.

Yes, that is a scathing assessment, and I stand by every word.

Every city, large or small, depends on two major features — thriving businesses and an efficient transport network to connect them and with the rest of the nation.

The Grey Street remake (temporary, we are assured!) ignores this fact.

It brushes aside the fact that motorised vehicles are, by far, the dominant mode of passenger and goods transport — whether we like it or not.

Roads are for vehicles — not pedestrians. Strangle your roads and you strangle the efficient and timely movement of those the roads serve — whether businesses or commuters.

That Grey Street is a major city road is beyond doubt — the traffic counts on it and surrounding roads establishes that. It connects the CBD, Gladstone, Childers, Palmerston and Awapuni roads — all major routes in and out — and through — the city.

Aerial/satellite photos showing the black of tyre marks indicate roads with high use. Grey Street is one of those roads — also confirmed by the traffic count data available through NZTA (New Zealand Transport Agency/Waka Kotahi).

That data indicate the traffic count for Awapuni Road, east of Grey Street, this year averaged 6911 vehicles a day over seven days, of which 25 percent, or 1727, were heavy vehicles.

That is even more than the number of heavy vehicles going on and off the Gladstone Road traffic bridge at the Wainui end. There the daily traffic count stands at 20,232, of which 3 percent (or 606) are heavy vehicles.

The point is — Grey Street is a major connector for vehicles coming from both out of town, the industrial subdivision, from the port and traffic from the whole CBD area.

It is used by visitors/tourists accessing the beach, Waikanae Holiday Park, as well as vehicles delivering to the many business on that side of the CBD.

To be blunt, the council should never have allowed any kind of young person’s facilities to be developed at the old skating rink site on Grey Street; and the current development should have taken traffic to on-site parking accessed off Kahutia Street.

Finally, this business of “mode shift” is no one’s business but the public’s. It is up to individuals and families on how they want to go from A to B and how they want their children to get about.

Tinkering with one street (or pretend pedestrian crossing) at a time is insane — it is obvious there is no overall concept for the future, and forcing people to walk or cycle is certainly something one would expect from a place like North Korea.

As a parting shot at all this stupidity — at a cost which has now reached $900,000 — I wonder how many potholes that would fix? Or how many housing units it would enable? A gross waste of public money.