Who’s driving whom?

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Life’s full of surprises! Out of the blue comes “A plan to get us moving” (front page Jan 23).

And what a surprise; after spending around half a million dollars on building a roundabout to replace the traffic lights at the bridge end of Peel Street, we are now being told of a plan to get rid of roundabouts so as to favour cyclists and pedestrians over motorists.

But that’s not all. Reading on, we get “. . . providing quality way finding and regional narratives, council’s active travel network must reflect the people of this region, where they live, where they are going and the stories they want to tell about their home”.

Who writes this stuff?

But the bigger question is, on whose instruction or under whose authority was the author of this plan working? Did Gisborne District Council, at a public meeting, decide such a study was necessary and direct the chief executive to commence work on it, or was this a staff initiative?

I’m all for encouraging cycling, but I think the safety of cyclists lies with educating them how to interact with vehicular traffic, rather than making things difficult for motorists.

Neither bicycles nor public transport would meet the needs of many people for whom access to the city centre by car is a necessity, not a choice.

Councillors should exercise the authority given to them by the electorate, throw this plan in the receptacle under the desk, and instruct the CEO to focus on the more important and urgent matters that require attention.

Peter Wooding