Palmerston North City Council looks forward to report on Vogel St safety improvements

The city council says the lack of an explicitly obvious roading hierarchy along Vogel St had led to it increasingly being used by heavy vehicles. Photos / Judith Lacy

Vogel St has competing modes of travel, but is not designed to cater for them all.

That is the assessment of a report to Palmerston North City Council by transport and development group manager Hamish Featonby.

At its last meeting before the local elections, the council received the report on the Vogel St safety investigation plan and noted a report on implementation options for safety improvements will be presented to it early next year.

The report says Vogel St is a 2.1km minor arterial road that provides a connection to major arterial roads Tremaine Ave, Railway Rd and Main St. Vogel St also connects to Featherston St, another minor arterial road.

As well as cars, trucks, buses, cyclists and children walking to school, Vogel St is part of the Te Araroa Trail, which connects Cape Reinga to Bluff.

The volume of traffic in Vogel St ranges from 12,000 vehicles a day between Rata and Featherston Sts to 6900 vehicles a day north of Upper Main St. Of these vehicle movements, about 860 are trucks, an average of one every two minutes.

The lack of an explicitly obvious roading hierarchy along Vogel St had led to it increasingly being used by heavy vehicles, the report says. However, it is not a designated freight route, nor is it planned to be.

On its website under the heading road hierarchy, Waka Kotahi says the importance of the routes and their traffic volumes are the main factors that should determine the level of road markings and delineation devices.

The council report says Vogel St is a residential street and the road structure and layout were not designed for significant heavy vehicle use.

In May, Roslyn resident Rod Pik presented a petition signed by 568 people to the council asking for Vogel St to be made safer.

The report says as well as "very high" traffic volumes, there is a lack of pedestrian crossings, and no safe space for cyclists.

Since 2016, there have been 51 recorded crashes in Vogel St. Two vehicle-on-vehicle crashes resulted in serious injuries. Two involved a pedestrian and a vehicle, the report says.

As a residential street, there are engineering limitations to what can be done to resolve safety issues because of a lack of space. Facilities like cycle lanes, refuges and right-turn bays could be incorporated only by reallocating road space or adjusting kerb and channels, which would affect street trees and lighting, and vehicle access.

The report says work is already underway to get a transport model for the city that will inform longer-term decision-making regarding the strategic intent of Vogel St.

Funding has been approved to raise the pedestrian crossing at the Kipling St intersection to reduce vehicle speeds and improve pedestrian safety.

The report anticipated construction of the raised crossing would happen in October. At the time of writing, work has not started.

At the meeting last month, councillor Brent Barrett asked how street trees are valued in such scenarios. An officer told him a vegetation framework would apply to the trees there.

Barrett said Vogel St residents face risks every single day. He acknowledged good things take time, but urged the council to act as rapidly as possible to address concerns raised by hundreds of people.

Six ginkgo trees on the Vogel St berm, between Milton and Rata Sts, look like they were planted recently. The council could only tell the Manawatū Guardian the trees were planted "recently this year".

This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air