Tipping point for Taupō wheelchair travellers

Pam McLeod keeps an eye on traffic before attempting to cross Rifle Range Rd. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

Feeling safe on the streets of Taupō literally depends on how you roll.

Pam McLeod can often be seen zipping out the gates of her home at St Johns Wood and making a beeline down Tamamutu St to Rifle Range Rd.

She's a dab hand on the electric wheelchair – a requirement since a stroke two years ago meant relearning how to use her right side.

It's also meant relearning how to get out and about on the streets of Taupō township.

The brief journey up Tamamutu St and onto the other side of Rifle Range Rd to see her son, is one she does often, but it gets a bit complicated.

"It's only a few streets up, but it's a mammoth effort."

Some of the corners have metal plates to assist those on mobility scooters and wheelchairs, but they are not quite in the right place to complete the journey.

Overgrown bushes on footpaths, slick shady areas and steep kerbs make it almost impossible to do the journey without assistance, in her mode of transport.

"And the rubbish doesn't help either. People leave their beer bottles, and they are all broken."

She is often left half on and half off the road with the main wheels spinning in mid-air at the deepest part of a footpath accessway.

"I have to find a driveway that is easy to get up on both sides of the road and sometimes I go backwards down the kerb because it's safer."

On a recent journey she had to be helped twice by passers-by to get the wheels back on track.

Taupō District Council infrastructure manager Denis Lewis says they work with the Access Taupō Reference Group - a group of residents with various disabilities - on mobility access within the town.

"The group proactively identifies accessibility issues for council's attention."

The group meets with council staff every six weeks to discuss mobility access and issues.

"Council also makes an effort to keep the group involved with plans for new developments and subdivisions so that members can look at what's proposed, suggest improvements and provide their feedback on how well things will work for disabled users."

Denis says the most common problems disabled people encounter are at letdowns - pedestrian crossing points where the kerb slopes down to the road.

"Letdowns need to be suitable for wheelchairs and walkers."

The group also considers things like mobility parking spaces, pavement surfaces and tactiles - the raised yellow plastic dots and rectangles at crossing points that are helpful for sight-impaired people.

He says they haven't been alerted to a specific problem at the Tamamutu-Rifle Range intersection, but are always happy to look at other improvements that people suggest, such as modifying letdowns to make them safe and accessible.

He encourages anyone who sees an access problem to lodge a service request with the council and it will be followed up.