The pop up cycleway on Wilson street
Waipā District Council has opened feedback lines for the Streets for People project which has apparently polarised Cambridge residents.
The project which has seen a series of temporary changes made to streets in Cambridge and has prompted a raft of letters to the News editor.
Residents are now being asked to have their say on the 25 temporary changes which have been implemented across a network of streets over the past month.
The project aims to make streets safer and easier for people to walk, by trialling what the council says are easy to implement and cost-effective changes.
Some of the changes being trialled include a pop-up cycleway on Wilson and Duke streets, pink and blue polka dots at several intersections and temporary speed humps on Bryce Street.
There have been complaints the emergency services have been snookered by the changes and that the props and polka dots are a distraction and defeat their purpose. Others argue they will improve safety.
Waipā District Council service delivery group manager Dawn Inglis said the complete network was now in place and “we’d like to hear from those who are using it about whether the temporary installations are working as they should be or whether some need to be adjusted”.
“We knew going into this that not every concept would be 100% perfect which is why we use a trial and error method. The feedback enables us to work together with our community to identify the best solutions for the town.”
Inglis said hundreds of pieces of feedback had already been received via social media, in person and through the Streets for People website -and they had prompted some early tweaking.
The 10 speed cushions installed on Bryce Street had been reduced to five, additional signs had been installed at the intersection of Wilson and Duke streets to alert drivers of a new one-way system on upper Duke Street and a number of orange ‘hit sticks’ have been removed.
The trial is 90 per cent funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and is one of more than 21 trials underway across New Zealand.
Residents can have their say online at www.streetsforpeople.nz or collect a hardcopy survey to fill in from the Cambridge Library and Waipā District Council office on 23 Wilson Street, Cambridge.
