Sharing spaces on the streets

By Mary Anne Gill

Erik Van Der Wel is part of a team at the forefront of getting Waipā residents out of their cars and onto a network where they can safely walk, bike or scooter.

The $10.9 million to build a district-wide Urban Mobility Network over the next eight years is already underway and will start ramping up soon on both sides of the district.

Van Der Wel, the Transportation programme engineer, joined deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk and Cambridge Community Board chair Jo Davies-Colley to show The News the start of a safe route from the town which will eventually connect to the Te Awa Cycle way at St Peter’s School west of Cambridge.

To say the project has been mired in controversy is an understatement.

It started with the experimental ‘Streets for People’ with its polka dots and pink traffic sticks and on the way resulted in the closure of a popular dairy in Grey Street as the street was sealed off to accommodate the first stage of the two-way Hamilton Road Cycleway.

Stolwyk and Van Der Wel both conceded there were parts of those projects that were not well communicated.

And as we stop for a photo in a Shared Zone space at the northern intersection of Grey Street and Hamilton Road – the through route to Cambridge Middle School which has seen a huge increase in cycling and scooter numbers since ‘Streets for People’ – the communication confusion is obvious as cars assume control of the space.

Explaining what a Shared Zone space is to all users is a priority as these spaces will form part of the future network.

“We know most people want fewer cars on our roads and safe pathways for mobility scooters, e-scooters and walkers,” Stolwyk said last year when the government announced Waipā would get up to $10.4 million from its Climate Emergency Relief Fund.

That money will go on two projects – a linked pedestrian and cycleway connecting Kihikihi Town Centre with the primary school and domain – and the protected pathways in Cambridge West taking in the new housing opposite Te Awa Village.

Stolwyk chairs a governance group which meets regularly to establish a shortlist of priority options for the network on both sides of the district.

Its next job next month will be to develop short list options from the project team’s strategic case.

The council will seek further community input at in-person drop in sessions and an online Zoom webinar.

Davies-Colley has three children who cycle regularly to and from school and she often accompanies them. She is aware of the issues all road users experience and wants to ensure the community is involved. The same is true in Te Awamutu and Kihikihi where the community board there is taking an active interest in the network which will eventually link the two communities together.

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