What is the Accessible Streets programme?
Accessible Streets is a 20-year programme designed to provide more active travel options by delivering a connected network of cycleways throughout Tauranga for people of all ages and abilities. It will also provide safer intersections, safer crossings, and speed tables in key areas to make it safer to walk and easier to catch a bus.
Read more about Accessible Streets
Why Ōtūmoetai Peninsula?
Ōtūmoetai Peninsula is identified as a priority area to deliver safe, convenient, healthy, and environmentally friendly travel choices due to its expected growth and the high number of trips that can easily be taken by foot, bus, bike, or scooter. Schools, community hubs, shops and reserves, as well as the city centre, are all within a reasonable distance for car-free travel.
What people living on the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula have already told us
Over the past five years we have asked you how you move around the city and your community. Tauranga is one of the most car-reliant cities in New Zealand, but people living in Tauranga and on the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula have told us they would choose to cycle to places such as the shops, parks, or work if they felt safer on the roads.
In 2020, people living in Brookfield, Judea, Bellevue, Ōtūmoetai and Matua told us as part of the Whakahou Taketake Vital Update survey that they valued being close to parks/ cycleways/ walkways/ reserves and wanted better road infrastructure, less congestion, and improved cycleways.
Recent feedback on the Take me to the future: Ōtūmoetai 2050 project, which will create a plan for the future of this area, showed that people on the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula would like:
- Neighbourhoods that are well connected to other neighbourhoods and connect to other centres outside of the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula
- Safer walking and cycling routes.
What does this mean for the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula?
Accessible Streets aims to deliver improvements on primary routes that provide people who live, learn, work, and play on the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula better travel choices and enable them to connect to schools and the city centre. This will include:
- 12km of new cycleways designed for all ages and abilities
- safer and more convenient road crossings at key intersections
- better access to public transport through improved pedestrian crossings
- improvements to bus stops and bus shelters
- creating neighbourhood streets in some key locations by providing traffic calming installations to minimise excessive speed and improve safety
- improved bus journey or travel times at key locations.
These improvements will enable more people to safely and confidently walk, bike or bus and reduce the number of vehicles on our roads.
The primary cycling and bus routes and multimodal areas
We have identified the primary cycling and bus routes that will connect the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula to Te Papa/city centre via Cameron Road at two central locations: Chapel Street and Waihi Road.
These two locations will be what is known as multimodal areas. A multimodal area is a road or space that supports the use of a number of different transportation modes such as cars, buses, pedestrians and cyclists. In these areas, we need to consider what the best options are to suit all transport modes. This could be creating a safe cycleway for cyclists, improving crossing points for pedestrians and providing bus lanes, while making sure vehicles can still easily use the road.
Accessible Streets - Ōtūmoetai Peninsula map (135kb pdf)
What are we doing now?
We have an opportunity to seek funding from the Government to develop the Accessible Streets programme. We are working alongside our partners to develop a 'business case' to evaluate the benefits, costs, and risks of various cycleway options before we reach a final solution. Among the things we need to consider when reviewing the options are individual community needs, how it will affect local commercial/retail centres, environmental and cultural areas of importance, and how the primary routes will connect to schools and the Te Papa peninsula and city centre.
If the business case is approved, we can proceed with the next stages of the project, including detailed design and construction.
Next steps
Right now, we’re investigating how to make it easier for people to travel on the primary cycle and bus routes. Some of the options propose changes, such as removal of on-street parking, removal of traffic lanes to make way for bus or transit lanes, the installation of median barriers that may prevent turning onto side roads and converting some sections of road to one-way only.
Tell us what you think by taking our online survey. You can complete as much, or as little, of the survey as you choose. You can provide general feedback only, general feedback on the project types, and/or feedback on specific sections of the routes. Your feedback will be used to inform the development of a preferred option. If the business case for this preferred option is approved for funding, we will consult with you on this early next year.
Take a look at the bus priority areas, cycleways and Neighbourhood Streets options below and/or watch the webinar for more information.
Bus priority areas Cycleways Neighbourhood Streets
Webinar
We recently held a webinar to give people an opportunity to learn more about the project.
How to give your feedback
- Take the survey
- Email us: accessiblestreets@tauranga.govt.nz
- Drop in to one of our community sessions at the Church of Christ, 258 Ngatai Road, Ōtūmoetai:
- Wednesday, 14 September, 4pm-6pm
- Thursday, 15 September, 12pm-2pm and 4pm-6pm
- Freepost your feedback to: Freepost Authority Number 370, Tauranga City Council, Accessible Streets for Ōtūmoetai Peninsula , Private Bag 12022, Tauranga 3143.
Consultation closes Sunday 25 September 2022