Raglanites say that Waikato District Council one-way traffic system has turned the Cliff St esplanade reserve into a car park.
Cliff Street resident Dr Shaw Mead said, “Great outcome with the one-way street, a week in and the ‘parking problem’ has been solved, NOT!, it’s worse because now that we’re one-way everyone is parking on the side of the road next to the reserve, which never occurred on the past. Apart from the negative impact on the people that use the esplanade reserve (both local and from the wider Waikato Region), we now get to look at a line of cars rather than the harbour. On the bright side, perhaps our rates will come down.”
When Raglan 23 put these queries to the Ngaruawahia based council: “Residents are saying that the permanent roadworks and one way system that council recently introduced in Cliff St, Raglan is a failure with the street now turned into a car park. And it seems cars are ignoring the one signs. Will council have stop / go staff on duty at the roadworks during the holiday period to ensure safety?”
In its response the council confirmed it is not using scientific traffic counter measurements to assess the impact of the one way system. “Our senior transport engineer is looking at Cliff St three or four times a week. While respecting the opinions of residents that you have correspondence with, the feedback from people who use Cliff St that we have received has largely been positive. This has been via face-to-face conversations.
We have been told that it was very calm and safe driving down the road compared to what it used to be like.
Another piece of useful feedback was a suggestion to add two more directional arrows on the road itself to reinforce the directional flow.
With regard to the parking issue, it is our opinion that the parking on the reserve side of the road is the same as it was before the one way system was started.
We will continue to monitor the one-way system during the summer.”
Cliff Street resident John Lawson said, “I’m still seeing about a dozen cars a day going the ‘wrong’ way, probably because there’s no advance warning of the scheme and some of the signs look as though they’re warning drivers to look for stop/go, rather than ’no entry’ or ‘turn right’.”
In a reply to a letter from John Lawson, Roger MacCulloch, Acting General Manager – Service Delivery for Waikato District Council, said, “Any permanent decision to make it a one way road must be reflected in the Public Places Bylaw. Targeted consultation with affected residents has been completed and resulted in an over whelming majority of support (I understand that you have already been provided with the numbers – please let me know if this is incorrect). A report is being prepared for the February Policy and Regulatory Committee Meeting recommending the permanent One Way system be adopted.
However due to increasing traffic numbers over the peak summer period which cause greater safety risks to traffic and pedestrians, our Road Safety Engineer recommended that the road be placed under Temporary Traffic Management. This was approved by the Traffic Management Coordinator (TMC) and will provide an opportunity to review the effectiveness of the one way road during the peak times and make any necessary changes prior to Council making its decision on the permanent proposal.
We believe the one way road is operating safely and effectively and we have been receiving positive feedback from locals and residents.”