Crossing plan fails to appease
Mapua Country Store owner Kirsten Ammann says she does not want to look when children try to cross Aranui Rd outside her store.
‘‘You do definitely hold your breath,’’ she said. ‘‘This corner is notorious.’’
Aranui Rd is a main entrance to the popular and growing seaside village of Mapua, near Nelson. It meets the sweeping bend of the 60kmh Mapua Dr as the latter becomes Stafford Drive outside Mapua Country Store.
Mapua School is on Stafford Dr, diagonally opposite the store. The quickest route to the primary school for children coming down the hill on the footpath next to Mapua Dr is to cross Aranui Rd outside the store.
However, it’s not the route they are supposed to take. Children walking down the hill from the expanding residential areas above, including the Mapua Rise subdivision, are encouraged to walk through Aranui Park and cross Aranui Rd further along the street, well clear of the busy intersection. But that takes longer. Ammann said she did see some children, perhaps running late for school, who elected that shorter, risky route and crossed outside her store, causing her concern.
Those concerns had not been allayed by Tasman District Council plans to construct a pedestrian refuge in the centre of Aranui Drive outside her store.
Ammann said a zebra crossing would have been better.
‘‘Everyone knows by law, you [motorists] have to stop for pedestrians.’’
However, Ammann said she understood a zebra crossing could not be installed at an intersection but wondered why it could not be placed further along Aranui Rd, near the entrance to the park.
Council engineering services manager Richard Kirby said some people would always choose the shorter route and the planned ref- uge was designed to make it safer for those people who did elect to cross Aranui Rd outside the store.
‘‘It’s people’s behaviour – they just shoot across the intersection,’’ he said.
Ammann said a lot of people could not understand the reasoning behind the planned refuge.
‘‘Most of the community who know about this see the position of it as wrong and dangerous,’’ she said. ‘‘They would like to see a proper crossing further down. It’s like dodgems. It seems to make no sense.’’
Mapua mum Nicqui Kurzeja said she would not allow her daughter, Mazzy Maclean, 7, to cross at that spot.
‘‘You’ve got buses coming out of school, traffic from Tasman village travelling on Stafford Drive, traffic coming down Mapua Drive from Mapua Rise and along Aranui Rd from Mapua village,’’ Kurzeja said. ‘‘Trucks, vans, cars – at the busiest of times, it’s insane.’’
The Mapua Drive-Stafford Drive section was a 60kmh zone but some motorists were travelling at 65kmh when they came down the hill from Mapua Rise; others took the bend too fast, she said.
‘‘If there were traffic lights, that would change it.’’
Kurzeja questioned why a barrier already in place between the store and Mapua Drive was not extended around the corner to Aranui Drive to help prevent people crossing at the intersection.
However, Kirby said some people still climbed over such barriers. He confirmed vehicles would continue to have the right of way once the refuge was installed.
‘‘It is going to be dangerous,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s how can we make this as safe as we can.’’
Discussions had been held with many members of the community, including the school, and it was determined a refuge in the centre of the street was the best option.
The installation of the refuge, which was part of a planned upgrade of the intersection, was scheduled for late February, he said.