Work to finalise the Streets Alive trials – initiatives aimed at making Gore’s streets safer, more accessible for everyone and the town more people-friendly – is continuing apace behind the scenes.
Gore district Roading Asset Manager and Project Lead Peter Standring said the team has been working really hard to line up projects across the town.
“We are looking at trialling adjustments to a few key roads to calm traffic and improve safety for everyone.”
“On some roads we will look to make crossing the traffic safer by introducing pavement marking and planters to narrow the travelling carriageway. This will not only reduce the crossing distance for pedestrians and cyclists but also lower the average traffic speeds.”
“We’ll also be organising more creative interventions such as street art, a play trial area and pocket parks – spaces in urban areas where people can sit and relax, or children can enjoy an activity such as hopscotch.”
The Streets Alive trials will begin being rolled out in March 2021. Community engagement in the latter half of this year gave the team six key themes to work with.
“This is a great opportunity for the Gore community to trial adjustments to our roading network and other lively community initiatives aimed at improving our quality of life.”
“The important word to remember here is `trial’. The initiatives are three-month trials. Community feedback will determine whether the initiatives become long-term,” Mr Standring said. The success of this project is dependent on the community’s feedback.
“Over the past few months we’ve been talking with community representatives about some of the planned initiatives and getting their initial feedback. We’ve been really encouraged by what people are telling us while establishing this project,” Mr Standring said.
Detailed information about the proposed trials will be publicised in late February and early March to let the community know what’s happening before the trials get underway.
“Alongside the community feedback we will be monitoring the initiatives to measure how effective and efficient they are, before any long-term change and investment decisions are made,” he said.
Background on Streets Alive
Launched earlier this year with $900,000 funding from Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency, Streets Alive is a community-driven project focusing on making Gore safer, more accessible and more people-friendly for everyone to move around, and to increase the town’s vibrancy. Trial projects will be assembled from six key themes that emerged from community engagement on the project:
- Improvements to ease congestion and improve safety outcomes
- Signage and wayfinding
- Safer road crossings
- A pedestrianised priority area
- Creative street spaces
- Connecting spaces and places around Gore for walking and cycling.
To gather the community’s views on the outcomes it wants for Gore, the Council ran a series of community conversations including sector workshops with parents with young children, youth, older
people, and business as well as four other community workshops. Public drop-ins were held in mid-September. People could also give feedback online through the Council’s Let’s Talk Kōrero Mai
website.