The Regional Council has adopted the Regional Land Transport Strategy 2008. This strategy was prepared in conjunction with representatives from across Hawke's Bay who sit on the Regional Land Transport Committee. It involved three rounds of public consultation and the consideration of 71 submissions received on the draft document.
Click here to download the complete Regional Land Transport Strategy 2008, pdf file, 3.63Mb.
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The critical issue for land transport in Hawke’s Bay is ensuring a good balance between competing needs and values. The Land Transport Management Act and the Land Transport Act (1998) requires consideration to be given to a range of values: economic development, safety and personal security, access and mobility, public health and environmental sustainability. In addition, the land transport vision for the region aims for:
“an integrated, safe and affordable land transport system that contributes to the current and future economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Hawke’s Bay”
Each of these values must be considered within the scope of limited funding.
The development of this strategy has identified (through several phases of consultation and review) a range of issues that the strategy is seeking to deal with, as well as a range of issues identified in previous strategic studies. In particular, the following issues are all highly relevant:
- The movement of freight
- Passenger transport
- Conflict over the use of Marine Parade
- Provision of walking and cycling facilities
- Traffic demand management
- Wider sustainability implications
- Dealing appropriately with growth and land use changes
- Improvements to key land transport routes to improve efficiency and route security
This strategy details these issues then offers potential solutions by setting out outcomes which the strategy aims to achieve.
The general overview of the strategy is to set out the issues facing the region, provide a range of broad and specific options sought then to use these to develop an overall strategic direction for land transport within the funding constraints faced by the region.
Consultation was undertaken in 2006 regarding a range of potential directions that the strategy could move towards (outlined in Section 5). From this consultation and input from the Technical Advisory Group, an overall strategy was developed.
The overall strategy has 6 key action areas, developed taking into account a range of views. The list of key action areas and their associated actions are set out in the tables below.
Key Action Areas:
- Traffic calm Havelock Road and provide safer access for cyclists
- Progressively introduce travel planning in to schools and major work places.
- Encourage HDC and NCC to investigate the introduction of charges for long stay car parking in their respective central business districts.
- Napier City Council to implement traffic calming measures to limit heavy goods vehicles allowed to access Marine Parade.
(a) Heretaunga Plains priorities
- Prebensen Drive improvements ($21m)
- Awatoto – Expressway Link ($7m)
- Southern Expressway extension ($10.5m)
- Hastings Northern Arterial ($18.5m)
- Passing lanes, SH 2 south of Hastings
- Whakatu Outlet ($4.7 m)
(b) Rural priorities
- Matahorua Gorge realignment ($24m)
- Otane Cemetery passing lane
- Tarawera Hill realignment ($4.9m)
- Waipukurau Overbridge. ($6.2m)
- Passing opportunities SH2 north of Napier
- Recognition of the importance of the Napier-Taihape Road
- Ensure that new road provision and design helps reduce traffic congestion and encourages passenger transport operation.
- Territorial Authorities to Adopt the New Zealand Urban Design Protocols
- Development of improved stormwater management regimes
- Develop Stock Truck Effluent Sites
- Promote the inclusion of provisions to better integrate land use and transport in district and regional planning documents
- Identify areas of peak road usage and provide additional road space by removing peak time parking at those locations and using the additional space for peak hour traffic or bus lanes where appropriate.
- Ensure reference is made to the Regional Land Transport Strategy in the Regional Policy Statement
- Develop a communication strategy
- Establish an electronic database of interested people and groups
- Produce a regular newsletter to update the community on transport issues
- RLTS reporting to include an assessment of consistency with other documents
- Ongoing provision for land transport safety programmes.
- Advocate to the heavy transport industry the availability of alternative preferred routes to the Port of Napier and north bound traffic.
- Investigate the development of an inland rail head for Port of Napier goods traffic
- Encourage the use of the proposed Port of Napier inland rail head
- Investigate the provision of a summer weekend passenger rail service to Gisborne.
(a) Passenger Transport
- Competitively tender all passenger transport services to ensure value for money.
- Promote and advertise all passenger transport services.
- Improve bus travel uptake by staff and students at EIT as a model for improvements elsewhere throughout the network.
- Promote and provide more passenger transport services between Havelock North and Hastings with direct or connecting services to the Hastings hospital, EIT and Napier City.
- Provide additional passenger transport services in the urban areas of Napier and Hastings.
- Investigate free all day parking areas on the Napier to Hastings bus route for use as park and ride sites.
- Provide passenger transport priority measures on main routes to improve service reliability at appropriate locations.
- Periodically review the need for passenger transport services throughout the region.
- Encourage Hastings District Council and Napier City Council to investigate, and if appropriate provide, free all day parking areas on the Napier to Hastings bus routes for use as park and ride facilities.
- Provide additional passenger transport services where appropriate.
(b) Walking and Cycling
- Progressively implement district Walking and Cycling Strategies through to 2011/12.
- Implement the actions set out in the National Walking and Cycling Strategy “Getting there – on foot, by cycle”.
- Ensure cyclists have adequate road space on key arterial routes, as identified in TLA walking and cycling strategies.
- Walking school buses.
- Produce promotional maps for the walking and cycling networks.