An antiques shop owner says he may have to close if carparks are ditched in favour of cycleways in Richmond.
Tasman District Council plans to replace the carparking with separated cycleways along both sides of upper Queen Street, between Salisbury Road and Hill Street, as part of the Streets for People programme.
Some carparks are slated to go outside Richmond Antiques and Curios, on the corner of upper Queen Street and Salisbury Road.
Co-owner Kevin Hannah said the availability of carparks is a major factor that businesses consider when establishing themselves.
“If you take all those carparks out, then where do our clients park?” he asked.
“It will seriously have a major effect on this business to the point where we’ll either look at closing down or relocating.”
Co-owner Maria Martin said the council was good at keeping them up-to-date on the plans, but they couldn’t reach a compromise.
Council tried to work with them by asking for suggestions, she said.
"But every time they came back it was ‘no, we can’t do that'."
“The council needs to look after their businesses and keep them viable and vibrant for Richmond to be an interesting place.”
Hannah and Martin suggested that the street should become a 30km/h shared zone for cyclists and drivers, like the section that passes through Richmond’s town centre, so parking could stay.
Upper Queen Street resident Jill Knowles also wanted the carparks to remain.
“We’ve seen how many cycles go down, there’s very little, and it just means we have no parking for our friends or family that come.”
Knowles said there should have been more consultation.
“We are ratepayers, we should be informed.”
Local Democracy Reporting visited 10 random properties along the affected stretch of road.
Only four residents knew about the plans, but one hadn’t had any updates since last year, and another was on the council’s working group for the project.
Their reception to the plan was largely negative with the plan being called “ridiculous” and a “waste of time”.
One resident was generally supportive of improving cycling access but wasn't sure if the need was there, while another would prefer the 30kmh zone suggestion.
Council’s communication about the plans began with its Walking and Cycling Strategy that was consulted on in February 2022 and received almost 240 responses, 80% of which were supportive of its targets.
Jamie McPherson, council’s transportation manager, said all residents on streets affected by the strategy had letters dropped inviting them to submit on the plans.
An open-invite community working group has been involved in the design process.
Council also had direct discussions with affected businesses, while about 4000 flyers have been distributed to affected residents.
Further information was due to be delivered to upper Queen St residents this week.
Council data showed less than a quarter of people walk or cycle for trips under 2km.
There would be an additional 16,600 vehicles on Tasman’s roads in 2050 if that rate continued.
The council aims to increase the proportion of people walking and cycling for under 2km trips to 60% by 2050, to help ease congestion and reduce carbon emissions.
McPherson said that 45% of people who currently drive to work or school would rather bike and that the “number one thing” that council could do to encourage people to make the shift was to make cycling safer.
“Queen Street is currently a dangerous street for cyclists, so we consider there to be suppressed demand,” he said. “Nationally and internationally, we see that when you build it, they will come.”
McPherson said 30km/h zones reduced the severity of accidents between cyclists and vehicles but don’t necessarily reduce their frequency.
“With intermittent parking, cyclists often feel forced into parking bays or into the ‘dooring zone’ of parked cars,” he said.
“The key goal to get more people on bikes is to improve the actual and perceived safety.”
Research shows separated cycleways have been successful in achieving this goal.
Before the separated cycleways were installed along a stretch of Salisbury Road, 53.7% of people reported they thought the area was unsafe or very unsafe.
Now that the cycleways have been installed, the number of people feeling unsafe or very unsafe has decreased to 18.3% while an extra 22.6% of people feel safe or very safe on the road.
McPherson said the council was working towards the “critically important” goal of having a connected network of safe cycleways across Richmond to satisfy the up to 60% of people who are “interested but concerned” cyclists.
“All it takes to dissuade someone from choosing to cycle for any given trip could be one particularly unsafe spot along their entire journey.”
The cycleways are expected to be installed in November and will be reassessed after a year.
By Local Democracy Reporting's Max Frethey
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
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