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Carlyle Street - Streets for People

Carlyle Street

Feedback from the Napier community has highlighted that there is an opportunity to make Carlyle Street a safer route for people to travel. We are exploring ways to make the road less congested, easier to cross, safer for schoolchildren and commuters who are walking and biking, and more accessible for all.

Previous research has shown that the community finds Carlyle Street to be an extremely busy and unpredictable place to drive, walk or cycle through. Around a third of drivers and pedestrians felt unsafe when using the street, as did the majority of cyclists. Students have been involved in ‘near misses’ on their way to and from school, as have drivers accessing local businesses.

Napier City Council is being supported by Waka Kotahi to work with the local community to calm traffic, increase feelings of safety, and make the area a more enjoyable place to spend time in. We are keen to hear your feedback on the area, as this will shape the improvements that are made. Once we have some viable ideas, we will trial them temporarily and continue to incorporate feedback before making any permanent changes. A thorough analysis of traffic, speeds, and accessibility will also inform the final decision.

Options can include:

  • Improvements to pedestrian crossing points.
  • Changes to improve the safety and flow of intersections.
  • Improving links to existing cycle networks.
  • Widening of kerbs to increase accessibility for pedestrians, and those using prams and mobility aids.
  • Changes to increase visibility at entrances and exits along the street.
  • Traffic calming measures to reduce unpredictable and unsafe driver behaviour.
  • Acknowledgment of the area’s history by incorporating artistic and cultural elements.
  • Safety improvements to encourage active transport to the three surrounding schools, to reduce congestion during school drop-off and pick-up times. 

 

Streets for people Tile
Streets for people tile
Streets for people tile
Streets for people tile

Streets for People Timeline V2


Frequently Asked Questions

It was selected by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, in the latest round of ‘Streets for People’ projects. These projects utilise flexible, temporary changes to make streets more people-friendly and encourage low-carbon forms of transport. They aim to improve our urban environments to benefit those who use them to commute, local businesses, and the environment. Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has awarded Napier City Council $676,000 to work with the community on this project, with a further 10 percent of funding provided by Council from existing transport budgets.

Carlyle Street has been prioritised based on community feedback around safety, its busy nature as a corridor, crash data and its proximity to schools, childcare centres, and medical facilities. Previous research has provided clear data to show that improvements need to be made. We also know we need to encourage low-carbon modes of transport to reduce our carbon emissions, but our urban spaces heavily favour car journeys over active forms of transport.

Temporary changes are normally designed to be installed quickly, and also easily removed. Generally they will be in place for long enough to accurately determine their impact and to get good community feedback (both of which can change over time). The length of time needed depends on the type of change, but is normally several months to a year.

Napier City Council is working with an independent research company FOLKL to understand the community’s perception of the area, through methods such as:

  • Developing a citizen’s panel of people who know the area well, to help decide what changes will be most effective.
  • Running a benchmarking survey to compare how safe people feel in the area.
  • Speaking to local businesses, organisations and schools to understand their concerns and ideas for improvement.
  • Conversations with mana whenua to understand how best to acknowledge the area’s significance to Māori and place within Napier’s history.
  • Traffic analysis software to measure speed, different forms of transport, use of space, and congestion.
  • Incorporation of previous research, which involved local businesses, workers, residents, and over 1,000 members of the wider community.
  • An accessibility audit to understand what improvements could make the area easier and safer to navigate.
  • Improvements to pedestrian crossing points.
  • Changes to improve the safety and flow of intersections.
  • Improving links to existing cycle networks.
  • Widening of kerbs to increase accessibility for pedestrians, and those using prams and mobility aids.
  • Changes to increase visibility at entrances and exits along the street
  • Traffic calming measures to reduce unpredictable and unsafe driver behaviour.
  • Acknowledgment of the area’s history by incorporating artistic and cultural elements.
  • Safety improvements to encourage active transport to the three surrounding schools, to reduce congestion during school drop-off and pick-up times. 

Do you want to hear from us more often and have your say on other Napier projects?

Join our People's Panel

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