EPA Hearing for the Ruakura Plan Change Development June 2014 Judy to present Good day to you all Our talk is from representatives of three Community Groups: - Living Streets Pedestrian Advocates CCS Disability Action – Access and Mobility Advocates, and Cycle Action Waikato – Cycling Advocates. Judy to present Living Streets Aotearoa is a pedestrian advocacy group, founded in Wellington in 2002 by Celia Wade-Brown, with the aim of promoting walking as a first means of transport in urban environments: - to reduce traffic congestion, to improve fitness, for greater community connectedness, and for recreation. Living Streets Hamilton is the local branch of this parent organisation, founded at the end of 2006. The uptake of walking by all sectors of the population, particularly the young, the elderly and the mobility-impaired (including the visually impaired) requires safe walking routes and infrastructure to ensure that pedestrians feel confident for the entire length of a journey. Routes are only as safe as their most vulnerable spot, and for this reason much of our effort is focused on getting safe road crossings, particularly on arterial routes. Today we will be focusing on safe road crossings for all people who will live and work within the Ruakura Development. Gerri to present CCS Disability Action is one of the largest disability services providers in New Zealand. We have been advocating for people with disabilities since 1935. Today, our organization demonstrates strong leadership by people with disabilities and a human rights focus. The 2006 Disability Survey states that an estimated 660,300 New Zealanders reported having a disability, representing 17% of the total population approximately 3% of whom use a visible mobility aid. (Reference: - Statistics New Zealand, 2006). Hamilton’s resident population at the last Census was estimated to be 141,615. Using the percentage of 17% of people having a disability from the 2006 Census, potentially there are 24,074 people in Hamilton living with disability and 4,248 using a visibly identifiable mobility aid. We all experience different levels of mobility. Sometimes they are due to temporary causes such as injury, pregnancy or illness, and sometimes they are permanent due to impairment. Accessibility issues affect everyone at some time in their life. 45% of people aged over 65 self-identified with some degree of disability in the 2006 census (Reference: - Statistics New Zealand, 2006). People with disability typically have less independent access to private motor vehicles than non-disabled people. An estimated 6,100 adults with disability have modifications made to a private motor vehicle so that they can drive it. An estimated 3,900 adults with disability have a modified private motor vehicle so they can travel in it as a passenger (Reference: - Office of Disability Issues and Statistics New Zealand, 2009). This 10,000 people with a modified motor vehicle, is a small percentage of the estimated 660,300 individuals living with disability in New Zealand. As a community this makes people with disability particularly reliant on safe, accessible pedestrian routes and public transport. As an organisation we are putting considerable effort and resources to ensuring that people with disability can safely live in their communities and participate in everyday activities. Today we hope to ensure that all the people with disabilities who will live or work within the Ruakura Development will have a high level of safety and accessibility. Rob to present Cycle Action Waikato is the local cycle advocacy group for everyday commuter cycling in Hamilton and throughout the wider Waikato Region. Cycle Action Waikato was formed in 1995. Our parent umbrella body is the Cycling Advocates Network. The goal of Cycle Action Waikato and Cycling Advocates Network is to get more people cycling, safer, more often. Not everyone can afford to buy a car or to run a car. Not everyone can hold a drivers licence, some examples of those who cannot are the young, the infirm, and those with poor eyesight. Not everyone needs to drive a car for every trip being made. As the global population increases we need less vehicle trips using up the planet’s scarce fuel resources and polluting the environment. Only when safe facilities are provided for cyclists, can bicycles offer cheap transport, and independence for a great many people. New York Cycling Advocate Paul Steely White calls creating “Liveable-Cities” for walking and cycling, a ‘race-to-the-top’ where cities and townships wanting to attract people, jobs, and business compete to provide the best walking and cycling environments. By using good Transport Planning Principles, Hamilton’s Structure Plan areas of Peacockes, Rotokauri, Rototuna, and also RUAKURA, can all achieve creating the “Liveable-Cites” and towns approach. We wish to see those people living and working in the Ruakura Development, including both children and adult cyclists that are newer and less experienced at cycling on-the road with motor vehicles, to safely start regularly commuting to places of study and work. This will require getting them off the road, and onto shared-use pedestrian / cycle paths such as those along Wairere Drive, and the paths proposed in the Ruakura Development alongside Ruakura Road. Today we will be focusing on connecting the off-road walking and cycling paths of Wairere Drive and Ruakura Road with the DESTINATIONS of the Knowledge Zone and the Service Centre. Judy to present We are asking for the inclusion of the following four provisions into the District Plan, before EPA Consent is granted for the Ruakura Development Plan Change to proceed:- 1) Provision be drawn into the District Plan and construction completed (by Tainui and the Ruakura Development) of a safe pedestrian and cycle crossing across Fifth Ave at Wairere Drive. 2) Written commitment be made in the District Plan stating the conditions for the timing of construction of the Fifth Ave pedestrian and cycle crossing at Wairere Drive. 3) Provision be drawn into the District Plan and construction completed (by Tainui and the Ruakura Development) of Safe Western and Safe Southern pedestrian and cycle access to the Knowledge Zone and Service Centre. 4) Written commitment be made in the District Plan stating the conditions for the timing of construction of the Safe Western and Safe Southern pedestrian and cycle access to the Knowledge Zone and Service Centre. We are asking the EPA to ensure that adverse effects on safety and accessibility for walkers, cyclists, and the mobility impaired, that are generated directly by the Ruakura Development (both during its construction, and later during its everyday use) are mitigated. The four provisions above that we are asking for must be provided in the District Plan to achieve this mitigation. It is the ongoing aim of Living Streets Hamilton to achieve safe walking routes throughout the city. Hamilton is ideally suited to both walking and cycling. It is relatively compact, mostly flat, and could become a “poster child” for active transport in New Zealand. However, this will only happen if we can achieve safe crossings on major roads. At present, Hamilton has big Community Severance problems caused by major roads, which have either no safe crossing points, or very large distances between safe crossing points. Examples include Te Rapa Road, Ohaupo Road at Glenview, the northern end of Victoria Street, and Boundary Road. In the proposed Ruakura Development plans pedestrian and cyclist Community Severance is generated at both Ruakura Road and Fifth Ave extension. The University and the AgResearch Centre Campus, which also includes the Business Innovation Park, are very significant employment and educational areas in Hamilton, used by a sector of the population with a higher than normal interest in cycling and walking, because of both financial considerations (university students) and ecological awareness (staff and students at all these institutions). There should be a simple and direct walking/cycling/public transport connection from the Central Business District to the Ruakura Development along Ruakura Road, and also along Boundary Road / Fifth Avenue. At present, both these routes are dangerous for pedestrians because of the high traffic density, particularly at peak travel times. Boundary Rd and Fifth Ave roundabouts are hazardous to cross. Ruakura Road has inadequately connected cycle and walking paths, which are only partial on the northern side, and too narrow for shared use on the southern side. It is well known from feedback provided by people with disabilities using powered mobility aids, that they prefer to use shared pedestrian and cycling paths provided along the Wairere Drive to travel around the city as opposed to using city streets, as they find negotiating and crossing roads and streets difficult and dangerous. Once the Industrial Park opens at the end of Fifth Avenue extension and the intersection with Wairere Drive, the Ruakura Development becomes a huge barrier to safe crossing by walkers, cyclists, and the mobility impaired at the roundabout, because of the lack of underpasses or light-controlled crossings. In addition, the traffic flow on Fifth Ave and Boundary Rd is likely to increase as a result of vehicles travelling to and from the Industrial Park. The proposed Inland Port will also generate increased traffic along Ruakura Rd, much of which is likely to be heavy trucks and trailers. Safe routes can be achieved relatively cheaply (for a small proportion of the total roading cost of the Ruakura Development) and could result in immense gains for residents, workers and students of the Ruakura Development, providing a coherent flow of walking and cycling access from the Central Business District to and from the Ruakura Development via both the Whitiora Bridge and the Claudelands Bridge. As a minimum, and as outlined in more detail in the Cycle Action Waikato statement, we need either an underpass or a traffic light-controlled pedestrian crossings on the Wairere Drive/Fifth Avenue intersection at the new Industrial Park entrance, and on Ruakura Road to access the proposed Knowledge Zone area and Suburban Centre within the Ruakura Development.