Dear Tauranga City Council Commissioners

Anne Tolley, Bill Wasley, Stephen Selwood and Shadrach Rolleston

Official information request: Future Proofing Cameron Road Project

The following information request is made under the Official Information Act (OIA) / Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA):

This request is for the current technical design details on the “Future proofing Cameron Road” Project to be released. Information to include:-

1. The draft design documents already shared with stakeholders such as property owners, tenants, and other stakeholders
2. The draft design in PDF format
3. To include information on the design layout of the cycleway, driveway crossings, road crossings, separated pedestrian and bus stop setups
4. And any other relevant design details draft or otherwise

This information is requested to meet public engagement requirements.

See below the example links of public engagement consultation on Cycleway (Christchurch City council small 9-month cycleway project)

Background: Why is this information being requested?

The Problem

• No meaningful public engagement has taken place

“March 2021 Public engagement on design commences to inform, educate and listen to your views on the design of stage one”

• No relevant design information was provided whatsoever. Only an artist sketch and a map with lines on it. (see 2x links below of design information

• The project team is now requesting public feedback submissions without providing any meaningful information. The public feedback submission process is compromised if not a farce

At the March public engagement

• We are being told on-road commuters (i.e. the faster bike commuters, ebikes at 32-45kmh) would be required to mix it / share a narrowed road bus lane with Bus

• My request for more design details to be emailed was not responded to / ignored

• We are being told that design detail may be released AFTER final approval is made. “July 2021 Detailed design complete”

• No public engagement has been planned about when the final design information is released to the public. ( Why? )

Why this request is being made:

A TCC build cycleway could be many things under the sun. Tauranga City Council cycle plan definition of a cycleway: "The Cycle Plan, the term ‘cycleway’, means any transport corridor that includes dedicated facilities for people on bikes, such as cycle lanes, shared walking and cycling paths and traffic calming specifically designed to make roads safer for people on bikes."

There is real public fear, with no meaningful public engagement on design taking place to date, another Greerton Village center road improvement disaster will occure

TCC has a dismal track record of deploying cycleways and shared pedestrian paths cycleways, setups that put cyclists at risk of harm. Some examples include:

• The Welcomebay underpass on-road cycle lane deployments
• The newly deployed at 15th Ave road improvements shared cycleway footpath created on-road injury zone for cyclists ( more so east side descent)
• The current Totara Street temporary safety solution on the footpath. Deployment activities include removing cycle lane awareness symbols / leaving washed out to drive cyclist off the road cycle paths – seen horribly backfiring in tragedies x2 - 'cyclist believe in a cycle lane - truck driver, what cycle lane - all markings washed out / barely visible'), ignoring footpath safety concerns, i.e trucks crossing over the footpath to make corners, unprotected road crossings
• The proposed final Totara Street final solution made with safety reports in hand concluding likely cyclist deaths will continue.
• The recently completed Blake Park west side section of Maunganui Road creating injury zone pinch points without implementing NZTA best practice cycle safety measures to mitigate on-road collisions.

Supporting information

Links to the only two images offered to the public:

Presented Image 1 ( a simple street map) https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/Portals/0/d...

Presented Image 2: ( a simple artist sketch )
https://images.sunlive.co.nz/images/sunl...

For your reference, examples of informed engagement with design examples presented by other councils. Information This OAI is requesting:

Image 1:
https://ccc.govt.nz/assets/Images/Consul...

Several more images:
https://ccc.govt.nz/the-council/consulta...

Happy to receive a call to explain further my OAI

Yours faithfully,

Shane Plummer