By Femke Meinderts
When our local primary school ‘bike bus’ Watsapp group lit up with messages on 29 January this year, with another week of summer holidays to go, I had a sinking feeling that something terrible must have happened. ‘Rant time!’ a local mum had written. Messages with phrases like ‘automatic reversal’, ‘80km past the school’, ‘no consultation’ and ‘no way are my kids biking along there if it goes back to 80’ followed, furiously typed by concerned parents.
Our local primary, Clifton Terrace School, sits just off State Highway 6 in Marybank, the last suburb of Nelson before the busy main route continues over the Whangamoa hills to Blenheim and the ferries in Picton. A 1.8 kilometre stretch of SH6 joins the much larger area of Atawhai to Marybank. Most of this can be navigated by pedestrians and cyclists away from the highway, but a short stretch forces commuters onto a narrow, slanting path, right beside the highway on a blind corner, and over a complex, busy T junction at Marybank Road. It was along this short section that the government had decided it would reverse a very popular 20kph speed limit decrease, which had only taken effect in 2020, meaning it would increase from 60 to 80kph.
After this announcement, I called my friend, Emily Osborne, who had been plotting with me over cups of tea as ‘Parents for Active Transport Atawhai’ (PATA) for at least a year to try to get some infrastructure improvements on this stretch of the cycle way, particularly for the 100 or so school children who live within cycling distance of the school but can’t avoid SH6.
One of the parents on Whatsapp had messaged: ‘Might be time for a good old fashioned protest’. When I brought it up to Emily, she said: “Too right”, probably while clutching her mug of gumboot. That’s how ‘Keep it 60’ was born. Rapidly we got local MP Rachel Boyack involved and, with a little not so subtle persuasion, Nelson Mayor Nick Smith was on board. We convinced a local journalist of our plight after we took her to see how dangerous the school run is and some excellent photos were printed in the Christchurch Press. A homespun flyer drop alerted residents and invited everyone to a public meeting at the school which attracted 240 people. From here, the local democracy reporter got involved and we also got interest from RNZ.
Our initial purpose was to create enough noise to ultimately reach the Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop, who had the power to approve a consultation process. By getting our community to persistently contact, with phone calls, emails, letters and face to face, local MPs, Nelson City Council representatives and the NZTA, and asking journalists to question the politicians, we were able to convince the government that ignoring us might not be the best look in a democracy. This initial effort gave us our consultation. Now the real work would begin.
Many residents who live in close proximity to State Highways around New Zealand have been appalled at statistics evidencing support for speed increases on their local roads, which are produced by NZTA consultation processes. It seems that those in support of higher speed limits are highly motivated to respond to these consultations. Some governments are more inclined to give, in my opinion, disproportionate weight to these contests, rather than following the advice of their own technical reports and paying more attention to the broader needs of road users – especially those of children commuting around their neighbourhoods. That said, we knew that by raising enough awareness, we had a chance to show that this consultation would reflect widespread support for what the school community in particular deeply felt was the most appropriate speed limit on this humble stretch of SH6.
We just had to convince our neighbours and friends that it was worth their time to participate in the process. Our strategy involved a Facebook group, supported with excellent media created by parents and a hashtag which was used in comments on wider posts related to cycling safety, signage around the neighbourhood, a second local flyer drop and posters put up in prominent places around wider Nelson with a QR code linking directly to the consultation, a staged ‘crash’ scene which attracted more media attention, and an ‘infographic’ with numbers and facts to support our case which was sent to members of the NZTA board and distributed on social media. We also wrote a letter from PATA to NZTA CEO Brett Gliddon outlining our concerns about the consultation process and advising that we would be analysing results through the official information act if necessary.
Ultimately the consultation result showed 76% in favour of keeping the speed limit at 60kph between Atawhai and Marybank. With a massive effort, we got a solid majority of the community to stand up for lower speed limits, benefiting locals, and most importantly, keeping our active transport initiatives alive for the school children.
At PATA, we can now get back to our cups of tea and our original mission, which was to lobby for an improved cycle and walkway between Marybank and Atawhai. We want the pupils who live within easy cycling distance of Clifton Terrace School, to feel justifiably confident about travelling independently and actively around their neighbourhood, as is their right, and the right of every child in Aotearoa.