The town torn over red lights and roundabouts

Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Many of Blenheim's residents aren't sold on the idea of traffic lights.

On one hand; the free-flowing traffic of a roundabout town. On the other; children's safety.

Many Blenheim residents still aren't sold on the idea of traffic lights.

Unfortunately, for them, that ship has sailed and construction of the town's first lights, on Nelson St near the Marlborough Girls' College, will start later this year.

Jenny Spall said she thought Blenheim was doing just fine with its many, many roundabouts.

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Amanda McMahon says the Nelson St crossing outside Marlborough Girls' College is the 'perfect spot' for Blenheim's first set of traffic lights.

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The roundabout at the other end of Nelson St, joining State Highway 1.

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'I like roundabouts. It just keeps the traffic flowing,' Spall said. 'I think [the money] could be spent elsewhere in town.'

A crossing on McLauchlan Street, outside the Marlborough Girls' College.

Ian Blissett said the Marlborough District Council should wait until a decision was made on the new co-located colleges site before installing traffic lights.

'I really think [roundabouts] worked all these years and you've got the chance of the college's moving so, right now, I don't really see the point,' Blissett said.

Lesley Nelson is 'surprised' there hasn't been an accident at the existing Nelson St crossing.

'I'd hate to see traffic lights come to Blenheim, but I accept it is inevitable.'

Phil's 13-year-old daughter goes to Marlborough Girls' College so he wouldn't give his surname, but said it was 'not necessary to have traffic lights'.

About half of all Bohally Intermediate and Marlborough Girls' College students either cycle or walk to school.

'The absence of traffic lights in Blenheim allows traffic to flow better,' he said.

'How many children have died without them? None. So, there's no worries.

'People expect kids here because of the school and drive slow.'

The lights would take six to nine months to install and cost between $150,000 and $200,000.

They were first proposed in a report to the council, which said lights would cut 38 seconds off a drive along Nelson St at peak times, as the existing crossing brought traffic to a regular standstill.

The recommendation was adopted by the council on May 17, a decision that meant the title of 'New Zealand's largest town without traffic lights' would soon be up for grabs.

'This is $200,000 badly spent,' Phil said. 'Thirty-eight seconds off traffic is nothing.'

Tiffany Alag said she found the Nelson St crossing 'dreadful to get across' when she was in school.

'[The lights] just give a little peace of mind and gets [kids] across the road safely after school, as it can be a bit bedlam after school,' Alag said.

'There's too much traffic around Blenheim not to have lights.'

Amanda McMahon, who often picks up her 11-year-old and 13-year-old daughters from school, said the Nelson St and McLauchlan St intersection was 'not a good one'.

'There are so many kids and children about,' McMahon said.

'This is the perfect spot for it.'

But Lesley Nelson, who often picks up her 14-year-old daughter, thought the traffic lights should be 'further up' Nelson St.

'The crossing is too close to the intersection,' Nelson said.

'Putting [the traffic lights] in just past the intersection would be much better.'

About half of all Marlborough Girls' College and Bohally Intermediate students either walked or cycled to and from school, with the majority using the existing crossings on Nelson St and McLauchlan St.

Nelson said she was 'surprised no-one had been hit yet'.

'I sit and watch the kids cross. They like to dance and play about,' she said.

Former ship master Don Whitley said school children were impulsive and could make mistakes 'very easily'.

'If they had traffic lights and the traffic had to stop for them, that would be good,' Whitley said.

'Safety is very, very important, particularly with young lives.'

Past calls for pedestrian signals, outside the town's main post office and at the zebra crossing between the library and Countdown, had fallen on deaf ears.

Whitley said traffic lights had 'not been necessary' until recently.

'There wasn't an awful lot of traffic about and people I think, generally, were fairly cautious and polite on the road and obeying the rules,' he said.

'But more and more traffic has appeared over the last few years and … we can all make mistakes and if traffic lights help to stop making those mistakes, [that would] be a wonderful thing.'

Krista Payne said she had 'seen a few near misses' while picking up her child.

'There's so much congestion at the end of Nelson St,' Payne said.

'This town is full of roundabouts and few know how to properly use them.'

Truck driver Marcus Coats said Blenheim's roundabouts were a 'really annoying pain'.

'Roundabouts are just so hard to get into, there's traffic coming from everywhere,' Coats said.

'I'm in a big truck, trying to get into a roundabout and cars are going around. They just don't let you in. So we have to just wait and wait and wait.

'If there were traffic lights, then we would be able to go through quicker.'