TAINUI STREET

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 March 1946, Page 6

TAINUI STREET

SCHEME DEFENDED WORKS CHAIRMAN REPLIES TO MOTORISTS REASON FOR GRASS PLOTS “The Automobile Association / should produce for the people of Greymouth a logical and authoritative argument to back up its criticism of the governing body in the town,” said Mr. F. F. Boustridge, chairman of the works and town planning committees of the Greymoirth Borough Council, in commenting to-day, to a representative of the Evening Star on the condemnation by the West Coast Council of the Canterbury Automobile Association of the proposed scheme for the improvement of Tainui street.

“I must emphasise,” he added, “that as the engineer is responsible to the council and the council to the people any scheme produced must have a solid and economical basis, and, therefore, any criticism of such projects should be governed by similar standards.”

Mr. Boustridge said that when an individual citizen wrote a letter to the press criticising a local body he was understood to be expressing his own private opinion but when a responsible body, such as the Automobile Association, adopted a similar attitude then he thought that that criticism should be based upon some accepted authority and not be merely the opinions of a group of members. “As a life member of the Automobile Association,” he said “I must dissociate myself entirely from the opinion expressed by the meeting on Tuesday last in regard to Tainui street, and as chairman of the works and town planning of the council I shall try to explain the reasons for the council’s attitude.

Safety of Pedestrians. “The chairman of the Automobile Association claims to represent 1000 people throughout this district, and he said that his remarks were made purely from the point of view of the motorist. What of the 7000 pedestrians in the borough whose interests must also be protected? The whole scheme for Tainui street follows accepted engineering practice and town develonment throughout the world. When traffic increases on wide streets it is the invariable practice to provide islands or safety zones in the middle of the street to ensure safety for pedestrians and to lay out traffic lanes for the control of motorists. These traffic lanes are further controlled either by light systems or traffic officers. In all cases the safety of the pedestrian is the predominant feature. “The suggested width of the roadways in Tainui street is 30ft, and this will provide three traffic lanes 10ft wide on each side of the street. After making allowance for parking this will leave , two clear lanes which I have claimed before and claim again, is sufficient to carry all the traffic of Greymouth for the next 100 years.

Piccadilly Circus. “Piccadilly Circus in London, probably the busiest centre in the world, has only three lanes of traffic because more is considered to be dangerous to the motorists themselves. The great arterial highways of England and the famous autobahn of Germany are very rarely more than three traffic lanes wide, and, in most cases, the outgoing and incoming traffic is divided.

“The chairman of the Automobile Association also maintained that the lighting of Tainui street had been bad for a long time, but no suggestion was forthcoming as to how it could be improved. Must the pedestrian continue to suffer from bad lighting because the motorist carries his own lighting system and has no need of street lighting? We could double the number of lights and have them on both sides of the street, but we are expected to be economical in expenditure, and the centre lighting was therefore proposed with poles'up the centre of the street.

Grass Plots.

“Those poles would naturally have to be protected in some manner and we finally come to the famous grass plots, which I have tried to show are only incidental to the whole scheme and are not the principal object. They would provide safety for pedestrians crossing the street, would protect the lighting system and compel the motorist to keep to his own side of the street, instead of wandering all ovei’ its surface as he does at present,” concluded Mr. Boustridge.