Nelson residents desired safer and calmer streets. Increased through-traffic meant more separation and high-speed vehicles moving through the city, making it hard for community members to connect and move around safely. Waka Kotahi’s Innovating Streets for People Programme set about addressing these concerns.
As part of the team helping realise this vision, we provided baseline data collection, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Through non-traditional community engagement, such as pop-up events and collaborative co-designing, we tested innovative solutions that have helped the council maximise its capital works budget. Key elements of the program involved slowing down traffic and creating more green community space across Kawai, Tipahi, and Tukuka Street and Boundary Road.
Despite several challenges, such as vandalism, steadfast leadership from the council and community champions meant they could press on and deliver needed improvements. The data is telling—the community is reclaiming this area as a place for people first and paving the way for further residential development.
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