New Pedestrian Crossings - Broadway, SH3

You'll see the construction crew working on the centre island of the new pedestrian crossing until approximately 10 July, weather dependent. We appreciate your patience while Broadway is a sea of orange road cones! Drive safely and please follow any traffic management in place.

Physical works on the new pedestrian crossing, north of the Glockenspiel, has started.

From Tuesday 2 July you'll see construction crews working on the following activity:

• Removing a section of the western side rock wall at the existing crossing to make room for a temporary lane.
• A stop go traffic control will be in place overnight on Tuesday 2 July while the crew removes the gardens at the existing crossing and install temporary pavements. This work allows the lane widths required to keep two way traffic flowing while the new pedestrian crossing's centre island is constructed.
• From 3 July the centre median strip will be coned off to allow crew members to construct the new centre island. This is expected to take until approximately Wednesday10 July.
• After the above is complete, the crew will begin the construction of the western side kerb extension islands.

Construction timeframes are weather dependent.

If you're out and about in the Stratford CBD make sure you say Kia ora to the crew putting in the work to get this pedestrian crossing built.

Two new pedestrian crossings will go ahead for Broadway in Stratford, with one zebra crossing located in between the roundabouts and a courtesy crossing in the vicinity of Seyton Street. The final locations of these crossings are in response to strong community feedback received on the original proposal.

On Thursday 20 June Stratford District Council (SDC) met to discuss the pedestrian crossing project put forward to the community for feedback early June.

The meeting was well attended with over 30 members of the public present and two deputations were also made to Elected Members. One from a business owner on Broadway and the other from the Chair of the Stratford Business Association committee, both opposing the proposed options.

Over 150 people participated in the feedback process for this project, either through the online engagement tools at YourSay.Stratford.govt.nz or through emailing feedback@stratford.govt.nz. The majority of those providing comments shared their disagreement in the proposed options put forward.

In response to this, SDC elected members were presented with a range of additional options to consider alongside the original proposal in Thursday’s meeting.

These options included the ability to:

• decline the funding altogether and not proceed with the project.
• defer the project and apply for funding at a later date (with the risk that this could be declined)
• carry out traffic modelling to identify the possibility of a signalled crossing and apply for the funding later (with the risk that this could be declined)
• construct just one new crossing in between the roundabouts north of the existing one and close access at the current Glockenspiel crossing (possible within the current funding)
• construct a courtesy crossing in northern Broadway near Seyton Street (possible within the current funding).

These additional options were a direct result of the feedback received from the community and illustrate the importance of community engagement.

Elected Members deliberated the pros and cons across the options in front of them, sharing their views on their preferred way forward, which eventually came down to a vote.

Councillor Grant Boyde moved a motion for replacing the existing crossing with one new crossing to the north of the Glockenspiel and installing a courtesy crossing on northern Broadway in an area near Seyton Street. Councillor Annette Dudley seconded this motion which was supported in a vote from 9 out of 10 Elected Members present.

District Mayor Neil Volzke says the outcome of the discussion has landed somewhere we feel to be more representative of the wider views of our community. “It came through loud and clear that the options on the table weren’t satisfactory for a number of people, but it was also evident that people believed something needs to be done to improve pedestrian safety on State Highway 3.”

“We think the combination of a new and improved pedestrian crossing in a fairly central location between the roundabouts and a courtesy crossing further north near Seyton Street will help alleviate the concerns raised on both sides of the argument, while at the same time improving safety for pedestrians.” he says.

“Now we just have to get the work done, which you’ll see start as soon as Tuesday next week.”

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What's a courtesy crossing?

A courtesy crossing provides a designated area for pedestrians to cross a road. It's not marked like a zebra crossing. Instead it uses colour or other visible markers like refuge islands, to encourage drivers to slow down and look for pedestrians, and gives pedestrians somewhere to safely wait to cross the road. There is one on SH43/Regan Street, near the Bike Park entrance (pictured below).

Drivers are not required to stop at courtesy crossings, however the official New Zealand road code recommends that drivers are courteous to pedestrians using or waiting to use a courtesy crossing.

Initial design of central Pedestrian Zebra Crossing north of the Glockenspiel below. There may be tweaks to this prior to final implementation.

Reported incidents at the existing crossing

We're getting a few queries about the incidents occurring in Broadway. The below shows Police reported incidents at the existing crossing.

Please note this doesn’t include near misses, or incidents that don’t involve police.

• 2 police reported crashes in the five year period 2019 to 2023 1 pedestrian (minor) and 1 bike (non injury)
• 3 police reported crashes in the five year period 2014 – 2018. 1 mobility scooter (non-injury) 1 pedestrian serious injury and 1 car vs car nose to tail

Pedestrian behaviour data

Central Taranaki Safe Community Trust did some research on pedestrian activity on Broadway in 2023 to determine if people were using the crossing facilities available.

Their findings can be viewed in this document.

In accordance with Standing Order 8.3 an Extraordinary Meeting has been called for Thursday 20 June at 10.30am for a decision to be made on the pedestrian crossings on Broadway/SH3.

At this meeting Elected Members will review feedback received, discuss options and make a final decision. We'll share the agenda for this meeting on this page when it's available next week.

All meetings are held in the Council Chambers, Miranda Street, Stratford and are open to the public.

Option 1

• Northern crossing is located outside the TET King's Theatre on the western side of Broadway and outside Sinclair Electrical/Magnum Sports on the eastern side of Broadway.
• Southern crossing is located outside the Hall of Remembrance, Municipal Building on the western side of Broadway and outside Cottage Lane on the eastern side of Broadway.
• The impact on parking would be removal of 11 parks for the northern pedestrian crossing and 11 parks for the southern pedestrian crossing.
• The existing crossing point at Regan Street roundabout will be removed but the existing pedestrian refuge at Fenton Street roundabout will be retained.
• No stopping road markings will be applied to the Regan Street roundabout to stop traffic stacking at the pedestrian crossing and blocking the roundabout access for people travelling along Regan Street.

Option 2

• Northern crossing is located outside the TSB Bank on the western side of Broadway and outside Knit and Sew/KY Fast Food and Restaurant on the eastern side of Broadway.
• Southern crossing is located outside Farmlands on the western side of Broadway and outside the old gym/Salvation Army Family Store building on the eastern side of Broadway.
• The impact on parking would be removal of 9 parks for the northern pedestrian crossing and 13 parks for the southern pedestrian crossing.
• The existing crossing point at Regan Street roundabout will be removed but the existing pedestrian refuge at Fenton Street roundabout will be retained.
• No stopping road markings will be applied to the Regan Street roundabout to stop traffic stacking at the pedestrian crossing and blocking the roundabout access for people travelling along Regan Street.

Option 3: It's possible to construct a combination of option 1 and 2 if this was more favourable to our community. See below for details.

3(a) Northern crossing from option 1 with southern crossing from option 2

• Northern crossing is located outside the TET King's Theatre on the western side of Broadway and outside Sinclair Electrical/Magnum Sports on the eastern side of Broadway.
• Southern crossing is located outside Farmlands on the western side of Broadway and outside the old gym/Salvation Army Family Store building on the eastern side of Broadway.
• The impact on parking would be removal of 11 parks for the northern pedestrian crossing and 13 parks for the southern pedestrian crossing.
• The existing crossing point at Regan Street roundabout will be removed but the existing pedestrian refuge at Fenton Street roundabout will be retained.
• No stopping road markings will be applied to the Regan Street roundabout to stop traffic stacking at the pedestrian crossing and blocking the roundabout access for people travelling along Regan Street.

3(b) Northern crossing from option 2 with southern crossing from option 1

• Northern crossing is located outside the TSB Bank on the western side of Broadway and outside Knit and Sew/KY Fast Food and Restaurant on the eastern side of Broadway.
• Southern crossing is located outside the Hall of Remembrance, Municipal Building on the western side of Broadway and outside Cottage Lane on the eastern side of Broadway.
• The impact on parking would be removal of 9 parks for the northern pedestrian crossing and 11 parks for the southern pedestrian crossing.
• The existing crossing point at Regan Street roundabout will be removed but the existing pedestrian refuge at Fenton Street roundabout will be retained.
• No stopping road markings will be applied to the Regan Street roundabout to stop traffic stacking at the pedestrian crossing and blocking the roundabout access for people travelling along Regan Street.

Here's some information about the improved safety features for the new pedestrian crossing designs:

Built out kerbs:

• Reduces crossing distance and therefore crossing time.

• Improves safety of pedestrians because they are more visible to oncoming drivers and can view approaching traffic better.

• Creates space for pedestrians to wait without blocking others walking past.

• Physically prevents drivers from parking and blocking the crossing point.

• Can help to slow vehicle speeds by narrowing the road.

Median refuges:

• Reduces crossing distance for pedestrians.

• Simplifies the crossing task as pedestrians only need to find gap in one stream of traffic at a time.

• Can considerably reduce delays to pedestrians.

• Can help to slow vehicle speeds by narrowing the traffic lanes.

Zebra Crossing:

• Gives pedestrians priority resulting in minimal delays for pedestrians.

• Are obvious as a place for pedestrians to cross.

Tactile ground surface indicators:

• Directional indicators give directional orientation to people who are blind or have low vision when other tactile or environmental cues such as the property line or kerb edge are either absent or give insufficient guidance.

Improvements to pedestrian access across SH3 in Stratford’s CBD has been on SDC’s wish list for some time and was identified as a key priority in its Connecting our Communities Strategy which was adopted last year. It coincides with plans to upgrade the town centre, Prospero Place, which is due to begin within the next 12 months.

District Mayor, Neil Volzke says “The support from Waka Kotahi to make these improvements to pedestrian safety in Broadway is a welcomed relief. Difficulties with crossing SH3 in our CBD has been highlighted to us for many years, both from a pedestrian point of view as well as drivers.”

“We’re excited to finally remedy this by providing 2 safer crossing points while removing the cause of confusion at the existing Glockenspiel crossing,” says Neil. “It hasn’t been a case of ‘to be or not to be’ for road users in Stratford, but a case of ‘to go or not to go’ when trying to figure out if someone is crossing the road or simply enjoying the view of the Glockenspiel’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet, playing 4 times a day.”

“We want people to enjoy what Stratford has to offer, but we don’t want to cause further issues for those at the wheel or risk people’s safety. Both options proposed will fix that issue, but we need to understand from all travellers, whether they’re on foot, in a mobility scooter or in a truck and trailer, what option they think will provide the most benefit for improved pedestrian safety while catering to traffic flow through town.”