Letters: A cunning plan to alleviate roading woes

Traffic on State Highway 2A, Tauranga. Photo / File

I have come up with a plan so cunning, in the words of Blackadder, "you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel".

We should build a four-lane cycle way along the proposed route of the northern arterial highway, which would include a new bridge over the Wairoa River, an interchange at Ōmokoroa, and a bypass of the Katikati main street and also the Waihī township.

This concept could be pushed through with urgency by the current administration, and work could be under way by the end of May.

Upon the completion of the thoroughfare, a referendum could be held which should ensure that the "laneway" could be redesignated as a highway, restricted to the use by vehicles of three or more wheels.

Job done.

Ray Anderson
Pāpāmoa Beach

Re-instate railway

General consternation rages as Tauranga City Council and its consultants hope to haphazardly patch up roading and traffic problems almost in the hope that eventually, multilane roads, freeways and buses will solve matters.

This outmoded "American" model proves a short term unsustainable solution, just a repeat of Auckland and other global disasters.

Even now in 2019, government ministers, local politicians, planners and developers aspire to multi-lane motorways and overpasses.

Such irresponsible thinking borrows from the future, hastening the overwhelmingly evident destabilisation of our one planet.

In April 2019 the mayor gave lip service to passenger rail, but the influential roading lobby are still pressing for bigger roads.

A $100 million Katikati roading bypass will alleviate main street congestion but does not actually reduce traffic which will just bottle neck in the next problem areas.

Why not build a railway station at Katikati and re-instate the railway for the wonderful asset that it will prove to be.

Properly done, public rail with eye pleasing stations will lift the spirits of the people more than multi lane motorways.

Jos Nagels
Tauranga

Roading crisis

After reading the Bay of Plenty Times May 1, it seems our council is recognising that we have a pending roading crisis.

Personally, I am willing to contribute to a solution, by donating my time, free of charge, to find solutions, and to start can easily save 30 seconds of delay at (left turning) traffic lights, at what would appear to be a programming change.

Greg Brownless, give me a call.

Greg Maxwell
Welcome Bay

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