NZTA Rural Median Treatments Trial: Consultation

NZTA Rural Median Treatments Trial: Consultation

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NZTA is proposing to trial new median treatments on sections of rural State Highway. Sites are yet to be finalised but will likely include 3.0 - 5.0km sections of high volume (typically >8-10,000 vehicles per day), high risk (medium to high KiwiRAP risk rating) road.
 
You are invited to attend a Stakeholder workshop to discuss the proposed trial.
 
The workshop will be held at the New Zealand Transport Agency on Tuesday 24th August from 2:00pm. There will be a brief presentation at 2:15pm summarising the trial process, and you will be invited to discuss this and give feedback. Please respond to let us know whether you or your representative plan to attend this workshop. Venue details will be forwarded to those who have expressed interest.
 
You are also welcome to return your answers to the following questions by email, whether or not you will be attending the stakeholder workshop in Wellington.
Please see the attached slide showing the proposed marking layout. Please provide any comment you have relating to the following:
 
1) Lane widths (minimum 3.2m within markings, 3.4m between rumble strips)
 
2) Presence of profiled markings outside edgeline and both sides of median treatment
 
3) Sealed shoulder width
 
4) Any other comments
 
 
Regards
 
Bridget Burdett
Traffic Safety Engineer
Beca
Phone +64-7-838-3828 Fax +64-7-838-3808
DDI +64-7-834-7675

Groups audience: 
- Private group -
Group content visibility: 
Public - accessible to all site users

So the upshot is that cyclists on the shoulder would have 300mm less shoulder to the edgeline although, depending on how vehicles use the new lanes, it may be that the separation to a passing motor vehicle may be reduced by even more. This should be part of the trial investigations, i.e. observe the average relative positions of all vehicles (car, truck, bike) before and after.

On the plus side, the narrowed lanes *should* reduce traffic speeds slightly; again, some before-after observations of traffic speeds would be good. And the rumble strips should also discourage motorists from straying into the shoulder space (probably most critical on inside curves).

Attached bibliography - Search NZRF conference 2007 and check out the paper by Dravitzki et al.  Government funded reports available on NZTA site.  Look for 273, 300, 322, 365.  First and last are the most relevant.

Good afternoon,
further to this email I sent to you yesterday, I can now confirm that the venue for this consultation workshop will be
 
Room 3.11
NZTA National Office
Chews Lane
Wellington
 
The workshop will run from 2:00pm - 4:00pm, with a 20 minute presentation starting at 2:15. After the presentation there will be time for discussion.
 
Thank you to those who have responded already. You are all welcome to provide feedback to the slide attached and information below, whether or not you intend to attend the workshop.
 
I look forward to meeting many of you next Tuesday.
 
regards
Bridget