There’s an ongoing controversy in Nelson about plans to improve our waterfront by taking heavy traffic away. Look up “southern by-pass nelson”, for example.
The Nelson waterfront is a wonderful feature which I still enjoy after many years. My heart still lifts when I drive home from the airport and reach the sea at Tahunanui, I often take my camera with me when I walk down to Guytons fish shop for our evening meal (see this post for an example), and it’s one of our preferred walks amongst the many in Nelson.
But not always. For example, here is a shot taken at 2 pm on a Friday:
At least it was easy to get across the road: the cars were stopped for much of the time.
Not just cars:
and
As long as the wind is blowing from the west, you keep looking in that direction and don’t want to talk, it’s still fine (that is, if you’ve got over to the seaward side safely).
Unfortunately the debate often degenerates into ‘rich people living on the waterfront’ versus ‘ordinary people living in the path of the bypass’. Nelson has to find a way to avoid spoiling its waterfront. A few clip-on bike lanes or footpaths won’t help much.
