Combining regional and local transport planning
The Otago and Southland Regional Transport Committees have shown how merging their planning expertise into one focused project can result in better outcomes for two regions.
For years, Otago and Southland had put forward regional funding requests for two similar projects, without success. Both projects were linked to the Southern Scenic Route but were some kilometres apart.
The two councils decided it would be more effective if they combined their activities into the development of a joint Regional Land Transport Plan that included a strategic section common to both of them but with but two separate programmes of activities.
The 2015-2021 RLTP was the first joint plan produced. This single document linked the two projects together. An extension of seal to the lighthouse on Nugget Point Road in the Clutha District Council area was linked to a much larger project to seal an alternative road to the Southern Scenic Route, which took in Curio Bay and the southern lighthouses in the Southland District Council area.
The joined-up project was promoted as a tourist route with significant safety benefits. As a joined-up project the benefits were able to be demonstrated for the whole Southern Scenic Route rather than as individual initiatives within each region.
The project was given joint number one priority by the combined Regional Transport Committees and won support from the regional communities during the consultation process.
As a result, funding was received from the National Land Transport Fund and both seals have been completed.
The result has been an improvement in road safety statistics. The majority of crashes prior to these improvements were relatively low-speed but high in number. Since completion of the improvements, traffic volumes have increased but the crash rate has reduced.
This project shows how joined-up planning and thinking wider than just one region can achieve benefits that were not possible for a single region. Two heads are better than one.
