Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

An explosion. People screamed as the log rolled off the truck across the road, onto the footpath towards a group of five and six year-olds on a Pippins expedition. The children barely had time to be scared. The log is gone within half an hour and Katikati's Main Road is back to normal.

There was no evidence of public surprise or indignation. The town is used to trucks passing through every 35 seconds and any belief in a bypass provided by the council or transport authority to solve the problem, has long gone. There are plans for Katikati after a bypass is in place, but these have been suspended as the long promised bypass has not materialized.

The council needs
WBOPDC Katikati town centre plan was prepared to address some immediate council needs, but the community's need – a solution to the traffic problems – was not central to their planning. At the submission hearing for the draft plan, the NZTA welcomed the chance to talk with the council in the future on the town's problems. In the discussion, it was obvious that council had not consulted the NZTA in its planning. The dangerous Beach Road corner, where the above incident happened was mentioned, and it was revealed that neither council nor the NZTA had any statistics on traffic flow. NZTA also challenged the council's plans for traffic calming as there were no obvious entrances to any parking areas planned. The much needed parking areas are now timed for after 2021. Main Road parking is reduced to some parallel parking with footpaths widened, to allow the residents to enjoy pavement cafes and rest areas within a metre or two of the passing logging trucks. This concept could feature in the Red Bull magazine as an extreme sports activity.

NZ Transport Authority needs
The NZTA report to the community board has a wider view of the problem and though they were pleased to report that a bypass plan was virtually complete, they let slip that no study had been made of who would use the road. They mentioned looking forward to talking with the port authority to get more information. What design could be complete without any consideration of who might be using it? A hint came through that any bypass or its equivalent would only be considered after the State Highway 29 solution over the Kaimais is finalised. Currently, the Kaimai project is still considering extra lanes and/or a small tunnel.

Community responsibility
Meanwhile, the NZ Road Transport Association is forecasting a 10 per cent per year growth in truck movements in the Bay of Plenty. The problem is bad now and getting worse. Something has to be done now and, if some commentators are to be believed, we need an initiative from the local community. Local people have costed a locally constructed truck toll road over Thompson's Track. It probably wouldn't be allowed but it appears to be more achievable than some of the existing ideas. In terms of Katikati progressing the town, a Katikati initiated plan needs to fit within Tauranga Harbour sub-regional guidelines, within a Katikati Ward Plan, and Katikati itself needs to write a comprehensive development plan to allow any honest progress in the town and the safety of its residents. None of these documents exist; if the next logging truck incident is fatal, it would seem that it will be the community's fault for not caring enough.