The Golden Mile is going to be pedestrianised – and that is great news. Great news to me, great news for Wellingtonians, great news for visitors to our city if they ever return, but apparently some of the retailers along Lambton Quay feel that this is not great news. I’m not sure why – nobody in their right mind tries to drive to their favourite retailer in Wellington at the moment, so I’m not sure why they would in the future.
We’re not alone in this move to pedestrianise the main shopping street of our city. Guess who else is doing this? Well, Auckland for a start – they’ve been making plans for that for some time. New York is going that way too, with large chunks of Broadway being made into cycle-friendly and pedestrian friendly spaces over the past decade. And now London is going the same way too, with an announcement that Oxford Circus to be pedestrianised coming out on the same day as our announcement here.
Full pedestrianisation is not being attempted in either city, with the main thoroughfare still being kept clear for buses. Of course, in London they also have an Underground tube line running directly beneath the roadway (Central line) and of course the much-awaited and ever-delayed but finally almost-here arrival of CrossRail running below that.
This is a pretty big move for London – for those of you that don’t know, Oxford Circus is a grand public space that was never really able to be enjoyed due to all the endless traffic going through – so I’m amazed and impressed that they have managed to figure out a way to cut the traffic off in at least one direction. We here in the capital of NewZillun are also cutting off traffic entering from the side streets, but the result is not quite as impressive – largely because there was never that much side-road traffic in the first place.
So – what do you reckon?
Post-script: Here is the “draft” plan that LGWM have posted up – almost pointless in its simplicity. Yes, OK, it shows some of the streets being shut off, most of which are an absolute “no-brainer” in terms of things to do. But of course what it implies, but doesn’t explicitly state, is the remaining intersections which will stay full of traffic. And that’s where I have a problem with the LGWM approach – they need to show an integrated response. An overall masterplan. A coordinated interaction plan of all the various modes of transport – you simply cannot do these things one by one – they need to be organised, planned, designed, coordinated, integrated etc – all as one.
Which areas am I talking about?
Well, these for a start! I have a number of issues with LGWM issuing such an incomplete plan. First of all – how does the rest of the “Masterplan” interact with what you have shown? We get that there is a Slow Bus route down through the Pedestrianised Golden Mile. But can you also please show us what the route is for the RAPID Transit? I’ve made a stab at it in green. Am I right? How are you going to resolve this at the places where the two routes cross? Underground? Overground? Wombling free? Next: major intersection/clash points – I’ve shown in red. I think that LGWM made a start at these cross over areas, but they will require a lot of work. The grey lines indicate roads with cars still moving on them. Victoria St, Willis St, Cambridge Tce, all these require careful design consideration. Especially Taranaki St, as this is the major clash point between two or three routes. Next: how will Tory Street work if cut off like that? I use this route all the time when I drive, and I have no doubt that it can be made to work, but LGWM are on a hiding to nothing if they don’t produce a diagram to show how the traffic needs can be resolved. We need that now, not later… And last (for now) where would the Cycle route(s) go? Along the bus route? Crossing the bus route? Beside the Light Rail? Through the pedestrians? Again – LGWM have already got some of the answers on this – but they need to be out in the public realm NOW. To help them along, I’ve started off a Masterplan for them to work on, with some missing pieces for them to fill in….
The Dom Post leads with this headline: “Wellington businesses on Golden Mile: Let’s just get on with it” – noting that “Central Wellington businesses are reacting cautiously – but not entirely negatively – to the renewed push to make the capital’s main thoroughfares car-free within three years.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/125474592/wellington-businesses-on-golden-mile-lets-just-get-on-with-it
“I think the Golden Mile has evolved in the last decade, it is predominantly a local service and visitor service destination now,” said Chris Wilkinson, managing director of retail consultancy First Retail Group, and someone who had previously been critical of the idea..
“So I shouldn’t imagine that any businesses would be impacted by [people] not being able to drive a vehicle right to their door,” he said.
Let’s hope the whole business doesn’t go like the Manners Mall/Street conversion di in November 2010. That took longer than expected to build and the shops along there screamed blood murder about it.
Let’s hope WCC learned something from that whole exercise.
Don’t worry this is a LGWM party, so will get another round of consultation once they get out the other end of the Business case …..
Closing the multitude of one way side streets the open on to Lambton quay is pretty much a no brainer, and to be honest I’m not sure why it has taken this long….
It starts to get tricky once you get to the Willis/manners section, as its already only 2 way bus traffic, (closing Willis to North bound traffic would be good, but tricky as it will force a big dog leg to get to Taranaki)
Fixing Courtenay place and its weaving bus lanes should have been on the Council’s hit list 20 years ago,
BUT, and this is a big BUT , the plan for a single width bus lane in each direction is not going to help with network performance. In the afternoon peak, buses are passing each other all over the show on Lambton quay, making them follow a conga line, (only with bus stop pull overs) is going to be a disaster…
But we need some actual plans to see how this will/wont work… not the silly little sketches we have now
I’ve posted up a Post-Script, adding some notes to their “silly little sketches”….
Just noticed they are thinking of removing the Bus stops at Courtenay Central/St James,
Now just because these venues are currently closed, doesn’t mean they always will be,
and CC have been telling their shareholders that their redevelopment will link across to the new convention centre and existing public transport on Courtenay place..
I think LGWM might have to walk this one back
That was heavily covered in their consolation a few months back – under the “Transform” option. I think the Fish did a post about that too. What they are trying to do is to provide bus stops spaced further apart – every 400m from memory, not every 100m as it currently is? along Lambton Quay.
So – do you have any news on the Courtenay Central development that I don’t know about? The public is very much left in the dark on that one…
With regards to Courtenay central I don’t have any further info, but everyone still keeps saying that the project ( including Countdown) keep saying the project is still alive..
The other unanswered questions are access to the Convention centre and the potential mass transit junction (one of the big clash points you mentioned),.. surly it would be very helpful for at least the St James nthbound stop to remain to facilitate as seamless as possible transfer across the plaza there???
Otherwise you are expecting those transferring from buses from the east (remember the mass transit beyond the hospital is a stage 2 project) will have to walk from either C Place or Cuba St stops… not helpful for incentivising buses to not go down the remainder of the Golden Mile (which is the ultimate goal of the Mass transit)
All good points, nemo!
One confirmed (as far as anything is) change to that draft plan: Tory St is planned to remain open across Courtenay Place, but only for straight-across traffic – no turns.
A consequence of closing off Brandon St that I haven’t seen mentioned is that the 40-odd peak-time buses from the north and west that terminate there every weekday will have to go somewhere else. Perhaps improved bus flows along the GM will mean their extension to Courtenay Place will be on the cards?
I can’t believe they planned to cut off Tory Street. So silly, of course you need cross-roads. Dixon, after all, crosses Cuba Mall with no drama.
Tory Street is a really interesting case for me – its my main route down to Courtenay Place by foot, and I also use it to drive up to get to the Eye of the Fish Manor house. But at almost any hour of the day it is heavily constricted – there’s always cars parked on either side, and in the leftover space between, there is barely enough room for two cars to pass. So, cars pass very slowly and carefully so as to avoid scratching the paintwork. In reality, even though I use it, I’d be for more happy if they were to close it off to traffic altogether – make it much more pedestrian-friendly and a lot more cycle-friendly. Bring it on. At least from Vivian St down to Courtenay Place, making it into a completely car-free space would be great. Yes, lots of people wanting to get to Moore Wilsons would be inconvenienced – but hey, guess what? They’re in a car, so they can drive a block further on and come in from the Cambridge Tce side of Lorne St or College St. Its not rocket science – and lets face it, nothing can get between a Moore Wilsons Aficionado and their hearts desire…
Agreed, nemo, and of course Tory St has been closed to traffic in places a couple of times – at the bottom end after the Kaikoura earthquake, and at the top end during the construction of Pukeahu – with no reported negative effects (and lots of positive ones). Why do we find it so difficult to learn from experience?
As for Dixon crossing Cuba Mall, “with no drama” – it doesn’t, it splits the mall into two. If the mall were continuous over Dixon, at the same level with no curbs, it wouldn’t be so bad. But another opportunity missed, sadly. Let’s hope LGWM grasps this one with its changes to the Taranaki/Dixon/Courtenay/Manners intersection – currently a pedestrian nightmare, made “safer” a few years ago when the extra road space for private vehicles created by removing the pedestrian refuges made it a much greater obstacle for people on foot.
For those of us with small businesses off Lambton Quay (not retail) – quite a few people in our building are mobility and/or partially sight impaired. So we can’t and don’t cycle or catch buses into our workplaces. We currently get dropped off and picked up on Lambton Quay by family or Uber drivers – Hybrid or electric. I could imagine keeping our businesses in the golden mile, if there are much better drop off and pick up zones along the terrace and side streets to Lambton Quay – these do not exist at present. The second thing that might keep us in the Golden Mile offering psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy services etc. is some sense that resident and visitor numbers will improve significantly from the current situation. If there aren’t improved draw cards for the area, then our departure to more affordable and increasingly popular suburban centres is likely. In some ways Wellington’s ‘centre’ has already moved north to Petone – it’s a lot more vibrant than the Golden Mile, and a lot more diverse than Te Aro. I think the plan could work – if it thinks carefully about all user groups, the relationship to the whole metro area, and what the actual attractive and unique offer of the area will be.
Nice to see you here Rana, and thanks for your comment – much appreciated. Yes, you’re right that there are few drop off zones on the side streets at present – and that if the Golden Mile is pedestrianised, then the side streets will need to be upgraded as pedestrian / taxi / uber interchanges. I think that is obvious – we just have to hope that the WCC will understand this and implement it asap!
Apparently they liked the submission about making sure that buses could get past each other at bus stops, and they changed the plan as a result. Duuuurrrhhhh. How embarrassing.
Why is acting in response to public feedback embarrassing, Chico? That’s what consultation is all about – and if they don’t act in response they’re often accused of ignoring public input.
Damned if they do and damned if they don’t, the lot of the public service.