Dunedin resident ‘robbed of pleasures’ in city

FOR some time, I have been feeling like a secondclass citizen in the city I have contributed a great deal to. The council is now making decisions which will inhibit me and many other citizens experiencing an active life.

I am past middle years and have mobility issues. Due to parking changes, I can no longer drive to town and guarantee I will be able to accomplish my mission. Along with the loss of many street parks, some mobility car parks have been either blocked off or have simply disappeared. Last year it took me four trips to town before I could get a car park close enough for me to attend to a business matter.

Some may say the solution will be to get a bus into the city, but the new bus hub will take buses off the main street in the very area I may wish to go, and there will be days when I will not be able to walk to and from the new bus hub to the main shopping area.

The stadium has long been inaccessible to me when a show is on because I cannot get mobility parking on site, or if I am lucky enough to get a park for a daytime event, I am expected to walk significant distances to find an access point.

If the current council has its way, I am going to be further robbed of pleasures I have enjoyed up until now.

I will no longer be able to access the Octagon and therefore the cafes and restaurants in the adjacent area, and even the Regent Theatre, because the area will be closed off to traffic or I will be unlikely to be able to find a car park close enough.

It seems I am also likely to miss out on the pleasure of sitting in my car and watching the waves at St Clair (the small existing car park which can be accessed from the Esplanade will not meet the need). This is a pleasure my parents and their parents enjoyed when advancing years meant they could not longer get on to a beach.

Planners and elected council members need to come down from the clouds and get back in touch with a reality they will also eventually have to face.

The Dunedin City Council must not only focus on the needs of future generations but also those of the diverse range of people who live in the city at any point in time.

Bronwyn Powell

Wakari

[Abridged]

Highway change

THE new hospital planning team suggests (ODT, 9.2.19) that the state highway oneway system in the city should revert to twoway operation, due to access problems for pedestrians.

Rather than undertaking feasibility studies, perhaps they should consider that the safest way for a pedestrian to cross a main road is when that road is a oneway street, and they cross on the approach side of a set of traffic lights at full red — most vehicles stop at red lights, and few turn into oneway streets the wrong way.

Other crossing types — twoway streets, uncontrolled pedestrian crossings, and the ‘‘other’’ side of oneway street crossings — are less safe, due mainly to multiple directions for approaching traffic.

So, make use of the existing, safer state highway crossings, and find ways to encourage pedestrians to use them. Ray Phipps

St Kilda