Calvert column prompts wide mix of opinions
HILARY Calvert delivers some interesting opinions regarding Dunedin issues but her recent musings (ODT, 21.2.19) on ‘‘the plan’’ for curbing vehicular movement around the city left me shaking my head.
Hilary appears to follow the general obsession with the motorcar.
We persist in clogging up the roads with vehicles and rant over the lack of parking for them. Any impediment to a trip into town is met with derision and frustration. It is witnessed in the erratic driving and contempt shown by some to cyclists and pedestrians.
There never will be enough street parking in the CBD for the amount of cars cramming into such a small space.
The logical thing would be to bike, walk or take a bus but no, people insist on driving into town in cars and be frustrated as they try to find somewhere to put them.
Hilary is sceptical of ‘‘the plan’’ to pedestrianise part of George St. The shopkeepers will be up in arms at the loss of parking outside their shops. I find it hard to follow their repeated concerns here. If I wanted to go to a particular shop in town, I would not drive around and around until I could get a park outside that shop.
But Hilary, I do agree with the points you raise regarding the use and impact of the Lime scooters on our already clogged footpaths.
Incidentally, it’s a pity our highly paid council planners and managers can’t get it right the first time — waving a diploma and a CV at our infrastructure will not magically come up with solutions to problems.
We do need to change our reliance on cars to get around the city. They are a necessity but there is no freedom of the open road within the city.
Buses need to be cheaper to attract family and commutor use with commensurate less traffic on our roads and less demand on parking spaces. W. N. Brook
Wakari
[Abridged] I APPLAUD Hilary Calvert’s analysis of the Dunedin City Council’s secret plan to destroy retail business in Dunedin. I have thought the same for some time with uninformed decisions made by council on roading designs, parking in the city and expenditure on items that few will use. I therefore salute her musings.
It is now cheaper and easier for me to buy items from overseas than taking my life in my hands on badly designed Dunedin roads, paying ludicrous prices for parking or using public transport systems whose costs and timetables are not designed for the common person.
How will I survive not going out? I will live comfortably off profits from the sale of orange road cones, live off my recruitment firm’s shares for the hiring of 41 more council staff, plus income off the sale of traffic lights and oversized concrete median strips used in the construction of cycle lanes.
I should be comfortable living at home until the next election.
Murray Craig
Opoho
THANK you, Hilary Calvert, for your brilliant piece about our DCC plan which is quickly destroying everything that was great about the central city.
Oh, that we could somehow find some common sense to run Dunedin city. Alas, I fear the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party now has complete control.
Dunedin once had the most userfriendly (for all) central city, as well as the easiest passage through the oneway system of any city in the country.
As for rearranging our roads to fit a hospital in without thinking of the ramifications, and pedestrianising George St, which is perfect as it is, a simple mind cannot understand.
Drive down Highgate sometime and see the dangerous mayhem the new bulges are causing. A fatality would not surprise. Neville Idour
Dunedin