Net loss of parking from changes to traffic, buses
CREATION of a oneway street in central Dunedin will help to create an orderly space for 32 car parks, but improving access to bus stops in the wider city will come at the cost of 40 car parks.
Overall, a series of changes to parking restrictions will result in 28 car parks being removed from what Dunedin city councillor Sophie Barker described as ‘‘suburbs’’.
The Dunedin City Council endorsed the recommendations of its regulatory subcommittee yesterday, approving changes to parking controls and changing traffic restrictions.
Ward St, between Halsey St and Wickliffe St, in the wharf area, will change to oneway traffic and markings for 32 car parks will be added.
Ward St had been used for what the council has called ‘‘ informal parking’’.
A report by council staff ahead of yesterday’s council meeting said the Ward St road reserve was in poor condition.
An ‘‘undesirable’’ right turn from Wickliffe St into Ward St would be removed by the change to oneway traffic.
Another change affecting motorists in the central city follows the completion of the University of Otago’s Faculty of Dentistry development.
Several parking spaces will be added there.
The Otago Regional Council has proposed a series of changes to its bus service, including the location of bus stops.
The city council decided to support this with nostopping lines that would create easier entries and exits for buses using those bus stops.
Cr Lee Vandervis took issue with changes being made in the name of safety and did not think the argument stacked up for removing 40 car parks.
‘‘I can’t see a genuine safety reason for doing it.’’
People needed offstreet parking to give them suitable access to their homes, he said.
Cr Vandervis said he was concerned ‘‘safety’’ was a word used increasingly to silence criticism.
Mayor Aaron Hawkins said any suggestion the word was being used to further an anticar agenda was insulting to council staff.