Benefits of pedestrian streets ‘hard to quantify’
I APPRECIATED Jack Crawford’s clear rebuttal letter to the editor, ‘‘Many views on status of Dunedin’s George St’’ (Letters, 26.9.22).
However, B. Hyland’s following letter quotes research that doesn’t conclusively support pedestrianisation, but highlights the pitfalls of simple thinking.
The research reviewed 14 Spanish cities in 20112012 with multiple times the population of Dunedin.
It found the benefits were dependent on other factors such as shop density, and that in lowdensity areas pedestrianisation actually reduced sales.
The researchers concluded the sample size, length of study (two years) and unknown effects of other factors meant the results were not conclusive, recommending further investigation.
Dunedin’s different climate, other cultures and smaller population may affect those results.
Constructing a change that is hard to reverse, the benefits of which are unknown, was not advised by the professional.
Car and pedestrian traffic flows are still black magic and hard to quantify, making it notoriously difficult to determine the outcome.
Tony Vink Andersons Bay
Increasing congestion
READING through election candidate profiles, I get the sense that many candidates don't seem to understand the relationship between congestion and parking.
Many candidates want freeflowing traffic through the city while increasing parking.
If you increase parking, you encourage traffic into the city, so you create more congestion.
You cannot have it both ways. If Dunedin is to grow, traffic and congestion will only increase. We have to think about other options. RalphPeter Hendriks
Sawyers Bay
More Port buses, please
I WOULD ask the Otago Regional Council to reinstate the buses that travel from Port Chalmers to City (route 14) after 6.40am to 7.35am.
There desperately needs to be a bus at 7am, and/or 7.15am. The 7.35am is now full of school kids, and this morning quite a few missed the bus from St Leonards and onwards because it was full.
It is unacceptable that kids are missing/late for school due to poor public transport options.
I would suggest a dedicated school bus for kids travelling from West Harbour and which connects them to the city hub (going to DNI, etc) and preferably an express service, so workers can get to work on time. Majella Cullinane
Port Chalmers
[ORC implementation lead transport, Julian Phillips replies:
‘‘Under the current reduced timetable, there are six route 14 bus services from Port Chalmers between 6am and 8.30am, departing at 6.10am, 6.40am, 7.30am, 7.50am, 8.10am and 8.20am.
‘‘We understand that our services are popular with school pupils and previously we have operated overflow buses to cater for additional demand at peak times. We will look to reinstate these when we have the resources.’’]