Taranaki St back in council’s 30kmh plan

Taranaki St is back on the table as a potential 30kmh zone, despite Wellington City Council officers recommending against lowering the speed restriction.

The central city street, which is currently a 50kmh zone apart from a small section near Courtenay Place, is one of about 50 streets included in the council’s safer speeds programme.

The programme recommends lowering speeds to 30kmh on all central city roads apart from main arterial routes.

Following public consultation, council officers recommended removing Taranaki St from the proposal because of the extensive infrastructure that would be needed to successfully reduce vehicle speeds.

‘‘Given the layout of Taranaki St, officers don’t believe these speeds will be achieved without significant investment in trafficcalming infrastructure,’’ a council report said.

With the street also likely to be part of a proposed mass transit route, any early changes were likely to be ‘‘short-lived, poor value for money, and unnecessarily disruptive’’.

‘‘Officers are proposing to leave Waterloo Quay, Customhouse Quay (north of Panama St), Jervois Quay, Cable St, Wakefield St (east of Taranaki St), Kent/ Cambridge Terrace, and Taranaki St as they currently are to encourage vehicle drivers on to the main arterials.’’

But at a council meeting yesterday, councillors noted there was wide support in the feedback for including Taranaki St, among others, in the programme.

They subsequently agreed to include it in the proposal, which will go out for public consultation in March.

Councillor Iona Pannett, who wanted the speed restrictions to take in further areas such as Oriental Bay and Te Aro, said it was important Taranaki St was included in the proposal.

Nineteen per cent of comments in the feedback suggested more streets become 30kmh or lower, compared with 9 per cent calling for more streets to become 40kmh or 50kmh, she said.

Any excluded streets would not be eligible for speed reductions in the current programme, with a second round of consultation required.

‘‘The pace this council moves at is so slow. Everything takes forever. I do not want to wait five or 10 years to improve Taranaki St,’’ Pannett said.

However, councillor Malcolm Sparrow questioned whether the speed limit needed to be changed to improve safety.

‘‘We have been saying drivers will respond to the way the street looks. If we had a separated cycleway, surely we could retain a 50kmh speed limit.’’

The first of the changes will be finalised in May, and introduced in September.

Reduced speeds will be considered for Jervois Quay, Wakefield and Cable streets, and Kent/ Cambridge Terrace in future proposals, as well as some streets in Thorndon including Molesworth, Murphy, and Mulgrave streets, and Thorndon Quay.

‘‘The pace this council moves at is so slow ... I do not want to wait five or 10 years to improve Taranaki St.’’

Iona Pannett Wellington City councillor