How to make a city pedestrianfriendly in 10 easy steps
1Start with the needs of pedestrians and fit everything around them
The footpaths in Cornwall Park are rubbish. Why doesn’t it have wide walking boulevards for families to wander along? Why are cars allowed to drive all through it?
One of the best things done for Auckland visitors was the road closure on Maungawhau/Mt Eden. You can slog up the steep road or wander around the hill on the gentle one, and both options are great. So is the vehicle-free summit.
Why hasn’t that thinking been applied widely in the city?
Most “shared spaces” — like Fort St, Federal St and Elliott St — have devolved informally into a narrow roadway with wide footpaths. But those roadways are used overwhelmingly by Ubers, taxis and courier vans.
Why do we have whole street systems for those vehicles? Why not, for example, just close Jean Batten Place?
If a shopping village like Sandringham wants to have a street festival, fantastic.
It’s the best use of a street, because the community values are enormous and we should treasure them. They should come first. If big events threaten to clog up the streets with traffic, pile on the public transport. Rugby does it successfully with trains and buses to Eden Park, because the rugby union pays. That system desperately needs to be evolved.
Why aren’t pedestrian crossings far more common at intersections? Because cars are prioritised. But why?
And what about Tamaki Drive?
On fine weekends, there are pedestrians everywhere and the traffic clogs up completely. The traffic-management plan and the people-enjoying-themselves plan are simply to pretend it isn’t happening. Just let people get stuck in traffic and hope no one gets run over. But people do get run over. It’s nuts. See below.
2Involve street users in the planning
Don’t do what Auckland Transport did in Mt Albert, with endless roadworks producing an unlovely and unwanted result. Use co-design principles: engage early, and give everyone — retailers, shoppers, locals — a genuine sense of ownership.
It’s not a coincidence, by the way, that Cam Perkins and the Auckland Design Office are not part of AT. They’re in the central council organisation. There’s a working relationship between the two, but it’s uneasy.
3Take little steps and don’t spend lots of money
Physically, the change on High St is tiny. But it will build support — where there are doubters, it’s always better to show than tell. And if it works it will lead to something enormous.
At Sale St and Wellesley St, a corner busy with pedestrians and traffic, the ADO has used planter boxes and some paint to trial making a dangerous intersection safer. It’s working. In contrast, the rest of that Wellesley St block, under the control of AT, is a nightmare, with no crossings and many speeding buses. AT has done nothing about it.
AT has produced its slower speeds plan as a king-hit for 800km of roads because the legal processes are easier to manage that way. But it’s poor politics. Show rather than tell, step by step, would have been an easier way to build support.
4Trial and trial again If it doesn’t work, they can change it and change it again. It costs nothing to move planters around and sometimes no budget brings out the best creative thinking.
5Customise the solutions for each problem Service and delivery vehicles need to get in, so do tradies. That’s fine. Work with them to create a plan. The key is not to let those problems dictate the project. You solve the problem of rubbish collection in the context of a pedestrian-friendly space; you don’t decide that because you need to collect rubbish it has to stay a street for trucks.
6Make the pedestrian zones wonderful Get artists and designers involved. Don’t leave the village street filled with ugly green paint and yellow glowsticks. You want everyone to want to spend more time there. The retailers want that too.
7Make it better not to drive Excellent public transport, good facilities to park away from the site, a good cycling network, good footpaths leading there. All of this is critical.
8Promote the benefits That would be safety, improved street life, more retail customers, more engaged communities, better public health and a more gentle impact on the planet. It’s better for you, better for everyone else, and more fun.
9Engage the politicians and officials When ideas for building a better city die, their graveyard is usually the intray of some risk-averse senior official. Good politicians can help stop that happening.
10Build community leadership Want parents to stop driving kids to school? Get the school to take the lead. Want slower speeds in your village? Get the retailers onside. Want to pedestrianise the street? Work out where cars will go, because you can’t just ban them or pretend they don’t need to park somewhere.