10 EASY WAYS TO FIX THIS NOW
Here’s a package of proposals for Queen St. Is it too much to hope Auckland Transport will be thinking along these lines as it gets into its “detailed work” and catches up with what half the world has been telling it for months and months?
1. Block Queen St to private vehicles from Mayoral Drive to Commerce St.
2. Allow passenger pick-up and dropoff between Mayoral Drive and Wakefield St at designated times, for patrons of shows at the Town Hall. Provide patrons of the Civic with similar pick-up and drop-off on Wellesley St. If they can have “special event” traffic arrangements at Eden Park, they can do it when required in the arts precinct.
3. Ban all buses north of Wellesley St, except e-buses. (From June, this street will become the main crosstown bus route anyway.)
4. Allow service and delivery vehicles on Queen St at designated times and make space available for them to park.
5. Help freight and courier companies transition away from big vans and trucks in the central city. (Maybe that underused “car storage” building Ports of Auckland has plonked on Bledisloe Wharf could become a depot where courier vans unload on to e-cargo bikes . . . )
6. Put in a dedicated lane for bikes and e-scooters from K Rd right through to Commerce St. Connect it westwards to the Nelson St cycleway and eastwards to the universities.
7. Trial this for the rest of the year, using temporary materials.
8. Employ an exceptional urban design team to make this look terrific, at low cost, and empower them to unleash their best ideas.
9. Be ready to revise the plan as it goes, because, you know, it’s a trial.
10. Start planning a magnificent permanent solution.
And one more thing. Since November 2018, in council and in AT, it’s clear that some senior officials have done their best to obstruct, delay and sabotage a solution that might work well for everyone.
The CEO of AT, Shane Ellison, has failed to prevent this so the board needs to step in. So do mayor Phil Goff and the CEO of council, Jim Stabback. They need to take these officials gently by the hand and find them new work, doing whatever the equivalent of counting paperclips is in the modern office.
Counting road cones, perhaps.