Regular readers would have heard me rave on and on about shared spaces a few times now, so therefore it’s probably no surprise to hear that I’m a pretty big fan of what Auckland City Council is planning for the Fort Street Area. The image below gives us a look at what this part of Auckland might be turned into over the next couple of years:
Shared streets are those where the distinction between the roadway and the footpath is reduced, or even removed, to create a space which is more pedestrian focused than a typical road, but which at the same time does not actually ban cars from using the space. It’s a somewhat counter-productive concept, of making an area more friendly to pedestrians by seemingly removing the footpaths, but I tend to think of it quite differently – as basically turning the whole street into a footpath, but letting those cars onto it as long as they behave themselves. The uncertainty of the shared space is its beauty, as driver over time tend to either avoid the areas as simply too difficult to navigate or they decide to drive very slowly and carefully as you never know what might be going on in the shared space.
A few months back Auckland City Council proposed Elliott Street as the first Auckland street to be “given this treatment”. It will be interesting to see how that project progresses over the next few months. Seemingly the feedback on the Elliott Street proposal must have been pretty good, now that we’re seeing things being extended to the Fort Street Area.
There are some good before and after shots of various parts of the project, which I shall share below:
Perhaps one of the most interesting things about Fort Street is its history. When Auckland was first settled the shoreline was much further inland than it is today, and actually followed the line of Fort Street quite closely. It would be great if this former role of Fort Street as the city’s shoreline could be well reflected in whatever becomes the final design. There does seem to be a proposal to mark the shoreline, which is certainly a good start.
A diagram of the full design is shown below, and at full size can be viewed here.
Wow, they are really moving fast on this… I guess because it seems like all the councillors whether right or left leaning love it… Amazing how quickly things can happen when everyone agrees..!
It’s gonna piss the cops off down there something fierce on the weekends though..! Nothing worse than going slow on a shared road when trying to tear out of the station in a paddy wagon…
Have you e-mailed the council your map of further strrets that would be good candidates for change..?
Looking pretty good.
Another idea to make the other streets in the CBD more “shared” is to remove a lot of traffic lights from, for instance, Queen Street. It would force car drivers to be far more careful at intersections and look out better for pedestrians. At the moment there are far too many traffic lights between the Town Hall and Britomart, making the bus journey a slow tedious affair (especially when one is running late for the ferry)
Comments;
Do you know what they’re planning to do with that laneway? Something Melbourne style? I’m looking at this and wondering how this would affect Fort St’s most famous profession. And yes, if the cops don’t get their superaccess they’re going to be upset.
I guess they are moving fast on it because of the RWC and not wanting the CBD to look so run-down. It’s sad it takes a sports event.
Uroskin, the traffic lights make it easier for pedestrians to get across Queen Street, and slow the traffic down a lot. If you drive along Queen Street at most hours of the day you’re probably going to take about 10-15 minutes to do the whole street – people generally avoid it next time!
I would say that the “push” is definitely being made so that these projects are done for the RWC.
Hi Jarbury,
As an Onehunga resident I walk across the new tracks nearly every day and think ‘sigh’ I wish there was a train today.
While I eagerly await the reopening of the Onehunga line, there is one factor I don’t think has been considered yet. During the morning and afternoon rush, the traffic on Church street can bank up all the way from Captain Springs to Onehunga Mall. A key cause, from what I can see is the roundabout on the Onehunga Mall/Church St corner. I can imagine that traffic stopping for trains has the prospect of making this worse.
As I understand it Onehunga Mall used to be a pedestrian mall, at least it was the last time the trains were operating. Unfortunately it was converted into a road before the ‘cafe’ culture started in NZ – a culture that may have made it viable.
I still wish it was a pedestrian mall – despite being on the city council cycle maps it is really narrow and cyclists are threatened with being squashed between cars and badly positioned planter boxes.
I have been told the cars came onto Onehunga Mall at the time DressMart was built. But as Dressmart now has a recent additional exit behind the Onehunga Mall shops leading to Church St, the car access argument is no longer as strong.
Do you think Onehunga Mall would be viable as a shared space? I am thinking of the section from Church to Arthur St I’m not a transport planner but I would think you could make a rationale based on speeding up the above mentioned roundabout with one less exit, and encouraging more traffic onto alternative routes.
There are quite a few eateries and cafe’s in that section of the mall – tables out on the shared footpath could give it a nice village atmosphere.
I think in the long-run Onehunga Mall might be a viable shared space. However, before that happens I think that Onehunga would need to intensify quite significantly – although it certainly has plenty of potential to do just that!
Are you talking about Onehunga Mall the street..? That used to be called Queen St (believe it or not) and a tramway…