Research done by Auckland Transport shows that the shared spaces have been really successful in increasing the number of pedestrians along the various streets which have enjoyed the upgrades.
“The Queen Street upgrade and continuing city centre improvements are making the walking journey in and around the city centre much more desirable and attractive. Shared spaces may be a new concept for most Aucklanders but pedestrians have really taken to them and as a result are adding healthy walking to their days.
“Pedestrian activity on Darby, Lorne and Fort streets has increased by between 50 and 140 per cent. On Darby Street, there are now fewer cars and they are travelling at slower speeds.
“And the recently completed shared space project on Totara Avenue, New Lynn is another example where the street environment has been made friendly for pedestrians.”
Something that I’ve found quite interesting when observing the shared streets is how each of the streets in the city centre that have been upgraded differ slightly – and also how they’ve changed over time since they were first opened.
Darby Street was the first to open, and for a while didn’t seem to work that well – because of the large number of cars which continued to use the street (mainly as a bypass of the Queen/Victoria intersection). People parking along the street also made things problematic at first, although better enforcement by Auckland Transport parking officers in more recent times has helped minimise that problem.
The photo above was taken pretty soon after Darby Street was open. These days the retailers have opened out towards the street more, with seating for people. Overall, it works really well and a lot fewer vehicles seem to be using Darby Street than before.
Fort Street probably remains the busiest of the shared streets in terms of the number of vehicles travelling along it. In particular, it seems that a lot of traffic uses Fort Street to access Queen Street, although as the cars generally take forever to find a gap between pedestrians before pulling onto Queen Street, I wonder whether this number will reduce over time.
Out of all the shared spaces, Fort Street is probably the one that you’d feel least comfortable walking down the middle of – because of the higher vehicluar traffic flows. It’s still a far nicer place than it used to be though.
Elliott Street is, in my opinion, the biggest success story out of all the shared spaces. If you go there at lunch time these days, it’s absolutely humming with pedestrians – and you hardly ever see a car driving through the area. The close proximity to Atrium on Elliott shopping centre and foodcourt has helped Elliott Street become a success – but overall I think it is clearly the pick of the bunch. Here are a couple of picture of is opening day:
The other shared space is along part of Lorne Street, outside the library. It works quite well too – and I must get along there to take a few more photos and do a more detailed post.
I think the shared spaces will really come into their own over the summer. I hope that the Council keeps a close eye on numbers and provide some more seating if that’s considered necessary – as well as considering closing off some of the streets at certain times. I’ve thought that having Elliott Street closed to traffic each Friday would work well.
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I was up at Darby St the other day and even compared to a few months ago the place had heaps of people which was great.
As for cars, I don’t find them too bad, I walk down the middle of the road on Fort St and most times there isn’t a car to get in the way of. I also think that much of the rat running that they could potentially be used for could be sorted out by changing the direction the roads run. With Elliot St only allowing entry by turning left from Victoria St and Darby St only able to be accessed from Elliot St would mean that someone who accessed it would just end up going in circles so cars would only use it if they had to. Same with Fort St, if access was only allowed from Queen St then the road wouldn’t be able to be used as a way to bypass the Queen and Customs St intersection.
I suspect that Federal St next to Skycity will be the next one off the blocks but I would also like to See the group of Federal, Swanson and Wolfe St’s done as well
Just be wary of seasonal effects …
We now need to keep up the momentum and convert further streets in the city, however, aside from these the only other one planned is O’Connel Street. Wolf et al were mentioned in the Auckland Plan (and I’ve always thought Wolfe Street in particular would be great as a shared space), I guess it all depends on how long it will take to get going on all the projects proposed in those plans.
The cross streets in Britomart are also on a list I believe…. Of course keeping the cars out of Queen would help solve the Fort St issues.
And implementing a citywide provision of better PT and especially not building more motorway lanes into the city, like some seem to want fom the Shore….?
I think the problem with fort st is that the shared space is only in that last block. This gives cars a chance to get a bit of run-up and feel like their road is being blocked. The others, people have to turn into thenm and I’d guess many people dont even realise that cars are really allowed there.
Exactly, if they couldn’t go anywhere at the end the run up would be irrelevant, the cars just wouldn’t be there
Or, perhaps less drastically, just extend the fort st shared space for another block…
I agree the shared spaces are a huge improvement and they are a few small patches of the city relatively nice to walk through.
Elliot is my favourite too. Unfortunately the seating is getting run over and destroyed bench-by-bench. The 2 that have been completely destroyed have been removed and not replaced – meaning bad (and probably illegal) parking is taking over the space people were given to sit. The wood and stainless steel seats don’t look cheap, but they’re obviously not tough enough. Solid ones like down on Darby St look like they’d stand up to the cars a lot better.
Lorne Street is quite an unusual area while the St James is unused and in a state of disrepair. Does anyone else think it could do with a few more trees to break up the expanse of Chinese stone?
Finally I think a real missed opportunity is not putting a proper shared space on Kitchener St. Even with the new paving quite a lot of drivers speed through cutting off the new Art Gallery (and Albert Park) from the rest of the city more severely than the Suffragette steps ever have.
Yes well Kitchener is hoist by the motorway off ramps…. those cars have to go some where until we have better options for leaving more of them at home.
I’d like to see Kitchener made two way, it’s a bit of a rocket run at the moment and I reckon having cars in both directions would slow drivers down considerably.
It’s a tough one, the whole street is the interface between the CBD proper on one side and the park/gallery/university on the other…. but it is also a fairly key traffic link due to that motorway access.
Lorne St isn’t really working is it?
The only “activation” after 5 are the drinkers out the back of Brooklyn Bar. That’s one 2 x 4 m space at one end on one side.
Until the St James’s back doors open it’s no better than it was before (except you can’t park as close to the library).
What’d that cost us again?
I agree only partly. To really liven up, it needs the St James up and running again or at least something there with a street presence (what happened to theplan to convert the aotea centre into a convention centre and refurbish the st james as a concert hall? — an excellent plan, I though) but the other day I sat out on the steps in front of the library — not a road I’d ever sat on before — and there were a few people around me doing the same. There was also a bunch of youngish types playing hacky on the “road”. I was nice, sheltered and relaxed and it gives the library the sort of prominence such an august institution deserves.
Lorne Street works – it turns a space that was previously no good to anyone except people parking their cars into a really nice public space in front of the library – I’ve seen people sitting there and chatting. Ultimately it will have the effect IMO of making sure any future use of the St James treats the road as more than simply a place to disgorge cars, the previous and thankfully canned, plan for a huge apartment block made use of Lorne Street as simply an entrance to its garage.
I agree. Two waying it and having a re think about the intersections at Victoria and Wellesley could really help. Those two intersections are amongst the worst in the city, especially as they are on the route to the university.
Really? Two-waying would help those intersections? Seems highly unlikely to me. I agree oncoming traffic may slow driving here but is also likely to increase car journeys in an area we would prefer them to be reduced. My answer to the speed problem on Kitchener is to increase the level of traffic calming, to help the poor drivers realise they are no longer on a motorway.
I agree that traffic calming measures are a better plan and thee cold start back up on Wellesley st. That part of Kitchener is always going to be a bit of a dead zone with the slope of the park on one side and a huge parking building on the other. But slow the traffic down with narrower lanes (the one-lane only section could be extended) and an uneven surface. A wide road with a crest in the middle creating a blind-spot makes it dangerous and unwelcoming for pedestrians on the northern side.
Update on Elliot St: 3 more benches were damaged over the weekend. Not write-offs, but the wood on one is broken. I realise the ethos of shared spaces is co-existence, but people trying to put their cars on top of seats is taking it a bit far.
Bollards in front of the benches. If those don’t work, couple them with directional anti-vehicle land mines 😉
More seriously, that is pretty disappointing. Can one see whether or not they were hit by manoeuvring vehicles trying to park/unload, or are they hit by people driving through?
I’m almost certain they’re hit by people trying to park; sometimes cars, based on the time some of the incidents have happened, and other cases heavier vehicles like delivery trucks, based on the damage inflicted. I wonder how many have owned up? It is easy to assume the damage is hit-and-run .
There are a lot of the seats (at least for now) so I don’t think bollards are an answer unless you want to return it to the old fenced off road approach. But something has to be done, since almost all of the seats look to have been knocked off kilter. A different design able to withstand lateral impact is required. The same wooden seats were used temporarily on Darby St before being replaced by the solid ones, so I hope the same thing happens on Elliot St.
They are great. Still waiting for changes to High St though. Pain to walk there at lunch times with no room to move on the footpaths. Also does anyone know why there are no trees or greenery on Lorne St? Makes the place a bit lifeless.
The only successful way I’ve seen of stopping trucks and cars damaging things is what the owner of the building opposite Fidel’s Cafe in Cuba St, Welly.
This owner was sick of backing trucks smashing his awning, so he strengthened the awning and added steel “teeth”.
(Google map 255 Cuba and you’ll see them)
Now when the trucks back into or sideswipe his awning the teeth tear a giant rip in the metal of the truck and open it like a can of sardines!
More people should do this I think. Anyone from Council reading?