The other day I wrote a post about improving access to Greenlane Station, while there is no news about that particular post it is pleasing to see something similar has happened on the North Shore at the Sunnynook busway station. Here is what AT has said.
A quicker and shorter route to Sunnynook bus station is now possible with the long awaited opening of the Sunnynook walkway.
The new walkway and bridge provides direct access to the popular Sunnynook bus station from Kapiti Place, shortening the route by up to 850 metres for pedestrians and cyclists.
A new public toilet and new cycle facilities have also been provided as part of the work.
The walkway was officially opened on Saturday 16 June by North Shore Councillor George Wood and Devonport-Takapuna Local Board Chair Chris Darby.
They were joined by pupils from Sunnynook Primary School in planting kowhai trees to mark the opening.
The walkway was a collaboration between Auckland Transport and Auckland Council’s Stormwater and Parks. Landscaping around the walkway was improved and a 2.5 metre wide path and bridge across the Wairau Stream was built. It has new lighting and CCTV equipment and to help dampen noise from the bus station a 45m-long glass noise-wall extending from the station across the bridge was installed.
Auckland Transport Northern Busway Stations Leader Anthony Blom says “There has been significant local interest and enthusiasm to open the walkway.
“While there have been some unusual construction issues during the project, everything is go, and the people of Sunnynook can enjoy high quality access to the ever popular Northern Busway,” says Mr Blom.
Location signage for the walkway and bus station has been erected on surrounding streets to help people find their way.
Now I’m not sure where exactly the walkway goes but here is a map showing a rough connection from the station to Kapiti Place. The blue line represents a 500m walk before this opened while the red is how far a 500m walk will take you now.
These are the exact kind of things that we need to be doing to improve access to both busway and rail stations so well done AT.
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The blue line on the map is missing the 500m already accessible from the “other side of the motorway”, and into Becroft Drive. I understand the point is about the Kapiti Pl and the surrounds, but to be fair, it should include the whole lot.
Wouldn’t an additional ped bridge across the motorway at the other end of the station also do wonders to improve the walk up reach…
Yes it would knock a good 250m off the walk, but at quite a cost. You could do ten little pathway connections for the price of a decent overbridge so you’d have to toss up what would be the best approach.
One thing they should really consider is having shared use cycleways up one or both sides of every busway and rail line we have. Not only would these be great core cycling corridors, but it would open up a huge amount of walk catchment by linking every station along to the various side roads and culs-de-sac that face the transit way.
that’s an awesome initiative. Totally agree Greenlane needs the same treatment – I remember I once went there and it took me ages to even find the rail station. I do have a very poor sense of direction but…
I’ve been doing a walk catchments around Auckland lately and there are literally hundreds of locations where small accessways like this would really open up public transport access. Not just to stations either, but bus stops too. If you take a classic 500m “as the crow flies” catchment, then compare it to the 500m walk catchment along the roads and paths you actually have to use, the latter is often half the radius of the former. It’s one of the many unfortunate outcomes of the suburban cul-de-sac mentality is that it intentionally disconnects housing areas from main roads. But it is on main roads where our buses run.
That’s a big problem for PT access because halving the radius of a circle leads to a quartering of the area it covers. A 500m radius covers 785,000m2, but if your real life 500m walk distance catchment gives you a radius of 250m, then the area covered is actually only 196,000m2. All things being equal that means only a quarter of the potential patrons can get to the stop with a 500m walk. Little projects like this that let people walk in a straighter line between their home and a transit stop could have huge benefits in catchment and patronage.
I think one of the most effective things AT could do would be to calculate the most circuitous pedestrian connections to stations and stops, and assign a few tens of millions each year to add in paths and linkages one by one.
One of the many advantages of living in one of Auckland’s tramline ‘burbs is that there are many of these little lanes and alleys throughout our hood. They were routinely included in all subdividing before the total move to the auto centric programme of the post-war ‘boomburbs’. Funny how we have to keep relearning everything: So much amenity at so little cost if done from the start, but a much bigger expence to back-engineer them.
Extending the Onehunga line along the new motorway corridor is a very tempting proposition, but any stations will have much the same access issues.
To dovetail into the Metro post from yesterday, what if a hypothetical Onehunga – New Lynn link was freight only, combined with downtown port traffic being routed via the eastern line? Are there any further options for a freight bypass, long term?
The catchment of people within a 500m walk would be much bigger if the whole area wasn’t cul-de-sacs. I have a shortcut behind my house which cuts about 400m off the walk to the bus station, but without that I’m not sure I’d be willing to walk to the bus each day, and there would be yet another car on the road.