Last time I awarded transport prizes I dropped the blog equivalent of a clusterbomb by simply suggesting that an intersection was unsafe for pedestrians – no way! Yes way. By the time everyone’s battered little digits had stopped thumping our keyboards, 129 comments had been posted and a number of egos has been bruised. Let’s see how we go this time …
The best transport “thing” I saw in the last few weeks was the NZ Police ticketing vehicles abusing the pedestrian mall on Alfred Street (at the University of Auckland). As one of the many, many students who campaigned over several years for this street to be turned into a mall, I’m rather pleased with how it has turned out – and somewhat frustrated when this is flouted by drivers. This “bus only” street caters for the Link Bus and bustles with large numbers of pedestrians. When I first started at uni vehicles would frequently queue the entire length of the street and prevent all the buses, let alone pedestrians, from going about their business.
So a big thanks from me to the NZ Police for getting out and helping “learn dose drivers dey arnit welkim rund heeya” – you win my transport prize for this week.
On the downside the worst transport prize of the week goes to: All the people in the last “transport prize” post who suggested that the intersection of Bowen/Kitchener/Victoria Street East works fine exactly how it is. FOOLS! Ever since that post I’ve spent most of my not inconsiderable spare time hanging about this intersection (I can neither confirm nor deny whether I was frothing at the mouth with self-afflicted pedestrian rabies). My time as a layabout not only confirmed that this intersection is a disaster, but also that it’s more dangerous than I initially thought, mainly because the numbers of pedestrians that walk through here are much much higher than I initially anticipated, and also because of the relatively high vehicle speeds from Kitchener.
As it happens, the little sliver of green space along Bowen Ave is quite a popular spot – both to walk and to sit. And it’s particularly popular with pretty university girls, who sit on the benches in the lunchtime sun and read their books. And of course, wherever there are concentrations of pretty university girls, then almost sure to follow are large volumes of fugly boys such as myself. The photo below shows one such boy; having enjoyed the sight of girls enjoying themselves in the sun, he must now cross the so-called INTERSECTION OF DEATH while his eyes are still adjusting back to normal focus. It’s inhumane.
Unfortunately this poor chap was squished by a 40-tonne semi-trailer just before he got to the other side of the road. But at least his timely death proved that I was right all along, and at the end of the day that’s the sort of affirmation that men like me are looking for. As Patrick would say – DISCUSS!
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You sir are a brave man on so many levels here 😛
You’ve got to be bloody brave to be a pedestrian in Auckland; this city craps on you like a flock of pigeons on metamucil.
Try my line of work and see how bloody brave you have to be when it all goes tits up 😛 😉
By the way I hated the mentioned intersection with a sworn vengeance both as a pedestrian and as a motorist. As a pedestrian the crossing options were limited to two sections not that helpful in most cases, plus the Parking Building on the corner although I often used it was a hazard in itself if you were walking beyond the intersection and beside the building to the Chancellery down the road. As a motorist, the phasing sucked, the queues sucked more, and getting stuck behind a bus sucked the most 😛
That intersection needs an overhaul alright, especially as AT have funnelled all the cars from State Highway 16 exit through past between UoA and AUT and then down this narrow piece of intersection…
It needs … a CLUSTERBOMB of pedestrian loveliness.
Can we have a picture of pretty girls next time, please. Fugly boys are, well, fugly boys before or after a date with a semi!
Nope – there will be no objectification of woman here. You just have to drag yourself away from your computer and go see the park/intersection for yourself.
Good on the plice(note no o in police in NZ) 😉 for enforcing the bus lane. More of this I say, especially on Sandringham Road on weekday mornings… as an aside, can AT send out enforcement officers to patrol the priority lanes (and help pay for the CRL!) or is it only the plice that can issue such fines?
BTW FWIW I was once in a taxi that went straight through the Bourke St. pedestrian mall in Melbourne. Suffice to say the driver’s excuses didn’t wash with HM Victoria Palice either;)
WHAT DO WE WANT?!? RED LIGHT CAMERAS!!! WHEN DO WE WANT THEM?!? Progressively rolled out to high-priority intersections over the next 50 years would be acceptable, but I’m willing to negotiate on timelines.
I agree with the need for greater traffic enforcement. I wonder though that the impact of actually being stopped, getting spoken to by an officer and being held up actually makes actual policing better than cameras. Also due to law in New Zealand, demerit points cannot be given from camera’s – only fines.
Good point Louis – yes I think the process of a cop stopping someone is more effective, but also wonder about the effect of red light cameras at all major intersections? Over time that would I think have a major impact on driver behaviour – fines are not ideal but they do suck.
I have been ranting about NZ traffic needing less education and more enforcement for a long time! SO WITH YOU.
Also, doubling down on Mr Plod’s critique of your chosen photos. Or at least provide some candy for both genders 😉
Look you sordid sods – in a recent post I even linked to the Dutch women’s hockey team. That’s all you get! There’s more than enough objectification of women in this world already …
How about we objectify men? Like this blog from Sweden where people are encouraged to snap guys using public transport: http://stalkholmed.tumblr.com/archive
I SAID I would be happy with equal-opportunity photography. And how is it objectification anyway? Were you intending to have them do a silent mime act representing a pedestrian crossing? You weirdo.
Anything to get the message across … that pedestrians are HOT.
tease.
can’t help it – it’s in my genes.
up that road close to the Pullman hotel it’s the same story. If you’re a pedestrian you have to wait for endless car turns and then you can go. But not if you want to cross form in front of the “officer’s club” building. there’s no pedestrian crossing there. check it out
Gian, you are correct. But that’s intentional – because traffic engineers know that officers don’t wait to cross the road, they simply charge across as if they were leading a bayonet charge! Yes it’s terrible – and the Pullman is next in my sights. They have sinned against pedestrians and claimed to have consent for it. More on this breaking story soon …
Oh the irony, if you anything about that name: Pullman.
I actually don’t really know why Kitchener St needs to be so unfriendly to pedestrians. Cars wanting to get up the hill can go via Bowen Ave. Make Kitchener St, High St and the Chancery area shared spaces.
Brilliant idea! You heard it here first – major shared space precinct around Chancery. How say the blogosphere?
I’m lovin it! Shared space for Kitchener makes compete sense.
Yay!
OK do we close the Wellesley St motorway off ramp then? … oh and both the car parking buildings on Kitchener/Victoria…?
High St should be first of course. Jeez, can’t we just do that one already?
But O’Connell/Courthouse lane are obvious candidates too, and together with the flat half of Chancery St those would make a great Freyberg Square – Chancery pedestrian precinct. I can picture the old town cobbled wonder of it already.
Here’s another idea, how about a shared space on the lower half of Shortland St? Between Fields Lane and Queen St there isn’t a single driveway, parking building or loading dock. The only reason to drive down there is a through route to Queen St and a couple of other shared spaces and narrow lanes like High St. If we ever pedestrianise Queen St we might as well shared space about halfway up the hill. All that would be lost is about two dozen roadside parks.
You guys are obviously too young to remember what used to be where the chancery is: just what you’re advocating…. there was a network of narrow lanes and rumpty little buildings that were perfect… children in suits in the 1980s boom bought it up with the complicity of the council, lead by the traffic engineers, demolished the lot, went bust, but the traffic engineers still widened and straightened all the lanes out and we got the carpark stump of a tower to be and the twee chancery [could be worse but not much] on top of yet more pharking parking infrastructure…..
Anyone got a shot of the Melba? There was a great corner formed by the building with the conical hat that’s filled with lawyers i think on the corner with O’Connell and where the sanitised suburban chancery is… It was Auckland’s best little ‘French Quarter’ I’ll never forget that act of vandalism….
All tidied up by suburban minded c*nts at the council; fresh from putting Mayoral Drive in…..
I wasn’t even here then. I came in not too long after rock bottom, and it’s been a slow crawl up.
1981 marks my grand entrance …
I never knew… 🙁 Got any pictures or plans of the former french quarter Patrick? Before my time too I guess (1981 was a good year!)
from Gis viewer further down comment stream…. shows tight street layout 2-3 story mad jumble like the best cities everywhere. Makes me angry just thinking about it…. sanitisers be damned!
Yes, before the senseless, stupid, Council-condoned if not actively encouraged, destruction of central Auckland in the 1980s, this area had considerable urban atmosphere and also some pretty good buildings. Like the extraordinarily sophisticated Beaux Arts National Bank on Shortland Street and Jean Batten Place (1926, demolished 1978); the 1913 Auckland Star building (arson 1989); the 1843 Wesleyan Chapel (the oldest surviving public building in Auckland, criminally demolished in 1982), its site still identifiable by the stairs leading up from High Street next to the egregious Metropolis; the 1885 Victoria Arcade building on Shortland and Queen Streets (demolished 1978); the Mark Brown & Fairhead Pan Am building on Shortland Street (1962?) and, best of them all, the entire late nineteenth century streetscape of Swanson Street (demolished 1978?). Even the old RSA on High Street, added to the atmosphere. This dense network of appropriately scaled buildings encouraged proper urban living; it was entirely, delightfully, walkable. I left in 1979 and would weep on my intermittent returns at how much had been wantonly destroyed for no other reason than fugitive profit.
This is the “pedestrian angst” Peter M was talking about. Our physical environment doesn’t make sense.
How long until we have the follow up story in the herald about innocent drivers been entrapped by a sting operation and how the signs aren’t clear enough?
Nah. They’re only students. Snag a few at the Quadrant and you’ll find a few hotshot professionals kicking up a stink….
A Wellington example:
http://wellingtoncycleways.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/pedestrians-count-for-nought-in-johnsonville/
Have a look at the example at the bottom. a 4 way intersection, and pedestrian crossings only on 3. Just outside National List MP Katrina Shanks office. And yes that does make me wonder is she blind, or does she just not give a damn (following the party line on unenlightened Transport Policy I suppose)? And if that is too political, well it is in Peter Dunne’s electorate. He’s Dunne nothing about it either. What are local MPs for if they don’t do anything for their local area? Who’s local member for Bowen and Kitchener? What’s she doing about it?
Nikki Kaye – good idea, might be worth an email to her.
You will shortly see the massive signs that are going up at Grafton Bridge because people keep complaining they couldn’t see the signs.
Yes, they are not very clear. No one really understands what a Red sign with a dash through the middle means even with the words No Entry on them, and those red crosses could mean anything. The Bus Lane sign and the times it operates are kind of by a tree which could cause confusion. The only answer is the have signage across the road stopping traffic from entering the bridge at all.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grafton_Bridge,_Signals_For_The_Clueless.jpg
Can we get an “at long last” transport prize to whoever has finally got traffic lights and proper pedestrian crossings put in at the Auckland Zoo intersection (where Motions Road meets Great North Road)?
As it was previously (with just a stop sign on Motions Road) this intersection was a tragedy waiting to happen. You had traffic streaming down eastbound on Great North Road was tangling with other traffic impatiently sneaking fast right hand turns into (or out of) Motions Road – don’t even get me started on trying to avoid that right-turning traffic if you were going eastbound across Motions Road on a bike. And worst of all, streams of unprotected pedestrians (including lots of families with small children) trying to safely cross towards the zoo – a triple or quad pedestrian fatality in the making.
With the lights and signalled crossings it’s still not perfect but a long way better than what was there before – for all road users, including motorists.
Really? Great stuff. I always turned left out of Motions Rd and then got on the NW at Western Springs to head West just because I hate turning right across cars. A road safety expert (Dr Laurie Sparke) once told me the most dangerous thing you can do in a car is turn right at a non-controlled intersection.
You can see what Patrick is saying by using the council GIS viewer and selecting historic aerial photography from the toolbox and moving the slider from 1940 to 2010.
Its a brillianr way of seeing how the motorways have changed the landscape.
good idea Kev: 1940 first then 1959, shame about the quality. Anyway a great intense urban area with real character… someone may have time to find some photographs, Auckland’s first restaurants were down there. All rationalised and tidied up and made nice and car friendly and full of car pharking…. what a shitty century that last one was. And have we got some work to do to undo it all.
And here’s your Melba — from Auckland Libraries’ Heritage Images: http://is.gd/xPYDvU
Amused by this juxtaposition: http://is.gd/fnORde
Pullman means ‘coach’ (as in bus) in Italian, so it’s the coach hotel. Not a very flash name if you ask me.
Pullman was the brand name of the flashest railway coaches and service at the height of the rail age. It is not Italian but American, the surname of the founder.
Maybe the Yank originated from Italy?
Nah, George Pullman ended up being one of the most wealthy individuals in history. Also notoriously anti-union and paternalistic. Created a township just outside of Chicago (now part of Chicago proper) called Pullman – everything was owned by the company and had a reasonable living standard for the time, until Pullman decided to cut wages at the local factory, but not on the rent he was seeking. Ended up in a massive nationwide strike against any train that featured a Pullman carraige – ended when the troops got brought out on the orders of Grover Washington.
Stop moaning you self righteous prat. There is no sense in having two sets of traffic lights only 30 metres apart. That is why your preposterous Intersection of Death is not the issue you make it out to be. Anyone going the direction of that intersection only needs to walk up there and cross on the pedestrian signals. Can you just not understand that having two crossings that distance apart is a waste of money, as apart from having to install the extra lights, they would also have to link them to the existing signalised intersection.
The reason why every intersection does not have traffic lights is simple: traffic lights slow down the flow of traffic. They are justified where there is sufficient volume of traffic to make it difficult or dangerous for people to wait for a gap in the stream. Bowen Ave does not qualify. Kitchener St is an arc, and Bowen Ave is a chord across that arc. The intersection has been designed so that traffic lights aren’t needed because there is a right turn restriction from Kitchener St. Anyone wanting to get into Bowen Ave goes up to the other end where it joins Kitchener St again, where there are traffic lights. The intersection has been designed to be efficient for the flow of traffic, and if you need pedestrian signals to stop the flow, there is a set only 30 metres away.
Slow down the flow of traffic? What a great idea! Give the city back to the people. Tell y what, put pedestrian crossings there without lights. If no-one uses them then the cars won’t have to worry :-). I suspect however that cars will be stopping constantly and drivers will beg for lights.
Patrick, You’re missing the point, and being bloody rude.
It is messed up for pedestrians since it is missing safe crossings, and slowing down the flow of traffic is not really of much concern. “The intersection has been designed to be efficient for the flow of traffic” indeed and they’ve been allowed to take priority over the needs of any pedestrians.
Walking west along Bowen on the northern side footpath, and you get to the corner with Kitchener, and that’s it. There’s nowhere safe to cross. That’s crap design. Get it now?
Ahhhaaa. An admirer.
It’s actually just one intersection Patrick. And one intersection that already has an all-green pedestrian phase. Do you know what that means Patrick? Let me tell you – it means that you could add a pedestrian phase to both of these approaches (Kitchener North and Bowen) without slowing vehicles down at all. That’s right – not at all.
Humble pie my friend; hope you enjoy the taste.
Please note: Patrick above: Not me….. thanks.
Did somebody say ‘humble pie’?
I’m a little late but I’m going to object to this transport prize and not just because the awards committee is a self righteous prat. 😛 The other Symonds Street approach which is not captured in your photo doesn’t have a pedestrian phase either. Surely this is madness? I reckon the peak pedestrian volumes during a single crossing might rival Queen Street and its a scramble crossing but that still doesn’t justify a phase on all approaches. Yay for enforcement but I think this award needs to be revoked because of its similarities to the intersection of death.
Another nomination for transport booby prize (apols if mentioned elsewhere on the blog): The absence of footpaths on the Wellesley St bridge over the motorway. Hypothetical Elam student living down Grafton Rd below the hospital (about 200m from the school) can only get to class by car. Insane.
As an Elam student I watched this happen. See here: http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2012/08/06/severance-city/
The police clearly need to be more actively patrolling this – I sat here for 15 minutes the other day and counted ~20 vehicles driving right through at high speed (speed limit is 10km/h) so the message clearly isn’t getting through and something needs to change such as bollards that lower when buses come. The 4 huge signs stating the speed limit and that it’s a pedestrian mall are just completely ignored by all drivers.