If there is one thing that Manukau has more than enough of, its parking. In fact as this image shows, there is more land dedicated to parking than there is actual buildings.
If there is one advantage to all of this parking it is that it makes it much less painless to remove on street parking and in some good news, that is exactly what is happening. Davies Ave which is awash with parking is about to get a makeover thanks to the efforts of the local board. Here is what it looks like currently, complete with a massive amount of angle parking and virtually no pedestrian facilities along the western edge of the road.
And this is what AT says about the project.
Plans are underway to transform the north section of Davies Avenue, between Putney Way and Ronwood Avenue, into a boulevard with a linear park.
This will create a large open landscaped area connecting with Hayman Park, bringing it closer to the city edge. New seating, lighting, landscaping and a wide shared path for cyclists and pedestrians along the park’s edge will encourage more people to use and enjoy the park and surrounds.
The shared path will link to future park developments which includes a playground and skate park. Davies Avenue will be realigned to accommodate buses accessing the future bus interchange in Manukau.
The project has been funded by the Local Board and supported by Auckland Transport. Work will begin later this year. Changes to parking on Davies Avenue
To make better use of the land for pedestrians, cyclists and park users, Davies Avenue needs to be changed to a single road with one traffic lane in each direction.
The existing long-term parking spaces on Davies Avenue will largely be removed to accommodate these changes but a large amount of alternative parking is available around the town centre.
You could try:
- the Ronwood Avenue public car park building (entrance on Ronwood Avenue)
- Pay and Display parking at the corner of Manukau Station Road and Wiri Station Road (next to Counties Manukau Police Headquarters)
- Pay and Display public parking outside Rainbows End
- Pay and Display parking on Ronwood Avenue, Putney Way and Osterley Way Construction work is expected to start in July/August 2013.
Parking will be limited and gradually removed as work progresses. After completion, there will be a reduction in the number of available parking spaces on Davies Avenue and changes to the permitted duration of stay
And here is what it should eventually look like.
This change is great to see and should be supported so well done to the local board. Hopefully those remaining off street carparks are managed to ensure they are used for people accessing the park rather than just providing all day parking. Where else do you think this needs to happen?
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This must pain the former Manukau City road engineers so badly. 🙂
Might get some of those cars into that ghostly empty AT parking building on Ronwood Avenue – finally 😛
Yep, that’s what I was thinking too.
As for where else this needs to happen? You could do it to just about every single like-type street in the Manukau (oh I am going to do because AT did 😛 ) CBD such as Ronwood Avenue. Couldn’t exactly do it for Lambie Drive though with some serious disruption of redesign though although Patrick – your thoughts on that one?
Well Manukau City has always underperformed and is a world made by traffic engineers; people who shouldn’t be in charge of anything beyond technical details of materials performance and other practicalities like storm water run off. Things they are trained to do and are very very good at. They should never be allowed to have the slightest influence on place making and MC is proof of why this is the case. It’s beyond them, the quality of our urban areas are inversely proportional to the amount of influence this cadre of technocrats has had over their creation.
MC will need to be completely rebuilt and de-cared over this century. Good to see it beginning, even if ever so gently.
http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2012/11/07/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-manukau/
On the positive side, the corridors around Manukau are wide and will allow plenty of room for all modes of transport if required.
So traffic engineers c.2013 are exactly like those of the 1960s-80s? Funny, my crop of would-be traffic engineers get plenty about “link and place” and probably as much qualitative as quantitative assessment (which for some of them, who just thought they needed their maths and physics, is a bit of an eye opener…). Plenty of my colleagues in industry also seem to “get it” in terms of people-centric design, even if they can’t always influence the other parties (e.g. public, politicians) to depart from the status quo.
You give me hope! I’m afraid there are plenty of dinosaurs still at AT and AC; and many of them are responsible for these kinds of places and are showing more interest in defending this world-view than with learning from the failure. Human nature being what it is that’s not unexpected…. what’s that line?; science advances one death at a time. Ha! retirement will do, death seems a little extreme….
But it is t just engineers. It is planners and politicians who swallow the “need” and capacity stories
yes, and a lot of the older engineering studies emphasised the need for rapid transit to complement highways, and places for people free from vehicle traffic.
On the other hand there’s also no doubt that somewhere in between 1960-2000 something went quite wrong with traffic engineering practises in NZ, which we are now struggling to remedy. For some reason our traffic engineers seemed all too willing to compromise the safety and efficiency of non-car modes, hence the width of footpaths was reduced and pedestrian crossings were dropped – even in central city locations where pedestrian volumes were always high.
So the truth is something in between – but unfortunately for Manukau the bad times in terms of professional practise seem to coincide with the peak of engineering influence in the 1960s, which also coincides with the development of Manukau. Hence going a long way towards explaining it’s current state …
Glen K, how would you define your “crop” of traffic engineers? In my experience commonly accepted traffic engineering practises are a major obstacle to good transport and land use outcomes. Perhaps it’s an Auckland thing …
Maybe traffic engineers only apply for jobs at councils or agencies that match their view of what roads are for. The ones in Christchurch have been pushing the living streets agenda for two decades, much to the consternation of councillors who think this just congests the main roads and makes the city less efficient and less attractive to business.
Personally, I blame a lot of it on traffic MODELLERS (and, to be fair, the managers, and hearings comissioners who insist on the modelling). If your core focus is “the cars must get through”, and every project’s planning budget is dwarfed by loads of cash poured into modelling which ever only results in highlighting that cars might be worse off afterwards unless you widen the roads – well, then you get widened roads.
There you are Patrick 😀
Was just reading the link you put in your comment and saw Stu’s piece on “let it die a dignified death” (Manukau that is). Don’t quite think that is going to happen now with the lumbering giant slowly waking up after getting a boot from the Unitary Plan debate.
But in all this the urban renewal potential Manukau is massive if one puts their mind to it. I am wondering if we should hold some kind of Urban Design contest for Manukau. I have seen that Youtube video which gives a Marco look but the competition could be… why am I mentioning this here I should go and write it up over at my end 😛
Any how Urban Renewal potential is huge here when the UP kicks off
ha! Good memory Ben. My previous take on Manukau reflected the fact it was devoid of natural/cultural amenity and had to compete with other southern centres, such as Onehunga, Sylvia Park ,Otahuhu, and Papatoetoe/Manurewa – all of which are places I personally would rather live and work.
On the other hand, Manukau is now connected to the rail line, is home to a major tertiary education provider, and is better positioned to serve the greenfields development in the south. So it may be that Manukau pulls itself off the canvas and starts to throw a few urban punches. I certainly hope so, but it’s not a certainty – and I certainly would not spend any more money on it than it has already received.
And it’s biggest problem remains- the thing its creators were so sure would be its biggest asset: strangulation by motorway and major arterial. As Stu says there does look like there will be more there, there, soon, which is great. But it still remains a series of severed islands of fractured activity.
Great to see some action on Davies Rd as obviously it is appalling to have the only parkland cut off from the Centre, very poorly planned lack of integration between these two places. It’s still all roading, parking, and plonk-down buildings. Crank up the intensity in the centre, and push connections out across the severance…. lota work to do.
Is it kind of ironical that the mayor of the world’s most liveable city presided over an area that appears to be anything but?
Not all the fault of Mayor Brown, he was only Mayor for 1 term (3 years). Mayor Curtis was mayor from 1983 – 2007
I did not realise that the Mayor of Vancouver/Melbourne/Vienna was also Mayor of Manukau? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_most_livable_cities
Manukau, the City of car parks and a National Party utopia realised.
Screams out if people do not want to use the parking building, then the Local Board just removes street parking to force this action for Auckland Transport.
Well all at grade parking is just landbanking. If an area has a lot of it it is a sign that it is failing to thrive, not living up to its potential. More good news then for MC in that the bus interchange is going to eat up some of the excess too.
See Hawkins Construction have their name up on the fences around the MIT building.
My question is given that Davis Avenue has been shut off to and from Wiri station road for a couple of years now does it need to be reopened once the building is finished.
Yes – need a front porch someone connected to the road and bus interchange.
This really needs to happen to Putney Way. Footpath quite narrow and not welcoming between the Westfield and the station.
Manukau station not far from the mall at all, but poor quality connections and lack of legibility mean I’m sure many do not know about it.
Okay so where will the bus interchange be. If its going to be on the now closed section of Davis Avenue could it be bus only no cars.
It is going on ‘Lot 59’, which I think is the at grade carpark right opposite MIT and the station.
Auckland Council Properties May minutes have this to say:
Lot59-TOD
Description: Currently providing on-grade car parking, ACPL are currently assisting AT in the review of development options for this site that has been identified by AT as the location for a new Bus Terminal.
Status: Architectus have completed a master plan report (funded by AT) that provides for a Mixed Use (60 units) staged development around the proposed Bus Terminal. AT have prepared a programme for submitting the project to the Council and CCO Boards prior to issuing an EOI to the market.
What happens in the old Manukau City Council buildings now?
this is interesting – especially since (and there should be archived courier articles about this) theres been
a really big amount of controversy over the lack of parking for the Manukau mall in recent years- with restrictions that went
in at the mall to stop workers of the shops etc parking there as well as some issues around safety for those
having to catch buses home later at night after shop close or having to walk to carparking further afield.
The mall introduced parking time limits of between 90 mins and 240 mins ….probably enough for those doing a shop
but it effectively stopped those working there parking and causes the odd bit in the paper from those who got caught out
on dinner and a movie type nights. Also the shops opposite the mall began to stop those parking there
then staying parked there (they brought in those wheel clamping people etc) and walking over to the mall etc (I guess to protect their parks but it also meant if people drove then they need to drive across the road to park again as well etc). Theres also another set of shops behind this lot
which again you sort of need to drive to (k-mart/bunnings/toyworld etc and the warehouse somewhere else near there and spotlight on another corner). SO the whole area in my opinion needs a good rethink and a bit of planning – perhaps even a shopper
bus that goes between mall/warehouse/k-mart complex etc or certainly a lot more pedestrian friendly connections between them
(having walked it multiple times its not fun on a 4 laned road trying to cross near a round about ! – though now they have lights one intersection down which you could walk to then back up from I guess). I hope improvements do happen around here as
the new high rises that are going in happen and the train station. Really its an read where co-ordinated work could make huge improvements.
oh and I think use of the parking building or lack of use may have (at least for some) related to issues regarding safety – I am sure theres
been several reports about those parking further afield and walking to their cars after closing time having issues – would not be able to easily find those
snippets though in the courier archives – there’s a few bigger articles though I could try and see if I could find. Once again – there often seems to be
a difference between what looks good on paper and the practicalities of dealing with people using these amenities. ……..
Not that the carpark in the mall is without its own safety history with the loss of a shopowner there a few years ago 🙁