Submit on the K Road and Newton Area Plans today

As we mentioned last week, the Karangahape Road Area Plan is open for submissions, which close Wednesday 5pm. Generation Zero have been running a campaign to call for separated cycle lanes on Karangahape Road. The 8 Key reasons for this were included on the original post here.  So far the campaign has been very successful, gaining over 2200 signatures on a petition, and most importantly signing up 100 businesses in support of the cycle lanes. Showing business support is really important, as in some other corridors some vocal businesses have opposed cycling plans.

As usual the official Auckland Council form is a little overcomplicated, and it requires people to have a good understanding of the plan beforehand. So therefore to make things easier Generation Zero have come up with a handy quick submit form for people to have a say on the key points of the plan.

We just ask that people get them in by 10pm so we have time to forward them to the council by the due time.

Note the Newton Plan is also out for submissions too, which also close tonight. The plan highlights some exciting projects such as the potential for the removal of the awful Dominion Road flyover, and making Ian McKinnon Drive more like a street and less like an urban motorway. So this certainly deserves some support.

However it is weaker on the future form of Upper Symonds Street, which really is in need of a rebuild in the medium term to benefit pedestrians, cyclists and public transport by removing excess traffic lanes. North of Khyber Pass Road the corridor is an astonishing 35 metres wide, thanks to some unncessary 1990’s road widening. However this now gives a large amount of space for reprioritisation that could create a proper urban street.

This plan is also a great opportunity to call for urgent northbound bus lanes along Symonds St through Newton, which we covered on the blog in March. Just to recap there are 180 buses in the 2 hour morning peak, and this area is a major source of congestion. For example it is not uncommon for buses to take 30 minutes to get from Mt Eden to the University, with most of that stuck in congestion around this area. Buses are also carrying at least 2/3 of the people along this corridor in the morning. With the success of the Fanshawe bus lanes, this is the next obvious place from Auckland Transport to get a quick win that will help thousands of commuters each morning. So therefore would be great to send a message to the council and Auckland Transport that this corridor is ideal for another quick win. 

If you want to submit on the Newton Area plan, the plan and the official council submission form can both be found here.

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