What if we freed up our streets, again?

This guest post is by Tommy de Silva, a local rangatahi and freelance writer who is passionate about making the urban fabric of Tāmaki Makaurau-Auckland more people-focused and sustainable.

New Zealand’s March-April 2020 Level 4 Covid response (aka “lockdown”) was somehow both the best and worst six weeks of my life. Spending all the free time an unmotivated arts student suddenly had on his hands doing whatever I wanted – that was fantastic. But the cabin fever, even for a homebody like myself, nearly reached unbearable heights – and I’m not the only one with mixed emotions and memories about that period. While the sourdough was great the social separation wasn’t.

However, there was something objectively amazing no matter your creed, ethnicity, occupation or shoe size – how calm, clean, peaceful and quiet Auckland’s streets became, simply because there were fewer people driving around.

My most vivid positive memory from this period was going for a hīkoi around central Auckland with my brother. We began at our family’s Newton Gully apartment where the dominant aural backdrop was suddenly birdsong, evoking the area’s past life as a lush valley, instead of the usual constant traffic drone from the nearby Spaghetti Junction. (Did you know: birds are stressed by traffic noise, just as humans are? The louder the roar, the brusquer and more boring their songs, and the coverse is also true.)

From there, we enjoyed the only peaceful and quiet trot down Symonds Street either of us had in our lives. That peace and quiet was followed up by our first ever sighting of kids cycling down the middle of Ponsonby Road. Given how few cars were around, it seemed their posh parents needn’t fear their precious poppets might become a Pollock on their neighbour’s new Range Rover.

On our way home, we ourselves walked down the middle of a Karanga-ā-Hape Road that felt more like its car-free, pedestrianised 2024 Matariki festival than how it usually feels on an ordinary traffic-clogged day.

On that hīkoi, it felt like we’d teleported from the dirty, dystopian, car-crazed colonial city of Auckland, to the clean, sustainable paradise of Tāmaki Makaurau. Although on many other levels the lockdown sucked, having fewer cars around – because people had been asked to drive only for essential journeys – enhanced our city streets. Not only was this a respite for our ailing environment, it also improved safety for anybody outside of a car, and transformed how our streets felt.

Plus, taking unnecessary traffic off the road naturally freed up space, making life easier and more productive for for all those necessary trips, delivery runs, and essential workers who needed to drive (and less stressful for those who opted for a fresh-air alternative – like the cycling health workers, GPs, and news crews profiled by Bike Auckland).

This isn’t, or needn’t just be, a pandemic response. Around the world, cities combine safety, street-feel and sustainability to produce people-focused urban spaces that ooze mauri, instead of wreaking of avoidable death as so many of Auckland streets do.

Italy’s pumping piazze to Japan’s bustling shōtengai, people are drawn to the exciting and eclectic places where they are king. Not only are people attracted to these places, but so are businesses eager to reap the benefits of all that foot-traffic. For a local example, consumer spending on Fort Street jumped 47% after it was partially pedestrianised. Conversely, attempting a stroll along many Auckland shopping streets – most of which are still under the despotic, dirty, noisy rule of single-occupancy vehicles – will at best infect anyone not in a car with a bad case of JAFA-itis, and at worst will land you in the hospital, or worse.

It really is a great shame that it took a global pandemic to (briefly) enhance Auckland’s streets and make them safer. And it’s even sadder that afterwards, our streets quickly devolved back into being smoggy rows of traffic. Especially as many international cities we like to compare ourselves to were inspired by temporary pedestrianisation and cycling improvements for social distancing to pursue even more audacious and delightful reclamation of city streets. You’ve likely heard of the outdoor dining parklets which filled old New York City car parks (and kept tills ringing) – and Paris is perhaps the most eye-catching example.

Of course, pre-Covid, Parisian politicians were already ambitiously limiting cars and providing for alternative transport modes, but the pandemic acted as a powerful catalyst. Across Paris during the first years of Covid-19, street space was reclaimed from traffic in swathes – officially in the name of social distancing (like the pop-up bike lanes known as “corona-pistes”), but unofficially in the name of people and planet.

While not a pandemic-era measure, the reclaimed public space along the River Seine, a former motorway which Parisians lined to catch a glimpse of the Olympic opening ceremony, is one lovely example of the French capital’s people-focused policies. The streets of Paris are still far from perfect, but at least it’s genuinely heading in the right direction at pace – an epithet that could scarcely be applied to New Zealand.

If anything, recently it feels like we’re going backwards in Aotearoa. Discounts to buy clean, quiet cars have been repealed; public transport subsidies have been watered down. Our government and the agencies it directs are ignoring evidence-based policy in favour of culture-war approaches that will cause avoidable death and maiming, like increasing urban speed limits.

Meanwhile, cycling and walking improvements – which offer people much-wanted alternatives to driving, while also reducing congestion and pollution – have had their government funding cut in half, while the Beehive intends to spend billions on motorways that induce traffic and increase carbon emissions. (This includes a promise to re-animate Auckland’s zombie East-West Link – costed as the world’s most expensive road per kilometre, even before the current inflation crisis led to ballooning infrastructure bills.)

With policies like those, we won’t get a critical mass of healthier, nicer and safer streets anytime soon. But in the meantime, the seeds already sown to improve urban spaces are beginning to sprout across Tāmaki Makaurau-Auckland. By 2026 (fingers crossed), Auckland’s most transformative transport project in decades, the City Rail Link, will be operational.

And alongside the new stations, trains and tunnels, complementary urban regeneration projects are under way. Some highlights include:

• Mercury Lane being transformed from the CBD’s most raggedy rat-run into a pleasant [text updated due to recent announcement from AT:] shared space, for now, akin to Fort St.
• Victoria Street blossoming into Te Hā Noa, a linear park with ample room for cycling, driving and walking leading to the new Waihorotiu station
• the walkable catchment around Maungawhau station, soon to house many new businesses and families – a rare New Zealand example of transit-oriented-development
• and the Symphony Centre atop the new Waihorotiu station.

We only need to look at the recently opened new metro line across the ditch in Sydney to glimpse how transformational these sorts of projects will be.

The Symphony Centre atop Waihorotiu Station as seen from Aotea Square: artist’s impression via OurAuckland.

Bledisloe Lane revamped as part of the CRL Waihorotiu station project – artist’s impression via OurAuckland

While the CRL upgrades will include waves of road cones for a few more years, Aucklanders can already bask in the glory of improved urban spaces:

• Karanga-ā-Hape Road’s renovation greatly expanded space for cyclists, diners and pedestrians amongst new planting and seating.
• Similarly, the Waihorotiu path increased space for those visiting Queen Street on bike or foot.
• Two new public squares, Te Komititanga between Britomart and Commercial Bay, alongside Te Wānanga outside the ferry terminal, have extended Wynyard Quarter’s people-focused vibe further along the waterfront.
• Speaking of Wynyard Quarter, the soon-to-be Te Ara Tukutuku park will bring an urban ngahere to the popular area.

These new and improved spaces feel much more lively, thriving and just generally more pleasant than your typical Tāmaki thoroughfare. But geographically astute readers may have noticed an equity issue: these renovations are all located in central Auckland. Other areas have often not received their fair share of infrastructure investment, as seen for example in how the people of Manukau have traditionally had pōhara parks, especially compared to the “leafy burbs”.

The good news is that after decades of historical underinvestment in south Auckland, its streets and urban spaces are finally now getting some well deserved attention. For example, ambitious projects are in the works to develop or improve cycling networks in Māngere and Manukau’s city centre. While some works were thrown awry when government funding was recently cancelled, Auckland Transport found alternative pūtea to continue as planned. Nearby, an ambitious revitalisation of the Puhinui awa between Auckland’s botanical gardens and the Manukau CBD will include a shared path for cyclists and pedestrians, akin to the one which runs along Te Aunganga/Oakley Creek from Mount Roskill to Waterview.

True, urban spaces built for people are still the exception and not the rule in Auckland – most places still prioritise planet-heating but paradoxically air-conditioned gas guzzlers. But change – like a bike lane down every major road, safely walkable streets in town centres (and everywhere else for that matter) and frequent, reliable public transport servicing more areas – will inevitably come, as the realities of the climate, economic and equity crises set in.

I am certain this will happen before the next once-in-a-generation pandemic, because there is a palpable mood for change amongst Tāmaki residents. For proof, one only needs to look at the community efforts to get two-thirds of the Inner West improvements across the line – alongside the continued mahi from local leaders like Bike Auckland, school principals and the Waitematā Local Board to advocate for the final third.

Those Level 4 times, whilst negative in many ways, offered a brief, shining, memorable experience of how free and empowering our city’s streets become when Aucklanders just… drive less.

And the thing is: we don’t need to be told to do this: we could actually choose to do this of our own free will, for the betterment of our city, our planet and our mokopuna to come. Especially when you realise the majority of trips we make in Auckland –  63% according to Waka Kotahi – are under 5km.

Sure, on the odd occasion you’re lugging a beach tent, four children and a dog to Piha, you’ll probably want to take the car. But other outings will be the perfect length for a quick bike ride, or a bus adventure, or a fresh-air ramble on your own two feet.

So, next time you’re setting out on one of those short trips, why not dust off your HOP card, go for a walk, or hop on a bike that’s been sitting idle, and give it a go? You might find it as freeing as I did.

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