Ponsonby Road is, in many respects, a really great and successful street. There’s a huge number of cafes, restaurants and other great shops along it. It generally feels pretty busy and successful and so forth. Even compared to other somewhat similar places like Parnell it feels a bit more lively, a bit less ‘forced’ somehow. But Ponsonby Road also has its problems in my opinion – there’s a huge amount of traffic that passes through the main road that creates a pretty massive safety problem with all the pedestrians trying to cross the road. Further to that, the general streetscape seem to me as being a bit tired. I guess in short, while it does work pretty well, I certainly feel that with a bit of effort Ponsonby Road could be a truly fantastic entertainment and shopping street.
The map below gives an overview of the length of Ponsonby Road – as an aerial photograph from Google Earth. The red circles indicate the current location of traffic lights – the blue crosses indicate approximately where I think additional pedestrian traffic signals are probably necessary to improve safety by both generally slowing down vehicles and also through providing pedestrians with a safe area to cross:
There might even be scope for two crossings north of the Franklin Road intersection actually.
As well as adding pedestrian traffic signals, I really do think that it’s necessary for Ponsonby Road to feel more pedestrian friendly. In an ideal world we’d be able to turn one lane each way into a bus lane and perhaps do some sort of cool shared space thing to the road. But unfortunately it is a major arterial route with few alternatives (I find myself driving the length of it all the time to get from Herne Bay to pretty much anywhere on the isthmus aside from the west). So a careful balance will need to be found between making it more pedestrian friendly (which will benefit safety and also benefit shop-keepers by encouraging pedestrian foot-traffic) while also ensuring we don’t stuff things up too much for vehicles passing through.
One way I think this balance can be achieved is by focusing on the intersections as nodes of pedestrian activity and also as opportunities to slow traffic down to a safe speed at a number of intervals along the road’s length. As shown in the diagram below, at each intersection I think the road could be raised up to footpath level, nicely paved and the boundary between road and footpath become a bit more ambiguous.
You would still keep all the lane markings and all the lanes, but the whole area would be brought much more within the ‘pedestrian realm’. Just a pity Council let the site towards the bottom of the picture above recently become a car yard for some unknown reason.
My inspiration for focusing on the intersections comes from Montreal, where (admittedly at a more local scale) one of the intersections between streets was turned into a shared space, even though all the roads around it were just normal streets:
One other thing that I think would benefit Ponsonby Road, an in particular the Link Bus (there had to be something about public transport in this post eventually) is changing the street network a little bit at the northern “Three Lamps” end to allow buses to continue northwards and make a right turn into College Hill – rather than forcing buses to do a big long loop around the back of the shops. Not only would this save buses time, but it would also put the buses much more in the centre of the shopping area – rather than being hidden away behind it as something to be a bit ashamed of.
The current route (green) and proposed route (red) show how the change could be made. There’s plenty of width in the part of Ponsonby Road to paint a line down the middle and paint one half green – to show the section of Ponsonby Road between Pompalier Terrace and Jervois Road is just for buses.
(This was originally the idea of regular commenter Patrick Reynolds, and I think it is a good idea).
As I said at the start of this post, I think Ponsonby Road works pretty well as it is – except for its poor safety record for pedestrians. However, I really do think that making some changes like what I’ve suggested above could give the road a little extra something special and help it be even better. It’ll be interesting to see if the Waitemata Local Board come up with some ideas for improving the pedestrian experience of Ponsonby Road.
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Thanks admin – have forwarded this post onto Bd members for their consideration.
Christopher Dempsey
Member, Waitemata Local Board
(I used to live in Montreal, so if I’m not mistaken that’s Prince Authur that you have featured in your photo. It’s a great wee street that is pedestrian dominated. I used to do Critical Mass in Montreal and this street was a favourite place to ride down along…)
Wow geez that was quick. I’m loving the democracy in this super city at the moment!
(And yup you’re right, just around the corner from St Louis square, one of the most beautiful little parks I’ve ever come across).
What is the reason for the green bus route? It looks like the sort of thing a mad person would think up, so either the planners are mad or there is (or was) a good reason for it.
There is a parallel between the green route and the Wellington bus routes that avoided the old Manners Mall by introducing a meandering route with multiple turns. They’re fixing that, although it seems to have angered many people and might have contributed to the downfall of Kerry Prendergast.
All the traffic takes the green route — try taking the red route at the moment and you will be going the wrong way down one-way street. Generally it is good and that part of 3 lamps is rather pedestrian friendly. The exception for buses seems a good compromise.
Part of what makes the Three Lamps area more pedestrian friendly are its many zebra crossings. I’d vote for more of those up Ponsonby Road rather than pedestrian lights, as they force pedestrians to wait.
The Link route change makes so much sense, you’d wonder why it’s not like that already! Buses only northbound makes perfect sense.
Generally councils try to avoid zebra crossings over roads that are four-lanes wide because of safety concerns (I think the concern is that the stopped car could block the view of the pedestrian crossing the road or something like that).
I think you are right there, admin — a friend of mine was hit in this exact situation on Ponsonby Rd at the Cowan St zebra crossing (the only crossing across the four lane part of Ponsonby rd). The zebra crossings around the main part of Three Lamps work well because they act to delineate the pedestrian friendly area (single lane, one-way, angle parking) from the car friendly arterial routes.
That route behind the shops is often jammed with traffic during the afternoon peak. I have spent 10 minutes + going around there in a car. It must be very frustrating for link passengers.
Your proposal to turn the main way road to a two way (one normal traffic, one buslane) would be quite an undertaking. I think to get community support there could not be a reduction in the number of parking spaces. This would require the buslane to run near the (western)foot-path and the western
side parallel parking to be shifted to the center of the street (separated from the buslane by an island, this is needed because parking on the wrong side of a two way street is illegal in NZ). There is enough space to do this but the traffic lane would be significantly be narrowed. This would reduce traffic throughput as it is more likely car’s would have to wait as cars enter or exit parks. In Addition the additional light phase required for the intersection at the northern end would reduce southbound throughput.
These aspects must be weighted up.
I think the key here is to ensure the pedestrian experience of this area is maintained or improved in the course of the upgrade.
There is a risk that the community may push for the bus lane to be reverted to normal traffic at times other than evening peak. With my design this would be problematic because: 1. the bus stop would be “on-line”, holding up cars, and leading to more bus hatred. 2. The bus lane would only be one lane wide at the northern traffic lights. This means it will have half the through-put of the alternative (current) route. 3. There would be no access to parking in this direction, so no chance of “impulse” shopping that would help shop owners.
The whole concept makes a lot of sense, but I agree with Scott, there are lots of hidden issues, such as reduced pedestrian amenity and subsequent reductions in general traffic movements.
For example if the buses would now go through on Ponsonby Road northbound past Pompallier Tce then the right turn from three lamps into Pompallier Tce will either need to be removed or severially reconfigured, more public complaints. Then the only way I can see bus phase fitting into the Jervois/Ponsonby signals is removing the through movement from St Marys and running it’s right turn with the bus lane this will cause another uproar.
The additional traffic from Wellington St being closed totally blocks up Redmond St, making bus time unreliable. If Ponsonby road is to be a major bus corridor then it makes sense having both stops at least on the same street and avoid Redmond St. It also make sense to have more buses. For example North Shore buses are peak only, so if you work late or unconventional hours there is no hope.
I think it would need an entire sequence (all other signals red, bus-lane green circle and green left/right). This is what happens at the end of Grafton bridge (where all route buses turn right). It is needed for bikes, motorbikes, Airport shuttles, Charted buses, and the car that go across illegally. It would be possible to run a right only cycle, but it’s implementation would need a lot of thought to not create chaos if a car ends up in the bus lane. Would some kind of physical blocking work? a barrier arm of some sort?
Overseas they have automatic raising/lowering barriers that the bus automatically activates. I know because there’s a hilarious Youtube video of a car completely ruining its front by mis-timing its run.
haha those videos make me laugh every time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUNyInW3K6Q
If Ponsonby Road is to be a major bus corridor then it would make sense that in both direction the Buses stop in 3 lamps.
The current stop (Redmond Road)is well out of the way (hard to find), and not very safe to get to past the cars.
If there were shop frontages on both roads this would be so much less of an issue.
Also with Wellington Stree closed there is a lot more traffic northbound through this area making bus travel times totally unrelaiable.
Scott is right that removing parking will create an uproar, but thats standard for bus lanes and can often be resolved.
The bus phase however is only an issue for the Link Bus which turns down College Hill, other buses such as the 962, 966 (peak to the Shore) and those to Hern Bay turn left onto Jervois. It would be differcult to fit a bus phase into the cycle because the right turn from Jervious Road needs so much time.
One option is to ban the through movement from St Marys Road (16 seconds) and then run the two right turns together.
But considering that this post is about pedestrianising,
Would there now be too much going on in three lamps and make it less safe for pedestrians?
Would you also need to ban the right turn from Ponsonby Road (North) into Pompallier Tce?
Would that not create even more issues then the parking?
Cool idea though.
I would probably signalise the intersection of Ponsonby Road and Pompallier Terrace, otherwise you have too many conflicting movements.
In terms of phasing, I think the Jervois into Ponsonby phase is currently excessive – although I know there is a lot of traffic making that movement often the light is still green with no cars going through. And I know because I’m usually on a 004/005 bus at College Hill waiting forever for our green.
In terms of pedestrian amenity, we’re not really changing that much. At the moment there is one extraordinarily wide lane southbound through the area. We would change that to being one lane in each direction – probably with a little cut down in the amount of space behind the angled parking. If a few parking spaces on the other side of the road need removing, hopefully the shop-keepers might be somewhat placated by having a busy bus stop outside their shops. (Hey, I can live in hope).
Ok here’s my original post on Ponsonby Rd:
One thing I observed in Melbourne that we could implement quickly and cheaply in Auckland is simply where the buses stop. The trams in Melbourne pick up and set down passengers AT the lights not between them. They then have a clear run between stops/lights. Looking at say Ponsonby Rd, the bus stops could be removed from between intersections, increasing parking spaces and de-cluttering the streets of expensive, unattractive and vandal attracting shelters. Extend the footpath at the intersections out to the first traffic lane at the intersections and make these the stops, removing one car park. Car drivers would soon learn to choose the other lane if frustrated by the stopping busses. The buses stopping time would be potentially halved. Especially if this was coordinated with transit passes so the driver is involved in less money changing. Intersections mostly already provide cover and other amenity, not to mention more useful destinations for pedestrians. Furthermore the buses would not spend time and stress leaving and rejoining the traffic lanes. In time this lane could become a dedicated bus lane. No more frustration for bus drivers and riders caused by finding their stop used as car parks as there no longer would be any. Throw in priority for buses at the lights [the driver could engage a transponder when ready] and bus speeds would increase significantly, and therefore, I predict, patronage. Removing the general opportunity for car drivers [like me] to look forward to stops to overtake the bus, would help lower frustration and acceptance [eventually] on the part of car drivers of the buses, especially as the buses will be moving with the traffic at similar speeds.
Let’s try it on the Link?!
In Ponsonby I think this should be implemented with a rethink of the Three Lamps road structure, particularly looking at buses not deviating around the back when heading west.
Of course there would be some opposition from some car drivers as it does involve a shift of priority, for the only possible advantage in the current sitting of stops is the idea that it keeps buses out of the way of cars, although I don’t it achieves that in practice. Having the buses move at the now 40kph with all the other traffic between intersections is likely to be smoother and quicker for everyone. It would also have the general benefit of simplifying the streetscape. And be a way to begin to get a tram-like service without the expense. Other routes? Dom Rd?
To further expand on the 3 Lamps area. I’m proposing only two-waying it for buses and cycles. There is a huge problem as mentioned above in Redmond St at peak time and taking the busses out of this awkward turn around would help enormously. I would also take the Jervois Rd busses out of this deviation. Also I would drop the right hand turn into Pompalier Tce to simplify the whole area. The foot path should go out through the parking line on the west side of the road and make have the buses stop here, both Herne Bay and City bound routes. The waiting passengers are under cover and able to browse the shops. I know for retailers who can only conceive of car using customers generally fight both the removal of car parking and, more weirdly, being near a bus stop, but the net loss of car parks would be minimal and bus users are shoppers too…. I really don’t think Ponsonby and Herne Bay bus riders are impoverished non- shoppers… waddayareckon?
Admin- I believe the Mini Garage is only for one year, while the owners of the site grapple with what to do there….the shot I sent you of P Rd could be relevant to this post, want to put it up?
Here’s the photo in question:
I’m glad to hear it’s only for a year.
Word on the street is Mini would like it for considerably longer than a year. Let’s hope Waitemata LB and the Pons Business Association inform them that will not be happening?
Would be a great place for that Night Market everyone was keen on a while back…
(sorry about the double post above, computer issues)
If the Bus stop wasn’t on Redmond you could also widen this stretch Redmond to three lanes at the stop lines and two lanes near the current bus stop increasing the capacity of the intersection and reducing the queue length from impacting on Ponsonby Road. (The Stop line is currently about 12 metres wide so could handle this.)
If the queue no longer reached Ponsonby Road, the buses through 3 lamps would have a totally free run through.
Removing this bottleneck would reduce calls to have 3 lamps 2 way for cars.
I think fears of a call for two way car traffic along there are misplaced — drivers wouldn’t be losing anything here and by getting buses out of the way, maybe even gaining something. It’s not much of a problem at the bottom of Wellesley St East which is buses only. The illegal use of Grafton bridge by cars is more understandable as it was used by lots of cars before and there are slightly confusing rules now about its use (well, you need to check the time).
The thing I wanted to raise with the image above is that this is supposedly AK’s premier cafe strip, yet as you can see it is really a machine alley with brave/foolish humans playing a dangerous game of risk…. there is little about the urban design here that supports the idea that it is a good place to be except in a car.
It is, as Admin has pointed out, a hard to avoid cross route for certain journeys so there will always be cars here and not just local ones, but I still think things can be improved. The 40kph is good, but mainly I think improving the quality of the bus travel through here will also lead to a drop off in car trips as people like me will then use the bus instead, especially for city bound trips. Get those puppies really humming and we’ll all be fools to not be ridding them when we can. There are other issues too like a bit of joined up thinking at council would be good: 2000 new car parks consented at the infamous SOHO development is a disaster. How about instead of minimum carparking for new buildings but maximum, and trade-off on issues like building height and site coverage if car parks are reduced or eliminated?
Yes you’ve hit the nail on the head there Patrick. Ponsonby has done well despite the efforts of council, rather than because of the efforts.
I like the idea incentivising a reduction of parking by providing greater floorspace or heights. Something to go in the next District Plan I think.
I myself only really use Ponsonby Road to get to the Northern motorway. i live in ARch Hill and was a bit surprised to find out the other day that I can actually go down Pitt Street and get onto the Northern motorway FASTER than if I go down Ponsonby.
Why am I telling you this? WEll, because I wonder if quite a lot of the traffic down Ponsonby Rd is actually heading towards the motorway and maybe they could try in some way to reroute it towards some of the other motorway entrances that are not such impt areas for pedestrians.
Hence my earlier idea of replacing the Wellington Street onramp with one from Newton Road heading to the northern motorway. It could quite easily link in with the NW to Northern link.
Interesting comments about Ponsonby Road. I support a lot of the suggestions to make the environment safer and more inviting. I’m also concerned that speeds have been creeping up again.
When I was on the Ponsonby Road Working Group last year (that recommended the speed limit reduction to 40km/h)the road was often referred to as a key arterial route. However officials were not able to provide any information about car movements to back this up. I’d guess that most of the traffic is local and that a lot of through traffic could in fact avoid Ponsonby Road so it really shouldn’t be hard to make it a fantastic road like you suggest.
Thanks for visiting and commenting Pippa! It would be interesting to see traffic counts for Ponsonby Road and how they compare with other routes. It would also be interesting to see what proportion of vehicles travel the entire length of Ponsonby Road versus those that travel just a portion.
I think what I’m trying to achieve with my ideas is a balance between still providing for the road as an arterial with not too many obvious alternatives while at the same time both making it more pedestrian friendly and giving them a bit of an incentive to use other routes.
Hi Pippa
Auckland City did traffic counts, and they regularly came to over 14,000 vehicles a day. That is pretty sizable. And as Joshua said, it is pretty central – there are few other north-south connections in that part of town. if you look at the map, Garnet Road is the next “real” cross-connection!
The good thing is that one does not necessarily need to reduce traffic to make it much better. Slower traffic will do.
“How about instead of minimum carparking for new buildings but maximum, and trade-off on issues like building height and site coverage if car parks are reduced or eliminated?”
The most crucial thing to add into the updated District Plan will be a switch from minimum parking to maximum parking regulations.
Thanks for the response to my comment. Just to clarify. Yes we know the number of vehicles using Ponsonby Road each day but no study seems to have been done about the origin or destination of these cars. Surely we need to know this before we can decide the best options for reducing the volumne of traffic?