Submission from Living Streets Wellington

Adelaide Road: Planning for the Future

 

 

 

Contact person:         Mike Mellor

 

Address:                     Chairperson

                                    Living Streets Wellington

                                    PO Box 25 424

                                    Wellington 6146

 

Email:                         mmellor at free.net.nz

 

Phone:                        04 388 8625

 

Date:                          14 December 2007

                       

 

About Living Streets

 

Living Streets Aotearoa (LSA) is a national organisation with a vision of “More people choosing to walk more often and enjoying public places – young and old, fast and slow, walking, sitting and standing, commuting, shopping, between appointments, for exercise, for leisure and for pleasure.”

 

The objectives of LSA are:

·        to promote walking as a healthy, environmentally-friendly and universal means of transport and recreation

·        to promote the social and economic benefits of pedestrian-friendly communities

·        to work for improved access and conditions for walkers, pedestrians and runners e.g. walking surfaces, traffic flows, speed and safety

·        to advocate for greater representation of pedestrian concerns in national, regional and urban land use and transport planning.

 

Living Streets Wellington is the local group based in the Wellington region, which is working to make city and suburban centres in the region more walking-friendly.

 

For more information, please see: www.livingstreets.org.nz  

 

Submission

 

Adelaide Road is currently a busy area, serving as the main traffic link between the southern suburbs and the CBD, northern Suburbs, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti Coast.  From a walking perspective, as well as for people utilising public transport, it is currently unpleasant and difficult to use at times.

 

Wellington City Council has identified Adelaide Road as a future growth node.  There are currently a variety of businesses and organisations in this area that can be further developed, creating a community ‘hub’.  However, to ensure this area is also people-friendly, careful consideration must be given to the needs of pedestrians.  Currently, Adelaide Road has four lanes, although one lane either side is narrowed by parking.  This causes problems for buses outside of the two hours each day when the bus lane operates going north in the morning, and clearway provisions are in place going south in the evening. 

 

The road is very congested at times with traffic; this also causes issues for pedestrians, because of the lack of pedestrian crossing areas between the Basin Reserve and Hospital Road.  Pedestrian refuges and trees planted in the middle of the road along the current painted flush median would provide a more pleasant, safe and encouraging environment for walking.

 

For public transport purposes, the existing set-back of buildings is useful for potential future development of light rail.  Light rail should then be given right-of-way because it has the capacity to move more people per hour along Adelaide Road than cars can.  The space to develop it is already available. 

 

We recommend that pedestrian access on adjoining streets needs to be improved, in line with future development plans.  Access from the Adelaide Road area down through to Courtenay Place should also be more direct and easier for pedestrians, because it now requires a number of crossings.  We would like to see the presently unused middle strip between Kent and Cambridge Terraces transformed it into a pleasant leafy pedestrian / cycle path

 

We encourage the active use of current buildings and frontages, for example for cafes with outside seating, as well as urging that future development of housing is attractive and adds to a pleasant environment.

 

 

 

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this submission.

 

 

 

Living Streets Wellington