Living Streets Aotearoa

Wellington Branch

PO Box 25-424

Panama Street

Wellington 6146

 

liz.thomas at livingstreets.org.nz

 

 

20^th September 2006

 

 

Freepost 2199

Submission on the draft Footpath Management Policy

Policy Unit

Wellington City Council

PO Box 2199

Wellington

 

 

Submission on the draft Footpath Management Policy

 

Introducing Living Streets Aotearoa

 

Living Streets Aotearoa (LSA) is a group with the following objectives:

• 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 walker and pedestrian concerns in urban and regional land use and transport planning and, as appropriate, at a national level.

For more information, please see: http://www.livingstreets.org.nz/index.html

 

LSA would like to make an oral submission to Councillors. Please contact Liz Thomas

(ph 472 8280  liz.thomas@livingstreets.org.nz )

 

Summary

 

We welcome the proposed policies, which we believe are essential to recognise the primary role of footpaths as facilities for pedestrians.

 

Minimum Unobstructed Footpath Widths

 

We support the proposed widths, provided they are treated as minimums, and enforced.  The Council should take all available opportunities to provide wider spaces, particularly in areas such as bus stops, outside theatres, etc, where crowding is more likely.

 

Sandwich Boards

 

We support the policy to remove all sandwich boards.  These are a significant problem for disabled pedestrians, and are an inefficient way to provide information to pedestrians about businesses.  Signage attached to fixed structures (e.g. streetlights) will adequately meet the needs of businesses without obstructing pedestrian movement.

 

Outdoor Café Seating and Retail Displays

 

We support the policies, as they will give greater primacy to pedestrian needs.

 

We particularly support the proposal that verandah space be reserved for pedestrians.  We would encourage extension of that policy to ensure that the building edge is reserved for pedestrians even where there is no verandah, as this makes navigation much easier for blind users.

 

The space assigned to uses needs to be clearly marked so that enforcement is facilitated.

 

We support the charging of fees to commercial businesses using public spaces.

 

Activities on Footpaths

 

We agree that having activities such as café seating, busking, etc in pedestrian areas is positive, where it does not impede pedestrian movements or create a nuisance in other ways.  Living Streets Aotearoa strongly supports actions which will improve the attractiveness and safety of public spaces in our cities, and encourage people to use these spaces.  The policies proposed provide an appropriate balance between encouraging activities and maintaining the primary function of footpaths.

 

There needs to be better enforcement to ensure that activities are appropriate – for example to control parking of vehicles on footpaths (e.g. radio promotions), prevent excessive noise, and prevent the occupation of too great a proportion of the footpath width.

 

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