Will proposed 20kph limit for Wellingtons Golden Mile improve safety?

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#691918 26-Sep-2012 21:33

allan: To my mind the whole issue is related to reduction in width of the street through the "golden mile" area, with the deliberate pushing out of the footpath width and the corresponding restriction of the street width. Look at the width through the old Manners Mall area, there is barely enough room for buses to pass each other.

I totally agree. I was in attendance at one of the serious accidents on Manners Street about a year ago and it looked like the pedestrian had got a double whammy from being hit by the bus and then coming down and striking the kerb because of the road being so narrow.

Whilst I accept that pedestrians are frighteningly cavalier in taking responsibility for their own safety, the lack of any safety margin in this woeful piece of roading engineering needs to take at least some of the blame.

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alasta

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#691920 26-Sep-2012 21:35

old3eyes: I think it's time for the WN council to educate the pedestrians rather than a nanny state approach of cut the speed limit again knee jerk reaction..

They have been educating pedestrians for some time. There are 'look left/right' labels on the kerb, and public awareness posters have previously been put up in many locations including - ironically enough - on buses themselves.

Zippity

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#691922 26-Sep-2012 21:41

Yet another "knee jerk" reaction from a moronic city council.

MikeB4

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#691924 26-Sep-2012 21:46

A couple of weekends past I was in Wellington, during a short period of time I observed 3 buses and 2 cars go through red lights, it is not just pedestrians that are the problem.

I will remind people that this problem is costing lives.

mattwnz

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#691927 26-Sep-2012 21:50

I think it is a bad idea, as it isn't going to solve the problem.How many buses actually stick to the current 30km/h limit anyway. You can cycle faster than 20km/h, so perhaps remove the buses and turn the bus lanes into cycle lanes. I don't think too many people die after being hit by a cycle. They perhaps need to install a barrier at the edge of the footpath, but when the mayor was asked about installing them, she said they wouldn't be doing that.

It really seems to have become news and a problem since manners mall was turned into a road. I am not sure how successful that has been , but I preferred the mall. Currently that part of town has lost a lot of it's soul since manners mall was removed and the bypass went through.

alasta

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#691930 26-Sep-2012 21:54

KiwiNZ: A couple of weekends past I was in Wellington, during a short period of time I observed 3 buses and 2 cars go through red lights, it is not just pedestrians that are the problem.

I use the bus every day to get to work and back, and it's scary how many red lights I see the drivers race through.

Yes, I know I should complain, but NZ Bus clearly didn't give a stuff when I made a complaint a few years ago after I had a near miss while I was driving and a bus pulled out in front of me so I don't think I'll bother again.

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#691978 27-Sep-2012 06:17

alasta:
old3eyes: I think it's time for the WN council to educate the pedestrians rather than a nanny state approach of cut the speed limit again knee jerk reaction..

They have been educating pedestrians for some time. There are 'look left/right' labels on the kerb, and public awareness posters have previously been put up in many locations including - ironically enough - on buses themselves.

But interestingly all the signage printed on the kerb dosn't actually say to look left and right - it says look right. Along Manners St they then put additional signs up saying to look left and right, but I'm pretty sure the signage on the kerb still only says to look right.

khull

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#692006 27-Sep-2012 08:27

You know something is wrong when:

1) the bus company director gets hit on the same stretch by a bus along with many others

2) people who do wait at the to cross remarks that it is 'the longest wait for any intersection in wellington'

3) busses travel over the 30kmph speed limit anyway. There are speed signs on the street that measure passing vehicles and they always read above 36kmph

The council does not need to commission millions of dollars to tell them the obvious

Willis Street has turned into a nanny state. Instead of solving the problem they put ugly barriers that are secured together by duct tape to prevent pedestrians from jaywalking.

Jaywalking was never an issue in the past prior to the 'new' bus route. Why is it suddenly a problem now?

MikeB4

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#692049 27-Sep-2012 09:49

They are sending huge buses 90% of which are 90% empty along narrow lanes They are driven by people that either do not know the road rules, don't care about them or have been directed to ignore them.

Zippity

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#692058 27-Sep-2012 09:54

I have a better idea.

Let's ban all pedestrians.

D1023319

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#692085 27-Sep-2012 10:21

KiwiNZ: They are sending huge buses 90% of which are 90% empty along narrow lanes They are driven by people that either do not know the road rules, don't care about them or have been directed to ignore them.

Of course buses are frequently empty. The Railway Station is the bus hub for services to the eastern / southern suburbs so they are going to be empty on the way out and on the way in they are dropping passengers off from courtney place. A second bus hub at Courtney Place with a continuous loop of buses between Courtney and the rail station would help in this regard.

Apart from passenger safety my main concern is the Wellington central economy. We are in competition with Hutt / Porirua / Auckland / CH and the rest country and we are losing with our economy in steep decline. Reducing speed and access to the CBD increases transport time wont attract business / retail.

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#692091 27-Sep-2012 10:31

D1023319:
KiwiNZ: They are sending huge buses 90% of which are 90% empty along narrow lanes They are driven by people that either do not know the road rules, don't care about them or have been directed to ignore them.

Of course buses are frequently empty. The Railway Station is the bus hub for services to the eastern / southern suburbs so they are going to be empty on the way out and on the way in they are dropping passengers off from courtney place. A second bus hub at Courtney Place with a continuous loop of buses between Courtney and the rail station would help in this regard.

Apart from passenger safety my main concern is the Wellington central economy. We are in competition with Hutt / Porirua / Auckland / CH and the rest country and we are losing with our economy in steep decline. Reducing speed and access to the CBD increases transport time wont attract business / retail.

Making it unsafe for your pedestrian count is not going to help matters. Those buses are not helping the economy of Wellington.

I am not advocating doing away with public transport, I believe the Council needs to review the kind of transport being used. Those very large buses are noisy, dangerous, uneconomic and just unsuitable. We need to look at smaller buses or say Trams. Make the area from the Rail Station along Lambton Quay, Willis and Manners Street to Taranaki Street a Car free zone with Trams servicing the non pedestrian traffic. The Trams could also run from the Rail station along the waterfront to TePapa.

khull

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#692139 27-Sep-2012 11:46

Worse, the council blames pedestrians for the accidents. Under no circumstance should a driver of a vehicle hit a pedestrian. Any excuse for that will probably not go very far in a court of law

crackrdbycracku

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#692157 27-Sep-2012 12:12

Personally I think the solution would be to run buses, and most traffic, along Jervois Quay, Custom House Quay, Waterloo Quay, which all make one road really, and promote Willis St, Manners street, Courtney Place and Lambton Quay for pedestrian and cycle use.

Jervois Quay looks like an arterial road which you use to go from A to B the others are shopping streets where people want to walk and cross and all that. Why try and make then co-exist?

Sure, people would have to get off the bus and walk to the offices and shops in the center but surely that's worth it considering the problems we now have.

As far as 20 Km/h in the center goes, I simply don't think it addresses the problem.

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#692165 27-Sep-2012 12:23

khull: Worse, the council blames pedestrians for the accidents. Under no circumstance should a driver of a vehicle hit a pedestrian. Any excuse for that will probably not go very far in a court of law

If a pedestrian walks infront of a moving vehicle with right of way then in no way is it the drivers fault.

Richard rich.ms

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