Featherston St changes free us from costly dependency on cars: Brent Barrett

Brent Barrett says the changes being made in Palmerston North's Featherston St are well tested in New Zealand. Photo / Judith Lacy

OPINION

Sharing. I find it incredibly hard at times. Especially when it’s something I truly crave and it’s in short supply. Like the last bite of chocolate on a long tramp. I’m hungry, I’ve worked hard, it’s chocolate, I love chocolate. Why should I share?

I recently rewatched Bicentennial Man. Robin Williams brilliantly acts as a humanoid robot. The plot blossoms as it tries to be more human. Quite early on, we see how sharing helps make us human. In fact, it’s one of our true superpowers. Sharing allows us to do amazing things, like build the internet and fetch minerals from Mars.

Properly harnessed, sharing can even help all of us to get across town.

Like that last bit of chocolate, sharing a busy street can be hard. The new Featherston St cycleway is attracting plenty of attention, showing how challenging it is.

The goal is to enable everyone to use Featherston St, whether they’re going by car, bus, bike, scooter, wheelchair or on foot. That means different ways of using spaces dominated by cars.

Change is tough. For years, Featherston St has been like Tina from Turners in the TV advert: “Cars! Cars! Cars!” It was car dominated when I flatted there in 2001, and it’s even busier now.

It’s already well over capacity at peak time. This poses a problem for a growing city. For the street to keep meeting our needs, it needs to move people in more space-efficient ways. On bikes and in buses, for example. Or there are nearby four-lane roads designed to get people across town.

So this busy street is changing to enable everyone to use it, providing dedicated space for people on bikes, more pedestrian crossings, and allowing buses to briefly pause in the lane.

While the construction phase is always messy, the design is straightforward. All the features are well tested in New Zealand. The street is still fully open for cars, utes, motorcycles, delivery trucks and all the rest.

As it should be. It’s there for everyone. Yes, it will take a bit longer to drive it at busy times and that can be frustrating, especially if not avoidable.

With all the angst and anger at the change, one might ask where the value is in sharing space in Featherston St.

It’s mostly in three areas: freedom, health, and the environment.

Giving everyone the freedom to move how they choose is a big win, freeing us from costly dependency on cars. The average car chews through more than $7000 yearly, so a household getting by with one fewer car is money in the bank.

The health dividend comes with more active lifestyles. For example, by walking, going by bike or riding the bus. It’s a double win, the mind and body health benefits of active travel plus much less pressure on the health system.

For nature, leaving the car at home is one of the best ways we can help protect our climate from further damage and give nature some breathing room.

And the best bit is being a city that offers everyone the choice to go by car, bike, bus or however they prefer. A city with a transport network supporting mobility for everyone.

There’s only one Featherston St. And there’s only one planet Earth.

The changes we’re experiencing are a good opportunity to reflect on sharing and change, on how hard it can be, how it adds value, and how we might get even better at it than we already are.

Brent Barrett is an environmental advocate, Green city councillor and scientist. The views expressed here are his own.