KEY POINTS:
Watching efforts to tackle traffic gridlock in Auckland's major thoroughfare over the past week or so has been rather like observing a looming car crash. Everything seems to be happening in slow motion, and there is an inevitability about the outcome. This will see private cars banned from Queen St during peak hours, so that a $41 million upgrade can be accomplished more easily and more quickly. Unfortunately, that seems not to have fully dawned on the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority. Their dawdling approach suggests they are prepared to tolerate serious congestion, with all its implications, for some time yet.
So far, their response has concentrated on "soft" options. In the first instance, this entailed motorists getting a taste of the snarl-up caused by the building of tree pits, laying of kerbing and paving, and installation of light poles and street furniture. Optimistically, it was imagined that one experience of a severely constrained Queen St would be enough to discourage further use. It did not, perhaps because Aucklanders have become so accustomed to gridlock.
Only marginally more successful were more signs and radio advertising advising motorists of delays. Now, therefore, it has been decided to ban private parking from Queen St, and to shift taxi stands and North Shore buses into neighbouring streets. That, also, is unlikely to have the desired impact. Few people drive into Auckland with the ambition, or expectation, of getting a parking spot on Queen St. Equally, the arrival of more buses in Albert St, a thoroughfare that has become increasingly congested by that very mode of transport, hardly represents an incentive to use it as an alternative.
The current approach envisages one more stricture before a ban on private cars. This would see cars excluded from at least one block of Queen St during peak hours. It seems more of a recipe for confusion than a solution. Only a total ban is likely to significantly heighten the prospect of buses travelling up the Golden Mile in something like the scheduled seven minutes, not the half-hour that has become relatively common.
Such a measure is, of course, not to be taken lightly. Retailers, in particular, will have qualms about the consequences. These include not only the impact of the ban itself but the risk that shoppers will be discouraged from returning. But retailers' overriding concern should be the fact that the work is scheduled to take up to a year. This creates valid fears that can be ameliorated only by some sort of tradeoff. Most logically, that will involve getting the work done as quickly as possible. The banning of private cars is part of a solution that must also include other means of condensing the upgrade.
At the moment, the hours of work are limited to 7.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday and until 8pm on Saturday. The council has indicated that work is being done outside these hours where noise is not a problem, and that an extra team of 20 workers have accelerated work on the block between Wellesley and Victoria streets. The additional workforce has increased the degree of disruption. But that is a price which must be accepted if the work is to be accelerated. In fact, more should be being done. There is justification for the council to consider closing Queen St to all traffic at nights or at the weekend if this would eradicate the problem more quickly.
Preparations for the upgrade were handled ineptly. Despite the potential for huge disruption, the city council did no more than adhere to standard traffic planning policy. Now, it must ensure the upgrade takes no longer than is absolutely necessary. A ban on private cars should be an integral part of the response.
