Low traffic circulation plan considered for Wellington in fossil-fuel-free move

Wellington CBD. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wellington's central city would no longer be used as a thoroughfare for cars under a new low traffic circulation plan being proposed.

Details of what the plan could look like have been revealed in documents published ahead of a Wellington City Council Planning and Environment Committee next week.

It comes after councillor Tamatha Paul asked the council to investigate a fossil-fuel-free CBD by 2025.

Council officials have recommended that a low traffic circulation plan should be developed and integrated into Let's Get Wellington Moving.

This plan is the equivalent to Auckland's Access for Everyone initiative.

Sustainable transportation consultancy MRCagney has prepared a pre-feasibility report on the idea for Wellington.

The report proposed the city be divided into traffic cells, which cars could drive in and out of but not in between.

Wellington City councillor Tamantha Paul. Photo / Mark Mitchell

To access each traffic cell, cars would use the boundary roads of Kent and Cambridge Terraces, the Quays and Vivian St/State Highway 1.

Other forms of transport like walking, cycling and public transport movement would be able to continue to move within the central city "seamlessly".

The report said it would be vital that access for disabled people, emergency services, and service and loading was maintained.

Low traffic did not mean car-free, the report said.

"While some streets are pedestrianised, meaning no cars travel along them, they are accompanied by circulation plans which allow vehicles to access required areas and circulate the restricted areas. This creates a wide area that is best described as low traffic."

Artist impression of mass rapid transit at Post Office Square. Image / LGWM

The report said the likes of Ghuznee and Dixon Sts could be "snipped" to allow no through traffic between Taranaki St and the Terrace.

On Victoria St, there could be no traffic allowed between Manners and Wakefield Sts, with
a possible service lane in the southbound direction.

Wellington City councillor Tamatha Paul said the plan would help make the city a destination.

"The benefit of using a traffic cell type approach is that you stop seeing the inner city as something that you merely pass through in a private vehicle.

"You start to see it as something that you come into and that you engage in fully and are able to participate in civic city life on foot and in person, not just within a car."

Paul acknowledged when she originally asked council officials to investigate a fossil-fuel-free CBD it was with the intention to close the city off to private vehicles.

But after working with council officials and experts, Paul said she realised the goal was more about opening the city up to people and less about closing it off to cars.

"It's about drawing that connection between a low carbon transport future that is intimately tied with a future that is inclusive and accessible for people to use and be a part of every day."

Paul said she wanted the low circulation traffic plan implemented before 2025

A low circulation traffic plan would come on top of several other initiatives already in place.

Projects before 2025 include Let's Get Wellington Moving's Golden Mile and City streets plans as well as a large portion of the 147km citywide cycling network rollout.

This "momentum" will be carried on through the decade with the completion of the cycling network, the electrification of the city's bus fleet, and the construction of mass rapid transit starting by 2028.