mt victoria, wellington

Some months ago the Mt Victoria Residents Association wrote to the NZ Transport Agency proposing that the pilot tunnel drilled alongside the main Mt Victoria road tunnel in the 1970s should be put to use - specifically, that the pilot tunnel should be re-fitted to allow pedestrians and cyclists to use it, thus escaping the noise and fumes in the main Mt Victoria tunnel.

This seems like an eminently sensible idea. The pilot tunnel runs parallel to the main tunnel on the opposite side of Paterson Street, and it would provide a much better experience for pedestrians and cyclists alike if it were made available. Car traffic in the main tunnel would also benefit, as it would allow the existing pedestrian walkway to be removed and the lanes widened. In fact, it's hard to see a downside. Even the costs seem reasonable, with lighting and ventilation upgrades for the pilot tunnel likely to be a tiny fraction of the $175 million the NZ Transport Agency is currently budgeting for a second road tunnel.

The pilot tunnel runs on the far side of Paterson Street, above the main tunnel, and starts near the clump of trees in the middle of the photo.

Now the local Green MPs (Co-Leader Dr Russel Norman, Gareth Hughes and Sue Kedgley) have thrown their weight behind the idea, and have written to the NZ Transport Agency to express their support. According to their letter to Agency head Geoff Dangerfiled, "Wellingtonians are the highest users of public and active modes of transport in the country and this trend will be enhanced if ideas such as [MVRA committee member] Mr Palmer's cycle and pedestrian pilot tunnel are embraced."

So far the NZ Transport Agency has remained silent on what they think of the proposal, other than to decline to answer specific questions under the Official Information Act. This really isn't good enough, as the changes proposed would be a cheap, effective and welcome improvement to Wellington's transport network - and surely it's the job of the Transport Agency to make exactly these kind of upgrades.

Thanks to the efforts of local resident Jane Tolerton and the advocacy of Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon, the cut-off date for consultation on the changes to the Pirie St bus tunnel - which will see not-in-service buses allowed to use the narrow one-way tunnel - has been moved to 5pm on Friday 16 July:

Councillor,

In reply to the request for an extension to the close of submissions on the traffic resolution regarding the Pirie St Bus Tunnel, I propose that the close date be extended to Friday 16 July. This is the latest date we can extend to and still comply with reporting requirements for the Committee meeting in August.

I trust this will assist.

Cheers,
Maria Archer
Acting Director, Infrastructure

This is a welcome development and should give local residents a better opportunity to have a say about the changes proposed by Council officers. It's the view of many local residents that allowing not-in-service buses to use the tunnel will cause significant additional congestion, further damage the Pirie St road surface, pose an additional danger to local residents, and materially decrease amenity in Mt Victoria.

Mayoral hopeful Cela Wade-Brown launching her campaign in early July

The local body election season is upon us, with postal voting on who we would like to represent us on the Wellington City Council, the Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Capital Coast DHB due to commence in mid-September.

As usual, the Mt Victoria Residents Association and Mt Cook Mobilised are convening a joint community event for local residents to meet and question the candidates. This year there will be two meetings, both held at the Crossways Community Centre in Roxburgh Street:

Local Ward candidates meeting on Tuesday 14 September at 7:30pm
Mayoral candidates meeting on Thursday 16 September at 7:30pm

Everyone is welcome and refreshments will be provided. If past experience is anything to go by, these will be entertaining evenings with plenty of debate and banter and witty exchanges, so mark your diaries now!

The Dirt Doctor will be presenting sustainable gardening workshops on August 7th, 14th and 21st in a beautiful garden in Mt Victoria. Dirt Doctor is an organisation started by Jim O'Gorman in Kakanui focused on soil rehabilitation and bio-intensive gardening. He runs a one man farm, and has turned the worst soil he could find into some of the most productive in NZ using materials he could gather within walking distance, and working only with hand tools. Our workshops teach Jim's methods, and provide the knowledge needed to turn any garden into a productive, sustainable system. All local residents are welcome!

These 3 workshops will be followed by a weekend Urban Eden workshop hosted by Jim himself on August 28th/29th.

For bookings and more information, contact Jacob Perkins or Hana Miller, phone 021-766-827 or email jacob@dirtdoctor.co.nz

Bus congestion in Pirie St on a recent weekday morning

Residents around Pirie St will have noticed a letter from the Council this week about a proposed traffic resolution affecting the Hataitai bus tunnel. The letter suggests that the changes have the support of the Mt Victoria Residents Association, but unfortunately the Council is being somewhat economical with the facts.

The gist of what the traffic engineers are proposing is that the tunnel should be re-designated as a bus lane, which will permit the Council to enforce its use - effectively providing a deterrent to the sorts of drivers that badly injured Earl Krauskopf last year. So far, so good. But there are some essential facts missing from the letter.

The first is that the Council currently lacks the legal authority to enforce bus lanes. The Council's Director of Infrastructure, Stavros Michael has said that:

"I advised that Council has now concluded a contract variation with our Parking Services agent .... and are in a position to commence the process pending a minor process confirmation by the Police Commissioner. In any event this ability will be available to Council well in advance of this proposed resolution been considered and adopted by Council."

On the surface this sounds positive. However it's clear that the enforcement authority is by no means a done deal, and there appears to be no project plan or timeline to implement the enforcement activity. In addition, we understand that the contractor only has a single enforcement camera to cover the entire Wellington region, so enforcement could be sporadic at best.

But the key problem is one that is not even mentioned by Council officers in their letter - that changing the designation will result in the tunnel being open slather for every bus in the city.

Currently the tunnel is governed by a Greater Wellington Regional Council bylaw that restricts the use of the tunnel to in-service commuter buses only - effectively Go Wellington, Valley Flyer and Airport Flyer services; not-in-service buses and tourist buses are banned. But changing the designation would open the flood-gates to every operator in the region, putting another estimated 70-90 buses a day up the narrow residential streets of the neighbourhood.

So the whole idea of making the tunnel safer seems to have gone completely out the window. Instead, we'll have more buses, more congestion, and only sporadic enforcement. This is not what the Mt Victoria Residents Association signed up for at the meetings to discuss the matter with the Council, the bus company and the Police, and we feel deceived and let down by the officers concerned. It seems only fair that they are honest with local residents about what they are actually planning, and the implications of those decisions.

As noted in the Council's letter, consultation on this poorly thought-through proposal is open until 5pm on Friday 9 July. We would encourage all local residents to oppose the traffic resolution, and to call their Ward Councillors to express their views.

Kent Duston
Acting President
Mt Victoria Residents Association

Local residents may have noticed the recent listing for auction of 3 Queen St, a small three-bedroom cottage that is being sold by the estate of its late owners. A number of people have contacted the Mt Victoria Residents Association to ask about developing the site and the implications of demolition, so we thought it might be useful to potential purchasers to post some information online.

In last month's Mt Victoria newsletter we mentioned that there were upgrades planned for the Mt Victoria tunnel, which may have some impact on our neighbourhood. In this mornings' Dominion Post, the full extent of that impact was made clear.

For those who didn't see the paper, the Wellington Tunnels Alliance is intending to spend $80 million bringing both the Mt Vic and The Terrace tunnels up to modern specifications, which means improving a whole host of infrastructure ranging from tunnel linings to earthquake strengthening and ventilation. The main reason for the work is because the tunnels don't meet modern fire standards.

However in keeping with the car-centric approach of traffic engineers, the impact of these changes on the local communities have not been well thought-through. For starters, the proposed ventilation upgrades in the main Mt Victoria tunnel will see carcinogenic diesel particulates spread over a much wider area of our neighbourhood.

Every morning, more than 800 Mt Victoria residents jay-walk to work across Kent and Cambridge Terraces - more than half of them between Elizabeth Street and Majoribanks Street, where they can be seen weaving between traffic as they make their way to Courtenay Place.

The reason they're weaving through the traffic is that the Council's traffic engineers have been refusing to provide a safe and convenient crossing point for literally decades, as they simply don't think pedestrians are worth the effort. And this anti-pedestrian bias has now been extended to Wellington's most dangerous intersection, where Courtenay Place meets Taranaki Street. In the last few days, the Council's engineers have begun tearing up the traffic islands that thousands of pedestrians use as a refuge as they cross five lanes of traffic, because they will interfere with the smooth flow of cars - never mind that pedestrians typically outnumber vehicles on this intersection.

Pedestrians are more in danger on the Taranaki Street intersection due to the Council decision to remove the safety of the traffic islands.

This anti-pedestrian bigotry is in direct contrast to the Council's own stated policies. Many of the plans the Council has developed over the last few years - from the walking policy to the climate change action plan to the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan - emphasise the need to encourage "active modes", otherwise known as walking and cycling. Yet the moment the traffic engineers get involved, pedestrian crossings are removed, traffic light phasing stacked in favour of cars, more parking added ... it's a litany of Council hypocrisy.

It's high time the Council's traffic engineers joined the rest of us in the 21st Century. As a regular pedestrian (and driver), I'm tired of being regarded as an inconvenience to be kept out of the way of the terribly important car traffic when I'm walking around town. There's no economic, social or environmental justification for the anti-pedestrian biases of the traffic engineers, so ithey need to drop their neanderthal approach to traffic management.

And it's also high time they started listening to ratepayers on this issue. The Mt Victoria Residents Association has been asking for pedestrian improvements across Kent and Cambridge Terraces for years - and so far we've seen nothing but the sort of bureaucratic dithering that would make the Zimbabwean Civil Service blush with embarrassment. And in the latest fiasco, the Council began making the Taranaki Street intersection more dangerous before consultation on the changes had even closed! If the traffic engineers were attempting to send the message that they really don't give a toss what ratepayers think, they've succeeded admirably. And frankly, that's not good enough.