Walking Safely on the North Shore....

In many ways, walking and cycling are great ways to get around our city. These non-motorised travel methods cause virtually no noise or air pollution. The only energy they require is provided by the traveller, and the very generation of that energy leads to useful cardio-vascular exercise. These modes don’t take up much space either, and they are quite economical, costing much less than cars and public transport, both in direct user costs and public infrastructure costs. In fact the presence of pedestrians and cyclists enhance the liveliness or urban environments, making both commercial and residential areas safer and more interesting.

Unfortunately, North Shore City Council, in common with other Auckland Councils has done little to promote walking and cycling – especially safe walking and cycling. On the contrary, many recent transport “improvements” to North Shore City – generally to ease congestion and create more capacity for vehicular traffic - have often made walking and cycling less feasible, less convenient, and more dangerous. The consequence of this is that walking and cycling make up a smaller and smaller proportion of all trips.

A research project gave me an opportunity to to recall some of my experience of this. It serves to illustrate the problems that confront those who seek to ensure that the safety of the most vulnerable members of our society are recognised and provided for in all aspect of transport design.

Fig. 1 Wolseley Road. South side. Footpath camber safety issue for disability buggies, prams and children on bikes and other toys.

Figure 1 shows the footpath on the south side of Wolseley Road, Milford. It was pointed out to me by an elderly resident when I was campaigning for election to North Shore City Council in 1998. After election one of my goals was to change North Shore City council’s footpath policy so that this sort of problem would not be repeated. I also tried to ensure that retrospective repairs were made to pavement where there were similar safety issues. The photograph here was taken in 2007. To date no work has been carried out to remedy this problem. I raised this matter at various Council meetings. A typical response from some councillors was that people who were worried about falling, or rolling down the driveway (it was a joke for some), should use the other side of the road. Figure 2. shows the other side of the road.

Fig 2. Across the road from figure 1, looking East.

Officers explained to me, and to my fellow councillors – in report after report – that there was an issue with some North Shore roads, because of the steep terrain in some parts of the city, that unless effort was made to smooth the way between the road and the driveway, then cars would bottom and risk damage in making the transition from private property to the roadway. I understood that that was clearly an issue, but it did raise questions about the planning that had gone into the design of this road, and others like it across the East Coast Bays area. The question of who had right of way arose. I asked officers to report to council who had right of way on a footpath: did a car crossing the pavement have right of way, or did a pedestrian (or cyclist) using the pavement have right of way over a car crossing the pavement? When I asked these questions I expected the answer to be straightforward, but it took officers almost two years to provide the answer to the question. It was stated that national transport policy guidelines indicated that pedestrian users had right of way in those circumstances. We were getting somewhere.

Fig 3. Looking south along Lake Road near Belmont. The asphalt footpath has been resurfaced, but all of the driveway crossings have been replaced with concrete aprons allowing quick access and egress.

Then in 2002, after programmed maintenance of Lake Road pavements, I was surprised to see Devonport’s traditional asphalt footpaths altered and severed through the construction of concrete accessways, as pictured in Figure 3. These were put in place at the same time as footpath asphalt. When questioned, officers justified their actions by saying it was consistent with council’s “like with like” policy, that when maintenance work was done, like materials would be used when carrying out repair works – it was just that the concrete needed to be strengthened… By now a few more councillors shared my concerns. They could see that what had previously been regarded as a continuous pavement for pedestrians and other users, had been transformed into a dangerous obstacle course cluttered with a series of high speed private entry and egress access “roads”. I raised with officers the question whether constructing a pavement like this was consistent with national policy of ensuring that pavement users had priority over those needing to access the road or private property by driving across the pavement. It was obvious to all that the provision of carefully shaped aprons meant that it was easier for a car to drive into or out of a driveway at speed, putting pedestrians at increased risk. Officers suggested that – at considerable cost – these aprons could be removed. Another option was to cover the concrete with a coating of asphalt, but this would have camouflaged the fact that the surface was now undulating, and might itself contribute to accidents. All very frustrating. Around this time I became aware of the existence of Council engineering design standards. After some cajoling, Council officers were persuaded to put on a Works Committee agenda, a report which contained the particular engineering design standards that had led to the changes in pavement layout in Lake Road. These standards were also responsible for the design outcomes in East Coast Bays Roads like those illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. I moved resolutions which sought changes to these design standards in order to achieve pavement designs which would not discriminate against the safety of pedestrians and other pavement users, through prioritising the safety of cars and car movements. Though I still had a year of my term to run, this resolution did not succeed while I was Chair of the Works Committee.

Fig 4. Parents volunteer to walk groups of children along “routes” to local schools

A major success in 2003 was the development of North Shore City’s first Walking School Bus. Council was concerned at the number of car trips involved in taking kids to school. Surveys showed that parents did not want their children walking to school, because they felt it was not safe. Officers came up with the Walking Bus idea. It was supported by Councillors. Implementation was funded by Infrastructure Auckland, ARC and North Shore City Council. Positive media followed and – when ARTA was set up a year later – Walking School Buses was one of the first Travel Demand Management projects it adopted and pushed throughout the Auckland Region. This was a success story, and one North Shore City Council initiative I felt proud of. Then in 2004 another issue arose in respect of pedestrian safety, particularly the safety of children walking to Westlake Girls High School. Changes were proposed to the road network around that school to accommodate traffic-engineer predictions of increased movements along Wairau Road, and the need to provide for buses accessing the Westlake Busway Station. This involved Shakespeare Road being extended across Wairau Road.

Fig 5. Westlake Girls High School is in top left corner of this artist’s impression of the modified Wairau/Shakespeare Road intersection. The brown areas are pedestrian holding bays. Note the large radius turning curves which allow fast travel.

I recall chairing a meeting about these designs where the engineer responsible proudly explained that his designs would be safe for cars or buses driving at 70 kilometres/hour. Apparently the road intersection design was almost to motorway standard. When I reminded him that this was a 50 kph zone with five schools and thousands of students he merely shrugged. I spoke about this example at the 2007 Trafinz Conference, by which time I was on the ARC. Afterwards I was approached by Julie Chambers of Auckland District Health Board who was keen to talk with me about the need to change the way school designations were prepared, in order to better provide for the safety of children accessing schools. I was also approached by a slightly grumpy North Shore City Council traffic engineer, embarrassed by my criticism. He said to me, “you know what the problem is don’t you – the school is in the wrong place.”

Fig 6. Thousands of girls attend the school and need to cross this intersection to do so. It is busy and dangerous.