Bus stop u-turn turns up heat on controversial cycle ways

Saturday, 14 October 2023

The city council appears to have been left with egg on its face with plans to move a controversial in-lane bus stop on one of Wellington’s busiest arterial routes back to where it was, or possibly remove it altogether.

The “integrated boarding platform” on Tinakori Rd was installed 10 months ago as part of the Botanic Garden ki Paekākā to city cycleway project. It meant buses which previously pulled over to the kerb were forced to stop in the middle of the road, while passengers would have to step into a cycle path to board or alight.

The council was roundly criticised at the time, with locals arguing its position on a major commuter thoroughfare to Karori, Wellington’s most populous suburb, would lead to massive peak hour snarl-ups.

Seems they were right. Documents outlining plans for the next stage of the cycleway include a bullet pointed list of “improvements” to make the Botanic Garden to Karori tunnel section more bus, bike and pedestrian friendly.

Bullet point number six mentions reducing congestion at the Bowen/Glenmore street intersection by converting the bus stop opposite St Mary Street to a kerbside bus stop.

Thorndon Residents’ Association chair and cyclist Richard Murcott didn’t say “we told you so”, but he may as well have.

Instead Murcott said the council, and its planning team, have lost all credibility. Residents had raised the issue during consultation last year, in written submissions and in person, and were ignored, he said.

“The disruption we said it would cause has happened. It is a remarkable illustration of how poorly community views are respected.

“It’s a failure of local government to work with locals and an indictment of the whole process,” he said.

He said residents were not “anti-change” and were all for a liveable city, but it was critical change was delivered “by very carefully designing it. And that is not what is happening.”

The council has previously described the modular bus platforms as best practice. They had been tested around the world, won awards for sustainability and accessibility, and contributed to faster bus trips, as buses could “move off as soon as they are ready and don’t need to wait for a gap to pull back into traffic”.

Murcott is sceptical: “Where is their commercial modelling and the mapping done to prove what they are saying? They talk about investing in smart cities … where’s the application of all that intelligence?

“Kerbside bus services are such a basic need. Then there's no need for pedestrians to be vigilant for errant vehicles (bikes) or other 'active' modes attempting to shoot the gap between the pavement and the bus while they're waiting, or trying to get on or off the bus.”

Nimesh Patel’s dairy is directly opposite the bus stop. He had also complained about the set up when it was first proposed: “We knew from the start it was going to cause problems, and now … well it hasn’t even been a year.”

Patel says he has watched near misses, as motorists try to get around buses on the wrong side of the road, almost daily. Traffic snarl-ups were a constant since the in-lane platform was built, not just during peak times.

Ironically, at the time The Post was taking photographs for this story, a motorist overtook two buses at the stop.

Other proposals for the Karori Connections route along Glenmore St include turning two other bus stops further up the street into in-lane bus stops — potentially creating more pinch points — removing 241 out of 315 coupon car parks, and installing uphill separated bike lanes between parked cars and the footpath, past the Botanic Gardens.

Said Murcott: “Every vehicle needing to make a right hand turn from Glenmore St to a side street is a candidate for obstructing west bound traffic in the new proposal while they wait for a gap in the traffic travelling toward the city. The carriageway won't be wide enough for following traffic to pass.

“Same thing for drivers trying to park a vehicle in Glenmore St. Traffic behind, in the narrowed roadway proposed, will need to wait for a vehicle to stop and reverse into a parking space. How do these things impact WCC's assertions that the in-line bus stops will markedly improve the bus service?

“The council and the designers have got this so wrong. They are making it more dangerous for everyone.”

Asked why it hadn’t taken the community’s concerns on board, when the decision to move the stop was made, and how much the work would cost, the council didn’t provide a straight foward answer.

Vida Christeller, Manager City Design, said while the Tinakori Rd/Bowen St stop was installed as part of the earlier Botanic Garden to the City project, the council was considering feedback on it as part of the consultation on the Karori Connections project which had just closed. Final decisions were yet to be made.

“We’re considering feedback on this stop along with Waka Kotahi safety guidance. Other factors we’re looking at include whether the next two bus stops heading towards Karori will be in-lane [as stated in the proposal], the future permanent location of this stop, traffic movement analysis, and the safety of people on bikes which is improved with in-lane stops.”

Meanwhile a group of Karori residents, calling themselves Shared Spaces Karori, have been campaigning for several months to get the council to rethink its plans and “engage fully with the community”.

It has garnered the support of more than 1200 people, all of whom made submissions opposing the removal of car parking from Glenmore St through to Karori Park, saying it would create major issues for large numbers of people, including the elderly, families and the disabled, trying to access shops, medical facilities and recreation area.

They also argue prioritising cyclists over commuters - no peak time bus lanes are planned - makes no sense, given data from WWC’s cycle count shows an average 226 cyclists use the route daily during the week, while on average 3500 residents travel from Karori by bus on a normal weekday.