Banning truck access to Wellington’s Golden Mile could seriously harm the city’s economy, the Road Transport Forum (RTF) says.
The RTF has submitted on Let’s Get Wellington Moving’s Golden Mile Engagement Report and says it ignores the significant impacts on freight and commerce.
The organisation is also warning of a greater public safety risk by relocating loading zones to side streets that are not easily accessible even for small trucks and would involve more reversing and other manoeuvres.
The Golden Mile is the shopping and entertainment heart of Wellington City and one of the busiest pedestrian areas in the country.
It runs from Lambton Quay through Willis and Manners streets to Courtenay Place. It’s also the core of the city’s bus network – bringing 36,000 people to and from the city on a typical weekday.
Transport minister Phil Twyford says improving the Golden Mile is an important part of Let’s Get Wellington Moving’s plan “to move more people with fewer vehicles and support Wellington’s growth”.
However, RTF chief executive Nick Leggett says the concept is an “oxymoron”.
“If the powers that be in Wellington want the Golden Mile to be able to live up to its lofty name, they will seriously reconsider this notion that banning trucks and delivery vehicles will create some kind of pedestrian and cyclist utopia. They will create a wasteland,” Leggett says.
“Wellington is not some European city with wide open spaces and plazas and equally wide thoroughfares. The Golden Mile is Wellington’s primary inner-city arterial retail canyon. It is narrow and that presents problems for the delivery of goods not just to retail stores, but to coffee shops and restaurants, and high-rise offices and apartments.
“This plan shows a complete lack of understanding of how the city’s commerce works. By suggesting freight delivery vehicles will have to be parked some distance away from the receiving site, drivers and delivery people will be expected to move the goods lengthy distances along pavements while being mindful not only of their own health and safety, but also of the apparently many cyclists and pedestrians using the same space.
“Most of the retail outlets and premises on the Golden Mile have front access only, so moving delivery vehicles further away from those premises presents security risks – for the driver and the goods – and the potential for goods to be displaced and damaged as they are wheeled some distance from the delivery vehicle, often in bad weather.
“A vision of routes through the central city with no traffic other than buses was barely desirable before Covid-19 and the Government’s lockdown. It is even less so post Covid-19 with its legacy effect of economic atrophy. The Golden Mile is golden no more. Foot traffic has declined significantly, and retail is clearly suffering. All this will do is move shoppers out to the malls they can drive to.
“Wellington lacks proper planning for the present traffic flows to the southern suburbs and airport, and the seaport, and we would have thought greater effort should be paid to sorting out these routes through expansion of State Highway 1 at the Terrace tunnel, and focussing on the entire route to the airport.
“It seems that the narrow focus is on limited environmental and amenity scenarios in the Golden Mile initiative. Yet access to the airport and seaport are essential for Wellington’s economic viability,” Leggett says.
Golden Mile concepts up for feedback
Three different concepts for Golden Mile have been released for community feedback which all involve improved access for pedestrians and buses.
This includes changes to the road layout with bus lanes, pedestrian spaces up to 75% wider and dedicated bike lanes in some places.
The preferred option will be confirmed in September and detailed planning and implementation will be underway from 2021.
“On a normal day, the Golden Mile is at capacity – buses get stuck in congestion and footpaths are overcrowded,” transport minister Phil Twyford says.
“Fixing these issues now will help pave the way for better public transport and create a more attractive place for Wellingtonians to spend time and shop.
“Improving the Golden Mile will help get the city ready for other Let’s Get Wellington Moving projects including bus priority on key suburban routes into the city, an integrated mass rapid transport network, improvements at the Basin Reserve and an extra Mt Victoria tunnel,” Twyford says.
Wellington mayor Andy Foster says the council will be talking with freight operators and businesses.
“Deliveries and pickup spaces are important to business owners along the Golden Mile. That’s why Let’s Get Wellington Moving will be talking to delivery companies and businesses about the workability of proposals of changing or removing on-street parking and relocating loading zones,” Foster says.
