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Manners Street’s two new bus lanes – too tight, or wide enough?
Newswire report by Nita Blake-Persen
Wellington bus drivers using the new Manners Mall bus lanes will need to hug the kerbs – there is barely enough room for two buses to pass. Even scraping their kerb-side tyres, they will have just on a metre between mirrors.
When driving a comfortable distance from the footpath, the gap between two buses passing in the new lane could be down to just over half a metre – close enough to squash a pedestrian silly enough to be caught between them.
This conflicts with a concept drawing on the Wellington City Council’s website, which shows there is plenty of space.
However, the council is confident the street will be wide enough.
The road has been made narrow to allow more room on the footpaths, says council spokesman Richard MacLean. “Measurements have been done to ensure buses will be able to pass safely.”
One of the key things about the lane was buses will not be travelling fast – the area has a reduced speed of 30kmh, and is not designed as a high speed space, he says.
Mr MacLean says although there will not be much manoeuvring room, if buses are driven carefully and properly, the lane will work well.
Maria van der Meel, president of lobby group the City is Ours, disagrees and thinks the lane is too narrow. She has concerns for the safety of buses and pedestrians and says the road needs to be at least 7m wide to be safe.
According to one worker on the site, there has been speculation among them that the road is too narrow. Another said the buses might need to be fitted with retractable mirrors to ensure enough passing room.
NewsWire reporters measured the new street layout after passersby expressed concern that it looks too narrow.
The lane averages 6.5m in width, with the footpath on the seaward side averaging about 4.7m and the other side about 3.8m.
Buses are 2.5m wide, plus another 150mm to 200mm for their mirrors. Another 100mm to 200mm is usually taken up because drivers stay clear of the kerbing.
Assuming drivers do not rub their tyres against the gutters, two buses passing will need between at least 5.5m and perhaps as much as 5.8m to be safe – leaving as little at .7 of a metre gap in the middle.
The $11million transformation of the mall is due to be completed in just under three weeks and buses will begin using the lane on Sunday, November 28.
Nita Blake-Persen is a Whitireia journalism student.
The first bus will not get around Perrett’s corner for the lack of necessary width of the bus lane on Willis Street approaching Manners Street. There are so few days to rectify the planning error. Denis White, a Wellington bus driving instructor with over 1000 bus driving students successfully trained to negotiate the Wellington streets, has advised me on site that one of the first things to go will be the street sign pole on Manners Street west, just after the Willis Street corner turn. He added that it won’t be the council who are likely to remove it. The first of the trees will also have to be cut back.
Another concern is that the Paris Texas corner is of a substandard pedestrian through-route width. This is not just for the Transport Agency footpath width guide but also for the Council’s own code of practice. The corner shares walking space with those who are waiting to cross. There are no regulations for this, which suggests that the problem has not been contemplated before. Council has decided not to err on the side of safety.
The provision of three bus-only lanes across the intersection of Manners Street and Victoria Street accommodates not only the 2 way route but also the right turning Brooklyn-bound routes and is too narrow. By Council’s standards this width measurement should be 10.5 metres. The final plans have the width at 9.5 metres. [Abridged]
Buses hugging kerbs risk the following as was pointed out in the Environment Court:
Hitting pedestrians with their wing-mirrors in the head, ouch!
Hitting the kerb will send them into the opposite lane and oncoming bus-traffic.
The art-work suggests pedestrians who dare enter the bus-only zone will effectively be playing Russian Roulette for a game over.
Manners Mall aside – Bring back Zoot suits!
It’s perfectly safe to stroll down the centre of the Manners Mall bus lane – as long as you’re wearing a zoot suit.
Having campaigned for Bryan Pepperell for election as mayor, I am now aware that he is now in charge of walking, cycling and road safety when his commitment to saving Manners Mall was publicly declared.
Denis White (comment 1) declares that the fact is that the first bus on Perrett’s corner, turning from Willis Street into Manners Street, will collide with another bus turning from Manners into Willis. He also says that the remedy for safety is to make the southern bound route one wide lane. The question is: how will Bryan act on this information prior to the 28 November route opening date, when the public demand must be that buses will get around the corner safely? Additionally the constraints on the Victoria Street and Manners Street as well the Manners and Cuba Street intersections have undergone no physical tests. These tests will be done the day before the route is open and operative and it is hard to see how any faults in the design could be identified and remedied all in a single day.
Bryan campaigned openly for inclusive government. A reasonable question then must be: does his philosophy extend to interacting with the public who have studied the design as well as the engineers? Surely he would accept a long standing offer made by Mr White to take councilors for a drive around the city in his instructors’ bus. [Abridged]
Things seem to be working well with no buses going through Manners Mall during construction – why not keep it that way and divert all buses via the Quays?
The frustrating part of dealing with design errors is that the political focus is on how bus drivers would be responsible for any accidents and not the designers. http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/edge-their-seat-3894025 In my view, however, this notion should be short lived if there is an accident, especially if fatal. Under the Local Government Act 2002 Section 153 (3) the Crown is bound by certain bylaws; the Government can be drawn into the matter on the grounds of safety and under the Crimes Act 1961 section 156 Duty of persons in charge of dangerous things, people who are responsible for the bad design should be criminally liable on a fatality. After all, it is admitted that the plan has been built short of the Council’s own minimum standards. [Abridged]