Fresh from its consideration of the shape of the city in 2040, the Architecture Centre has taken a look at the Basin Reserve and come up with some innovative approaches. As they so eloquently put it:
The Basin Reserve for instance, may not need to be continuously ringed with roads for traffic. Indeed, we are most concerned that the Basin Reserve is currently reserved mainly for use as a giant traffic roundabout - there are better uses for a Basin than that, and there are certainly better roundabouts. But what if the traffic was to go elsewhere?
Their proposals display all the innovation and lateral thinking that seems so absent from the NZ Transport Agency and their flyover-obsessed traffic engineers. There are tunnels, enhanced green space, and genuinely fresh ideas that we hope will see the light of day when consultation on the Basin Reserve begins at the end of February.
Quite apart from the fact that the basin reserve - a terrific venue for all types of events - is alienated from the rest of the surroundings, the school area and the area around the governer general's house are in fact very cut off too, creating such a danger for people (ie children every morning and afternoon) trying to get across there. At peak traffic kids are darting across the roads just outside the tunnel's city-side exit. This would be helped immensely if a new tunnel was put in underneath, and the current one reserved for just pedestrians and cyclists (although better lighting and a slight 'fitout' would be needed to stop that tunnel then becoming a seedy night-time route.) There is hardly enough space for pedestrians and cyclists to take the tunnel together, not to mention how awful it is to walk through with the car fumes and honking...
I also think a light rail service would be an incredible investment for the city. Why keep delaying these great opportunities for our city's infrastructure in favour of cheap(er), mediocre, halfway-there solutions? The city is too small for us to be beefing up the roads to allow for more traffic flow; part of what makes Wellington special is its walkability within the city's centre, let's not screw that up by gradually leeching wider roads, bypasses, flyovers and more traffic into the very heart of Wellington! A (light) rail system with the potential to stretch all the way from Upper Hutt to the Airport, curving through the city with a few main stops, would reduce so much unnecessary, inefficient private car traffic to and from the city from all directions.
so let's spend a bit more now and save in many more ways than one, and we'll be reaping the benefits of the change in our generation and beyond!
It's great to see that there are people and organisations out there that see the future as opportunity, not a blind continuation of the status quo. 2040 is a long way off and we have the opportunity to re-create our city in ways like that illustrated by the Architecture Centre. Isn't this exciting? It seems that the people at NZTA have lost sight of the fact that we create the future today. If we want a more liveable, sustainable and healthy city and population in the future, it's time we start transferring the obvious vision that groups like the Architecture Centre have, into reality. Bring it on!!!
Thanks Kent,
Yes, we put this scheme out as a vision to try and help NZTA understand that there are other ways of tackling this problem, rather than just build bridges. Its a bit hard to see from the picture, but we've done a few things, such as:
1 - make the road go around only 2-3 sides of the Basin, not all 4 sides. Very simply: this will actually speed up traffic, without doing anything else (judging by the results from the Trafalgar Square traffic replan in London, where they stopped off one side - reduced the amount of intersections, and so sped up the traffic flow.
2 - lowered the ground level of the roadway around the rear of the grandstand / near the motels / student flats. A cut and cover operation, to lower the speeding traffic into a ditch. Result: a lot more peaceful for many residents, and more green space.
3 - put the new Mt Vic tunnel underneath the old Mt Vic tunnel, not side by side. So then it doesn't need an overpass. If they built the new tunnel big enough, they could just convert the old tunnel to pedestrians and cyclists. Wouldn't that be nice?
4 - Connected it all up from the Governor Generals house across to the Memorial Park, so that all the school children and all the university students and all the members of the public could walk from one side to another without fear of getting run over, without smelling car exhausts, in a park like setting. How good is that?
Yes, we know that some of these ideas may be a bit hard for traditional roading lobbyists to grasp, but what NZTA need to realise is that there are other ways to do things without alienating massive amounts of the public. We're hoping they have an open mind.
regards
Guy Marriage
for The Architectural Centre.
(established 1946, and still going strong...)
This is exactly the kind of design the basin reserve needs with lots of green space instead of cars cars cars and a stupid flyover.