An idea running through the heart of a city

STACEY WOOD - The Dominion Post

Manners Mall is one short block, but it has a city divided.

Wellington City Council wants bus lanes through the mall to streamline the public transport system in a plan to restore the 'golden mile'.

What is the issue?

Manners Mall was a two-way street for cars, buses and trams until the late 1970s when it became a pedestrian mall.

For 30 years it has been favoured by buskers, protesters, the young and the hung-over, drawn by the hub of arcades, cafes, fast food and shops.

The council says reinstating bus-only lanes will shave minutes off passenger journeys and remove confusion by having bus stops on both sides of the same road.

There is no denying the plan would increase public transport efficiency, but shopkeepers and residents say it will ruin the precinct's character for ever.

Cuba St resident Ronald Nelson created an online petition on the council's website that attracted almost 1200 signatures in two weeks.

Mr Nelson said the council's proposal was a step in the wrong direction.

"Once we lose public space it's very hard to get it back."

There was a perception that groups of loitering "hooligans" intimidated pedestrians on Manners Mall, but concerns about troublesome youths had been exaggerated.

"Yes, adolescents hang out there, but adolescents are people too.

"People have always had a fear of teenagers. In the 1950s it was milk bars let's put some funding into something for them to do instead."

Mr Nelson would rather the council focused on improving the atmosphere of Manners Mall, replicating the success of Cuba St just around the corner.

He hosts a Facebook group devoted to "saving" Manners Mall. Suggestions put forward online by the group's 2000 members included public art, night markets and strict enforcement of the area's alcohol ban. He also has signatures from 24 Manners Mall shopkeepers on a separate petition highlighting their specific concerns.

What do shopkeepers think?

Manners Mall shopkeepers are overwhelmingly against the council's plan.

They claim noise and fumes from buses will drive people away from food kiosks and discourage pedestrians from stopping in the area.

Dick Smith Electronics manager James Baker has no doubt ripping up the mall will have devastating consequences for his store. "It would chop our business down to half. The flow would be completely gone."

The shop has had problems with troublemakers in the past, but communication with police, other retailers and pedestrians had resolved the issue, Mr Baker said.

His store was one of several attacked in November by a man in his 30s wielding a metal bar. He smashed windows and threw merchandise into the street before being arrested.

James Houston, manager of Ultra Shoes, said the bus lane concept was a silly idea.

"It goes against the council's plan to have a more walking-friendly city... A lot of our business comes from people who work in the city and walk everywhere."

Mr Houston said he had not experienced much trouble in the mall. Any problems with "undesirables" would not be resolved by putting in bus lanes, as that would just shift people to the next open space.

The consensus among local business owners was that bus lanes were a terrible idea for the area.

Internet cafe iPlay's manager, Brent Corlett, said semi-tongue-in-cheek that he had a better idea for streamlining bus routes: a major interchange at Civic Square, next to the Michael Fowler Centre and Wellington City Council chambers.

"If the council is saying Manners Mall is not working, is that park [Civic Square] working? If you go down there now, I bet there'll be about two people there but even though it's raining, Manners Mall is still busy.

"I'm a little bit confused with what the council is trying to achieve ... if you were here at the sevens or any nice day, it's great."

Mr Corlett was concerned that businesses would have trouble receiving deliveries, as the nearest loading bay was a block away.

At present vans could drive into the pedestrian mall, but he feared they would lose access if bus lanes were created.

He believed his business would suffer if the council pushed ahead with the plan.

What does the council say?

Council urban development and transport portfolio leader Andy Foster said it was impossible to please everybody when it came to roading changes. The council's key motivation was streamlining bus routes.

The side-effect of driving young people away from the area was incidental, he said.

"Some people have made that a big driver, but the motivation here has always been about trying to improve the reliability of public transport in the city.

"The key reason is to try to separate buses from congestion ... It's not just cutting the speed of the journey, but also the variability.

"If you have a trip that sometimes takes one minute by bus and other times takes five minutes, those three or four minutes add up."

Reducing the number of traffic lights and busy intersections along a route was the best way to streamline bus journeys.

Mr Foster was aware of the issues shopkeepers and some members of the public had raised, but said it was difficult to tell where public opinion lay.

Public submissions told a different story to a phone survey conducted on the subject by the council, he said. "Public opinion must be listened to, but ... the submissions seem to be weighted one way, and our market research survey is still being analysed but it seems to be weighted the other way."

He appreciated shopkeepers' concerns about deliveries and public space, but hoped these could be addressed within the proposal.

The rest of the city coped with traffic, so there was no reason why buses should spell disaster for Manners Mall retailers.

What happens next?

Oral submissions will be heard from February 24 till February 26 and a recommendation is scheduled to be presented to the council on March 19.

If accepted, the first stage of the project will begin in the 2009-10 financial year. The council has budgeted more than $11 million for the Golden Mile project and expects to make a minimum of $250,000 a year from at least 50 new car parks created by rerouting buses.

TEENS: Misbehaving or misunderstood?

The combination of the Timezone arcade, fast food joints and open space has turned Manners Mall into an after-school haven for Wellington teens.

Inspector Simon Perry said police encountered occasional problems with shoplifting and fighting, but the situation had improved in the past year.

"We've had quite a dramatic drop in crime in that area. We're not getting the assaults, the street robberies ... it's a combination of an increased police presence, more communication with retailers and the liquor ban."

Vagrants and alcoholics had stopped loitering in the area since the liquor ban came into force, which reduced the level of disorder.

MALL BY MALL

A retail impact statement commissioned by the council into the effects of bus lanes for Manners Mall found:

* Of 200 pedestrian malls built in the United States between 1960 and 1970, 78 per cent have been reopened to vehicles.

* Ninety per cent of communities that reintroduced traffic reported improvements in occupancy rates, shop sales, property values, and private sector reinvestment.

* In Australia, 10 out of 48 malls have reopened to traffic with similar benefits.

* Manners Mall shows good retail and economic performance.