Two points

1. You are responsible for ur safety when crossing the road so Wake-up , STOP, LOOK and LISTEN! Our childeren can do it, so be responsible and practice what we preach.

2. Bus drivers need to get fined for speeding!! as clearly drivers struggle to stay under 30km put speed cameras in!!drop the speed limit down to 15km along Manners and Willis Streets

Rugby World Cup: In September 2011 we are expecting 50.000 more jay walkers to the "Capital of Cool" they stay in our hotels and dine in our restaurants pumping millions into the hospitality trade and the local economy, John Key even put the liquor law amendments on hold for this event, lets hope Wellington's footpaths are "wide" enough and the punters are insured.

Another pedestrain hit today. Opposite Kiwibank. The woman is in hospital. She was bleeding on the scene and some beleive it was quite serious. Certainly the noise of the contact was said to be very, loud.

As a pedestrian I despair. Wellington is already a dreadful city for pedestrians; with hardly any time at the lights to cross roads, sidewalks that are used (and abused) by cyclists and skateboarders, and very little law enforcement. Has any cyclist ever been punished in this city for going through red lights, or cycling unpredictably along the sidewalks? And it gets worse. While most cities around the world are seeing the light, and realising that city centres need foot traffic, Wellington is going in the opposite direction. Crossing islands are taken away, the smallest possible pedestrian mall is converted into a busway. It is quite astonishing. The planners see the city as nothing more than an obstacle on the way from northern suburbs to southern suburbs and the airport. Here's a hint guys: you can have fast moving, high volume traffic flows, or you can have a vibrant, living city. You can't have both.

I think the new bus lane is the worst idea ever. It takes away the beauty of manners mall with big hideous buses running right through. Its allready proving very dangerous and its only been open two minutes. Biggest waste of tax payers money

Jamie #15

Ummmm Jaime, did you read the article? If you did you would see this:

"The only other hiccup was a problem with new overhead wires outside the National Bank. It caused trolley poles to come off buses during the morning as contractors worked to fix the problem. Disruption to services was minor as trolley buses took down their poles and used battery power to skirt the offending overhead wires."

I would say that answers your question before you even asked it.

And would your "WCC Councillor [who] was witness to a clear indication of a lack of impartiality by an author of the above article" be the same WCC Councillor with strong and well-publicised links to the shrill The City is Ours group? Hardly an impartial observer.

It seems the protestors who just can't let this one go are leaping on small teething problems and holding them up as evidence that this will never work. Nice try but it just underlines your desperation as far as I'm concerned.

And I totally agree with Melissa's comments regarding Darwinism at work. I have no sympathy for jay walkers and even less if they walk in front of a big yellow bus. (lol Kevin #8)

I wonder what Melissa's 'true' background is because one can't take her unbridled support seriously. She clearly has no knowledge or understanding of the major operational problems and pedestrian hazards and safety issues associated with this route such as demonstrated on 'working day' one with the knocking down of a pedestrian yesterday and at least one near miss - the first of many and possibly even fatalaties over time. And as for being "SO impressed with the professionalism and speed at which this task was accomplished". Pardon? Melissa was obviously living elsewhere until this week and has not talked to local retailers who have had major losses or been forced out of business. A WCC Councillor was witness to a clear indication of a lack of impartiality by an author of the above article and one only has to see how the statistically irrelevant single bus time on 2 days has been produced as supposedly convincing evidence of a 'time-saving' exercise. Wrong. I received a text from a bus passenger yesterday morning who had been stopped in Manners Mall for 5 minutes and a 2nd to report that the 100 metres or so had taken 12 minutes. Your reaction Melissa and Dave?

Of course you would say that Benjamin!

They still let you into that area? I thought they would ban you after your sledge hammer attack!

Its a busy street there will always be various different modes of transport crossing at the same time!

On December the 1st all road-works in the CBD will come to a screaching halt according to a WCC bylaw. Whatever is missing from the Golden Mile Improvements will now be a belated Xmas present from GW and WCC in January 2011. Here is what they promised.

GW> Real Time Information starting in Manners Street. WCC> Bollards along Paris Texas in Victoria Street.

Have a safe holiday and a properous new year and drive carefully.

@ bruce.B . It wasn’t $11.1 million remember dear old Mr Easton decided to increase it to 11.4 million by wasting over $300,000 on his protests. Just as well he’s a high salary earner and pays a lot of tax to cover the legal bills he created. LOL