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Newtown and Transport

Just Newtown
    • Submission on the WCC Bike Network Plan
      • The Bike Network Plan submissions close at 5pm on Tuesday 14th December– https://www.transportprojects.org.nz/current/bikenetwork/ The Residents’ Association has made a submission, approving of the proposals for a Bike Path Network but asking to be included in discussions as the details are worked out. A trial of establishing a path from Mein St along Riddiford St and Adelaide Rd into the City has already been agreed by Council, and now they are asking for input on your experiences of using this route. See here for more information and for a survey to complete.
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    • Minutes of the March 2020 Meeting
      • Minutes of the Newtown Residents’ Association meeting 16th March 2020 Present: Rhona Carson (Chair), Steve Cosgrove (Minutes), Leonie Walker, Jane Patterson, Jill Ford, Alison Borbelly, Keith Powell, Tom Law, Don McDonald, Warwick Taylor, Peter Frater, Effie Rankin, Faye Tohbyn, Lyn Morris, Sam Somers, Eileen Brown, Neville Carson, Kevin Lethbridge, Graeme Carroll, Merio Marsters, Marion Leighton. Apologies: Paul Eagle, Dom Shaheen, Steve Dunn, Martin Hanley, Anna Kemble Welch, Jan Gould + Marion Leighton(for lateness)Noted that Paul apologised because MPs have been advised to stay away from community meetings due to Covid-19 risks..  Rhona welcomed everyone to the meeting. Newtown Festival Rhona thanked all the marshalls and other volunteers for helping. The meeting made an enthusiastic  vote of thanks and appreciation to the organisers for another very successful Festival.Sadly there was one violent event later in the evening; this seemed to be the result of a personal conflict between two visitors to Newtown. The Police and Community Patrol were involved. Don asked what the noise policy is, as he worries about how loud the Festival is.  Tom Law outlined the Council policy. Wellington City Council Consultations Parking Policy.  Consultation opened today and will run till April 14th. WCC had a traveling road show on the subject in Newtown Mall this morning. It wasn’t widely advertised and no one at the meeting knew it was going to be there, or attended.Rhona noted that the policy is very high-level at this stage. We recommend that people look at the material on the website.  The questions on the web site are quite general so Newtown-specific concerns would need to be added in narrative form.Some general issues were discussed.We will consider different things we can agree on, such as further communication with WCC to develop a Newtown-specific plan, and sensible Residents’ Parking areas and fees. Planning for Growth The WCC Consultation Team were to have a Newtown Festival stall but cancelled because they were not quite ready to go.  Next consultation meeting is on 26 March at Prefab – Jane and Rhona  interested in going. No one had any further comment: Rhona suggested reading the web page and keeping up-to-date with progress on the development of a proposed spatial plan for the city.District Plan Review – this is beginning at the end of this year or early next. Water Warrick is concerned that water metres are coming back into discussion.  This has resulted in some suggesting we ‘need’ water metres to pay for replacement of aged infrastructure.A number of views were expressed regarding the pros and cons of water metering. COVID-19 Eileen Brown is working for the Council of Trade Unions developing plans and consolidating ideas for “managing the risk and flattening the curve”.The current situation was outlined, along with common narratives being used to describe the situation and management options.  Eileen described then distributed some information.Marion Leighton (Consultant Physician at Wellington Hospital) arrived during this discussion, having been at a hospital meeting on the same topic. She outlined the hospital’s plans for managing an influx of seriously ill patients and also answered questions. Most important thing is to wash hands frequently and thoroughly, cough and sneeze into your elbow or tissues, don’t touch your face, avoid physical contact with others and self-isolate at the first sign of any symptoms. We are in this for the long-term, so make sure you have a reasonable plan. Emergency Management Discussion Neville Carson outlined his background in Civil Defence (previous name for Emergency Management, and introduced “Wellington Conversations” – facilitated conversations on various topics which have been running in Newtown and elsewhere for several months.Neville is organising a meeting to discuss Emergency Management issues on 31 March, 7:30 to 9:30, at Newtown Hall, using a model based on Wellington Conversations. Circus Performers – Steve informed the meeting that on Wednesday evening (18th Mcaarch) in Carrara Park circus performers will be performing with LED Hula hoops. Meeting ended at 8:58
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        • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Weekly News 10 February 2020
      • Five big favours to ask this week for everyone doing RTB: (a) wear your singlet – be visible and promote the club, (b) join us at the yellow tent afterwards, (c) say hello to the people near you during the run/walk and invite them to visit us at the yellow tent, (d) tell friends and colleagues who had fun to come and talk to us, and (e) make sure you sign up for our membership special for 2020-2021. Options for the week  Tuesday 5.30pm, Waterfront 5km, Outside Mac’s Brewbar on Taranaki Wharf. Come and run, volunteer or support.Wednesday 6.15pm, Newtown Park Track workout. Meet 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, lead by Andy and Rowan, shorter distance track reps.Saturday, 8.00am, Newtown Track workout – contact Chandima for info, or check Facebook for details. Longer track reps with a focus on building towards major events.Saturday, 8.00am, Lower Hutt 5km Parkrun, Porirua 5km Parkrun, Kapiti Coast 5km Parkrun.Saturday, 1:58pm, Porritt Classic, Hamilton (Hiro Tanimoto 1500m)Sunday, Round the Bays, half marathon at 7.45am, 10km at 8.30am and 6.5km at 9.15am. Frank Kitts Park.  Results The Tarawera Ultramarathon is such an amazing atmosphere even in the years when the Trail Queens do not turn up in dominating numbers. 102km: Fiona Hayvice 11:54:08, Emma Bessett 13:35:25, Chris Howard 22:33:31. Mel Aitken DNF at 75km. 52km: Nicholas Vessiot 5:53:48, Jaime Vessiot 6:01:25, Emily Solsberg 6:15:10, Jo Badham 6:44:36, Marketa Langova 6:50:01, Ben Cornelius 7:54:28. 21km: Melanie Hart 2:02:41, Kate Slater 2:04:19, Abigail Pitman 2:19:03, Michelle Knight 2:27:32, Isobel Deeley 2:30:08,  Lindsay Young 2:31:14, Kath Littler 2:34:21 – Results So it turns out a lot of you have more than one string to your bow. Capital City Triathlon: Danielle Trewoon won the Medium Distance (750m/15km/5km) in 01:02:30, Anna Breen 01:18:19, and Claire Jennings 01:24:50. Valentino Luna Hernandez was second in the Enduro Distance (2km/60km/15km) in 3:14:58, James Turner 3:40:12, Helen Bradford 4:16:35, Paul Rodway 4:20:58, Richard Sweetman 4:28:41, Greg Williams 4:31:37. Rachael Cunningham did 03:11:48 for a revised distance Triathlon of 2km/60km/10km and Tricia Sloan did 45:05 for the enduro swim. – ResultsMalcolm Hodge ran a big PB 01:09:54.0 for 13th place in the First Half Half Marathon in Vancouver.Hamish Carson ran 1:51.66 for 800m at the Meeting National des Sacres (YouTube) in Reims (France) and 3:42.40 for 1500m at the Orlen Copernicus Cup (YouTube) in Torun (Poland).At the Combined Junior/Senior Track and Field meet at Newtown Park on Sunday 800m: Hiro Tanimoto 2:07.22. 3000m Run: Hiro Tanimoto 9:42.79, Ayesha Shafi 11:08.57. 3000m Walk: Sean Lake 17:54.99, Daphne Jones 22:42.86 – Results. Upcoming events Round the Bays, 16  February, Frank Kitts Park  Round the Bays is the biggest running festival in Wellington. It’s one of our best opportunities to invite new people to join the club. So, repeating from above, here are five big favours to ask this week for everyone doing RTB:  Wear your singlet – be visible and promote the club; Join us at the yellow tent afterwards; Say hello to the people near you during the run/walk and invite them to visit us at the yellow tent; Tell friends and colleagues who had fun to come and talk to us; and Sign up for our membership special for 2020-2021. Michelle Knight will be coordinating that recruitment drive. If you think you can help either beforehand with promotion, publicity and administration support or on the day handing out flyers, staffing our tent and talking to people about Scottish contact her.  Todd Stevens, todd.stevens@pwc.com is looking for a 40min pacer for the 10km. Please let him know if you want to help.  Matairangi Fun Run, 23 February Hataitai Velodrome,  Open to the public, the Matairangi Fun Run, based on Mount Victoria, runs over the iconic Vosseler Shield course. There are two race options: the One Loop Race (5 km); or the Two Loop Race (two 5 km loops, adding up to 10 km). Each loop has approximately 190 metres of elevation. McVilly Shield Relay, 7 March, Karori Park The McVilly Shield is the first club event for the season and a great way to get to know other people in the club. This relay has teams of three people each. Everyone can participate, runners, walkers, J Team, seniors, masters and friends of the club. Just turn up and we will find you a team. You can either race it or use it as an opportunity to do some training.  Each team must do ten laps of Karori Park. No individual team member can do more than four laps. But you can do the laps in any order you like. The race is randomly handicapped after the teams start. Notices Join this week and save $20 or more Join or re-join Wellington Scottish at Round the Bays this year and you get $20 off your new season of Scottish full adult membership (down from $185 to $165). You can sign up at our bright yellow tent at Kilbirnie Park or you email us at membership@scottishathletics.org.nz and pay Wellington Scottish Athletics 38-9005-0501833-00. Put your name and “RTB JOIN” in the reference. If you want a singlet too, add $39. This will be the biggest discount we offer this year so don’t miss out by waiting. Also: if you, as an existing member, sign up an adult friend who is new to the club or has not been a member for the last five years, we will give both you and your friend $15 off your membership fees. If you sign up two friends who are new to the club you get two lots of $15 off your membership fee. And so on. So, talk to your friends and colleagues who are running or walking Round the Bays this year. Tell them they could enjoy the same fun all year round at Scottish. If you get a friend to join make sure you email membership@scottishathletics.org.nz to let us know. Discounts Join a new friend -$15 per new friendRound the Bays discount for adult members -$20 Switch to new email system I have switched from TinyLetter to MailChimp to send out these weekly emails. Hopefully, those of you who want them still receive them and those who don’t won’t. You can unsubscribe at the link below if you choose. Or you can subscribe here: <form aria-describedby="wp-block-jetpack-mailchimp_consent-text" > <input aria-label="Enter your email" placeholder="Enter your email" required title="Enter your email" type="email" name="email" /> Subscribe Processing… Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again. Events calendar Our full events calendar is available on our website. It is also available as a Google Calendar that you can add to your own electronic diary. Keep in touch with the club:  If you want to contact anyone about anything then your first ports of call are our club captains Ben Twyman and Danielle Trewoon, our coaching coordinator Jamie White and our club president Michael Wray.Public Facebook page. And join the Scottish member Facebook group hereInstagramWebsite
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        • Alexandra Road, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)


    • Waiting for light rail? Let’s build a busway now!
      • One question on the mind of everyone suffering from Wellington’s transport problems is – when will Let’s Get Wellington Moving actually get us moving? Guest poster Marko Garlick sees a supercharger hiding in plain sight There seem to be lots of abstract projects planned to be delivered, maybe years from now: urban State Highway 1 “improvement” with more tunnels, and a rapid (or maybe just frequent) mass transit line from Lambton through Newtown and to the Airport.  But where will these actually go? And how do we deal with difficult questions about flows around the Basin Reserve? Wellingtonians waiting for new transport infrastructure to be built… Where does mass transit go? For mass transit, there are many things to consider. Is it along the waterfront quays or along Lambton Quay / the Golden Mile? Along Taranaki St or along Cambridge Terrace? Where does it go through the Basin Reserve? Many people are speculating. And the big one: light rail or trackless trams, or both? Mock-up of a route down Taranaki St What about the urban motorway? The LGWM proposal has a pretty good plan to maintain the amenity of the city above. They want to underground the motorway from the Terrace to Mt Vic. A new Te Aro park will be created on top. However people are questioning the need for more lanes created by a new Terrace and a new general traffic Mt Vic tunnel. More lanes in urban motorways creates induced demand. More lanes means make people drive more which kills off any travel savings created by the bigger road. It’s a transport strategy just as smart as trying to lose weight by buying bigger pants! Bigger roads take up valuable space and just fill up with more traffic (looking at you Auckland, thanks for showing us what not to do) This uncertainty is paralysing! Those who are in the “pro-car” camp say they like mass-transit but that must come after their bigger road. Those in the “pro-PT” camp want light rail first and a smaller road. Finger-pointing and party lines are drawn. Tough and costly decisions will have to be made about irreversible projects around the Basin. Once you make a flyover, tunnel or lay down tracks you can’t (quickly) go back. I think we can break out of this inaction and stupor with an interim middle ground: a busway. Case Study: Auckland’s Northern busway The idea for this has come from the success of Auckland’s northern busway. It is a dedicated two-lanes for buses from the northern foot of the Harbour Bridge up SH1 to Constellation Drive with world-class stations and frequent congestion-free services into the city.  It has seen year-on-year double-digit growth numbers over its 11 years in service, and is being extended to Albany and beyond shortly. Eventually tracks will be laid down for a second-harbour crossing for light-rail. Radical incrementalism Initially the busway was just a narrow shoulder each side of the northern motorway. People were sceptical initially but its success was undeniable and has provided the basis for upgrades and extensions. What the Northern busway shows is that doing something now, and building on it, is more practical and politically palatable than trying to justify a massive spend up front. This is applicable to Wellington’s light rail situation. It is relatively low-cost initially, can display almost mass-transit qualities and is more flexible as progress is made towards light-rail. Why a busway? A busway is what Wellington needs now. We cannot wait another 10-15 years for a big decision on the Basin and Mt Vic tunnel. A busway will provide many benefits: It is far cheaper to implement right away and far quicker to implement (I envisage 3 years for the first stage).It also demonstrates demand for mass-transit and will allow us to see whether a certain route is a good idea or not.It also allows for land-use intensification now, providing greater density and amenity to a future light rail line. What will it look like? So what would this look like? I think that the busway should start at the train station, go along the waterfront quays, and then either go along Taranaki St or Cambridge/Kent Terrace. Ideally, it should run in the centre of street with weather protected stops and room for cycleway and signal-priority. Stops should mirror light rail ones, being spaced out for speed and reliability.  Along most of the route the buses could probably hit 60km/h speeds, congestion free, all day. [Ed: just let that sink in. Congestion free. A clear run.] Separate branding would be an excellent addition. The Northern Express (NEX) is what Auckland has; the Wellington Express (WEX) is what we could have. This post is about incrementalism and the key takeaway is something half-done is better than waiting ages for the ‘perfect’ solution. If the busway is barebones at first before getting upgrades then so be it. The mess at the Basin can be avoided by stopping bus priority at the start, then resuming it into Newtown. This is what the Northern Busway does with dedicated lanes ending at the Harbour Bridge, then resuming on Fanshawe St. What the waterfront quays look like now (shudders). Hardly the “walkable city”. A thing of beauty: What a complete Wellington busway could look like The busway can be upgraded over time. Greenspace, cycleways, better stops, a possible underpass on Waterloo Quay to connect to the railway station. Summing up In an ideal world, we can all agree on the light-rail and grade-separation issues at the Basin and they may already have been implemented. But that is not the case. Although there is lots of details to work, the principle of a busway now then future conversion to higher-capacity light-rail is a sound one in my mind. Do you have any ideas why Wellington has not had bus priority – via a busway, or anything else – for so long? What do you think of fast buses in the city centre, and in the suburbs? A version of this post was originally published on TraNZport; see the original here. Image credits Cover image by Smarter TransportSkeleton waiting, original unknownTaranaki mock-up by LGWMAuckland rush hour by Getty imagesAuckland busway by Greater AucklandQuays now, screen grabBusway by AT
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        • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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