About 6-7 years ago I went to a talk by Jan Gehl, a Danish architect and one of the worlds most recognised urban designers. He had been brought to Wellington by the city council. He spent a lot of time analysising the city and produced a report:
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/urban/citytowaterfront/gehlreportindex.html .
The big point of the talk that the city was disconnected from the waterfront by Jervios Quay. This was not rocket science but I really liked his solution. It was not to have more bridges as had been proposed in the past but to reduce Jervios from three to two lanes to change what he called urban mini-motorways into city boulevards. He also suggested this for Kent and Cambridge Terrace.
Only then could Jervois be a place for people and yes, bicycles. It was a beatifully simple idea that solved multiple problems but the council did not accept it. Instead they planted some trees which is a nice thing to do but did not change anything, Jervois is still a void in the city.
Attached is an article I wrote for the Architecture Centre newsletter. Apologies I did not circulate it first.
Murray
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 I am writing this article as a member of Cycle Aware Wellington.doc | 576.5 KB |