Palmerston North’s growing pains are getting more obvious: Judith Lacy’s Jottings

One of Featherston St's new in-lane bus stops. Photo / Judith Lacy

OPINION

It’s fitting Featherston St is named after a politician.

The redesign of part of the central Palmerston North street has become a political hot potato - wedges are perhaps more appropriate - as a cycleway is retrofitted, raised pedestrian crossings installed and car parks removed.

Some critics of the changes have taken an all-encompassing approach to the targets of their wrath. First in the spoke are Palmerston North City Council staff for developing the design and the 10 elected members who approved it.

Roading contractor Higgins has been criticised for allegedly not working when it should be and for working when it should but keeping people awake.

Horizons Regional Council is also in the gun for introducing e-buses that use the route and bus drivers for using the in-lane bus stops.

It is too simplistic to say people don’t like change or roadworks or, dare I say it, cyclists. Those are givens.

Losing a left-hand turning lane - as has happened at both sides of the Rangitīkei St intersection - is not new. This has already happened at the intersection of Rangitīkei and Cuba Sts and The Plaza end of The Square.

Having bus stops in the vehicle lane, rather than to the side, is new to Palmy.

The arguments advanced in favour of in-lane bus stops on the city council’s website ring true. Buses are stopped for shorter periods as they don’t need to pull over, plus they don’t have to negotiate pulling back into the traffic.

I’m not aware of the council doing any publicity - either before the stops were introduced or since - about these arguments. An information campaign surely would have helped people understand the changes.

I do feel for passengers who might feel obligated to get to their seats quickly to stop traffic from backing up.

My wrath is saved for drivers parking in the cycle lanes. The sooner the concrete separators are installed, the better.

No one is telling motorists they cannot drive along Featherston St. The jargon is “mode shift”, i.e. putting more emphasis on cyclists, pedestrians and bus passengers. It is uncomfortable for motorists, but cycling or walking is uncomfortable too.

There is a vast gulf - about the length of 50 buses nose to tail - between discouraging vehicles from using a street and taking away drivers’ freedom.

Yes, I’m aware I don’t own a business in Featherston St. I also don’t work in the street, live there or have children attending a school there.

It’s high time we stopped calling buses “loser cruisers” or other derogatory terms.

People who use buses are the winners and everyone benefits. The only losers are those who have no reason other than a bad attitude for not using a bus.

There has been much chatter on community Facebook groups about how few people use the buses. Instead of critics counting passengers from outside the bus, why don’t they try one? The buses are not suitable for every trip and for everyone, but they are here, they were free and now they are cheap.

And from a selfish point of view, the more people on buses, the fewer cars on the road.

When elected members approved the Featherston St design last September, Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith acknowledged there would be congestion. He said the key thing is there will be a safer road even if it takes motorists an extra five minutes to get somewhere.

“Somebody in Auckland, Wellington or even Christchurch will be looking at this and going, ‘What is the issue?’”

Palmerston North is growing and the growing pains are getting more obvious.

I wouldn’t want to be a councillor for all the tar in Featherston St or mayor for all the tar in Palmerston North.

Judith Lacy has been the editor of the Manawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001 and this is her second role editing a community paper.