Plywood boxes on Arthur Street in Onehunga.. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Plywood boxes on Arthur Street in Onehunga.. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
An Auckland road safety trial has been cancelled after residents vandalised wooden boxes blocking suburban Onehunga streets and even hopped into a forklift to move them out the way.
Residents earlier this week used spray cans to paint messages such as, "Move these please Phil", "We don't want" and "Road4 cars" on the boxes.
Auckland Council's Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board laid the boxes along Arthur St last month to prevent motorists using smaller roads as major thoroughfares as part of a trial aiming to make the area more pedestrian friendly.
Vandalism on two of the boxes. Photo / Dean Purcell
But - after an urgent briefing this morning about "vandalism and disruption" at the site - the local board backtracked and ended the pilot project early.
"It is disappointing to see this project come to an end under such circumstances," Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board chairwoman Maria Meredith said.
"There was a concerning escalation of criminal activity by a minority which has resulted in serious public safety issues, including a number of reported near-misses involving cars and pedestrians. In the face of threats to continue this dangerous behaviour, the board felt the only response was to call an end to the trial," Meredith told RNZ.
"It was clear to us that there was an increasing social cost falling on local board members, the teams working on the project and indeed a widening divide within the community.
"It is disappointing to see this project come to an end under such circumstances, because the main goals of the Innovating Streets projects still remain an important part of what will make our city a great place to live in the future.
"It's a sad fact that as intensification increases, traffic is going to get a lot worse in our neighbourhood streets."
Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board member Peter McGlashan, who was a champion for the LTN, told RNZ he was "extremely disappointed but not entirely surprised" by the ending of the trial.
"The civil disobedience and vandalism continued to escalate, putting the public at risk, regardless of the temporary nature of the trial and the observed benefits."
The trial was part of government agency Waka Kotahi's Innovating Streets Programme, which aimed to deliver so-called Low Traffic Neighbourhoods across the city.
Devastated by this 2day, despite democratic decision last Tues 2 continue LTN trial residents decided 2 vandalise crates overnight then 2day btw 9-930am a resident in forklift removed major modal filters breaking the law, ignoring democracy & taking law into own hands. 🤦🏽♂️ https://t.co/F1XM5aydEBpic.twitter.com/kS30KizIuw
As part of the programme, Waka Kotahi offers to pay 90 per cent of the costs of blocking and rerouting streets should local council bodies agree to implement the changes.
Supporters said the programme would make the areas more people-friendly by reducing the number of cars on them and the speeds at which they travelled.
They said it also aimed to make people less reliant on cars as part of a transition to a more climate-friendly future.
Devastated by this 2day, despite democratic decision last Tues 2 continue LTN trial residents decided 2 vandalise crates overnight then 2day btw 9-930am a resident in forklift removed major modal filters breaking the law, ignoring democracy & taking law into own hands. 🤦🏽♂️ https://t.co/F1XM5aydEBpic.twitter.com/kS30KizIuw
However, other residents led a fierce backlash to the Onehunga trial, angry at now facing significantly longer travel times as traffic jams formed on nearby major streets when more cars were funnelled on to them.
At a Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board extraordinary session last week a councillor vote to immediately cancel the trial was narrowly defeated 3 to 4.
Some infuriated residents subsequently vandalised the barriers overnight on Monday before one even moved them aside with a forklift the following morning.
Council had to call in contractors to put the barriers back in place and paint over the vandalism
The Maungakiekie-Tāmaki board was earlier one of the first to sign up to the Innovating Streets Programme, with $880,000 - including $88,000 funded by the local board - being earmarked for trials in Onehunga and Glen Innes.
Of that, $41,000 had been spent making and installing the plywood boxes in Onehunga.
The temporary barriers aimed to "slow traffic and make it safer for people walking or biking around the Arthur and Grey Streets neighbourhood", Auckland council said.
The Arthur Grey Low Traffic Area in Onehunga, which had some barriers removed by angry residents. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Despite the early end to the programme, Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board's Meredith said officials still wanted to find ways to make the neighbourhood safer and more pleasant.
"The main goals of the Innovating Streets projects still remain an important part of what will make our city a great place to live in the future," she said.
Kathy Errington from the Helen Clark Foundation think tank earlier said low-traffic neighbourhoods - when made to work - had benefits beyond emissions reductions.
"They have been shown to improve air quality, increase physical activity, benefit local business, dramatically reduce road deaths and injuries, reduce street crime, enhance social connectedness, and even extend life-expectancy," she said.
But at the Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board's extraordinary session last week numerous residents reported their lives had become much more difficult because of the trial.
One Herald reader wrote in to say it used to take her 15 minutes to get home from her child's swimming lesson in Penrose, but that had now become a 45-minute drive.
"I work locally, and before the LTN went in it took five minutes to drive to and from kindergarten," she said.
"I am now at work for half an hour less every day as it is now a 15-minute trip each way.
"Buses and trains don't help when you're a parent doing pick-ups and drop-offs! And the Onehunga trains are often down or delayed."
She also pointed to the May edition of the Onehunga Community Police Newsletter, which said the suburb's residents had reported an increase in crime throughout April.
"A percentage of this increase was reported from residents within the Low Traffic Neighbourhood pilot area, which is not commonly an area of interest for criminal offending," police said in the newsletter.
"These reported incidents relate to property damage, attempted vehicle thefts and burglaries," police said.
"If you reside in and around this area please be extra vigilant.
"The reduction in traffic through this area has resulted in less eyes and ears on the street."
