Symonds Street Safety Petition Update: Promising Progress
Nearly 1000 signatures! Let’s keep the petition’s momentum going to make a Symonds street running through our campus.
Our campaign is still on-going, if you haven't signed yet, please consider it! If you haven't signed it yet or would like to share the link, here is the link to our petition: https://chng.it/kx6g2D8Nms
Campaign Progress Overview:
It's been three weeks since we started our petition calling for Auckland Council and Auckland Transport to do more to enforce the 30 km/hr speed limit around the University of Auckland and AUT, with a specific focus on Symonds Street. We had just cracked 500 signatures at our last update, but now...
We're less than 50 signatures from 1000!
That is equivalent to about 1 in 50 UOA staff and students. We're incredibly grateful to the community's on-going support for this campaign. In particular, we would like to give a special thank you to the 22 donors who have pitched in $257 to help promote this movement.
We believe the support for this petition has demonstrated that the university community wants more done to ensure pedestrian safety in our area. Symonds Street poses a health and safety hazard to UOA Staff and Students running through the heart of our campus.
We are beginning to draft our proposal to Auckland Transport (AT) regarding what safety measures could be implemented, which will be presented alongside our list of signatures. This process will take weeks to arrange, as we consult with several UOA staff, students and council representatives about the possibilities. In the meantime, we are still pushing for more signatures. We're still putting up flyers!
We will also formally contact the University of Auckland to seek their support soon, as we would love to have their backing for the campaign and consultation with them on the proposed safety measures we will ask AT to implement. We've heard UOA has been involved with previous unsuccessful attempts to pedestrianise the Learning Quarter. Let's hope they will be on-board with our campaign!
We have been trying to reach out to AUT student organisations to jump in and help push for these safety measures and urge their university to back the campaign. However, we have not yet received a response.
We have also received some support for the campaign from other organisations, including non-profit urban development advocacy group Greater Auckland and Grey Lynn 2030, who both re-posted our articles on their pages. Check out Greater Auckland for more articles and campaigns to make Auckland a better city.
The other week, I was also invited to speak with Ingrid Hipkiss on the Morning Report at Radio New Zealand (RNZ), where she interviewed me about the campaign.
What started as a campaign about enforcing speed limits has evolved and become more nuanced, thanks to the incredibly generous and helpful experts and key players who have jumped on board and provided us with invaluable advice. The campaign is now about safety on Symonds Street, not just speed.
As I've learned more about the state of urban planning in Auckland and how our Symonds Street fits into the Council's plans, I thought I'd share some interesting info below.
Symonds Street & Auckland Council's 2020 City Centre Masterplan
In 2020, Auckland Council issued its Masterplan for the CBD’s redevelopment by 2040. It’s a conceptual vision for what our CBD should be like, guided by good urban planning principles. It isn’t a legally binding document like the Unitary Plan but it is taken into consideration when development projects are drafted.
The Council’s Masterplan has an entire section on the Learning Quarter, a substantial geographic area encompassing Symonds Street, UOA & AUT city campuses and even UOA Grafton Campus.
A key value driving the Masterplan, is the principle of Access for Everyone (A4E). This principle calls for more pedestrian focused urban planning, that prioritises cyclists, foot traffic and public transport over cars.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, the Masterplan has a vision for Symonds Street.
The Council’s own Masterplan calls for the section of Symonds Street after Wellesley Street to be restricted to Public Transport, Emergency and University Service vehicles only. It also calls for a widening of the footpaths along Symonds Street.
As such, we’re going to add these measures from the Council’s Masterplan to our petition’s requests, calling for general traffic to be restricted from entering the lower part of Symonds Street which goes through our Campus. These requests are in alignment with the councils vision, we’re just telling them its time to start implementing them now, and not to leave it till 2040.
