George Street and the Bus Hub

2024 11 18

Dunedin is a student city on the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Within the last 10 or so years, the city has begun making a signficant effort improve its pedestrian realm, and last winter hit a huge milestone: the CBD portion of George Street finally finished redesign, which is the city's main gravity for commercial and retail.

George Street was repaved, given large pedestrian pavements, the entire street is a table (road at the same height as pavement), and there are parks and play areas as well as small gardens and ped amenities like water fountains and benches. But there is a.. really big problem?

street with grey paving stones lined with parked cars, and a automobile oncoming. — This is a pedestrian street?

Automobiles still take up the overwhelming majority of the space, and there isnt enough street furniture or traffik calming to ensure give ways to pedestrians. If you're a ped in the vehicle travel lane, it feels like youre supposed to get out of the way, which is totally backwards. Drivers have also been known to drive 3-4 times the speed limit of 10kmh, which is, Not Good.

the same street but with some partitioned off behind construction barriers. — it was nicer during construction when cars weren't allowed on it.

Forgive me if I misunderstand, but I thought the whole point of the Totally Georgeous project was to make the space defintively pedestrian. It definitely is much better than what came before, which was, fucking dots???? but you really don't need to do much to top that, especially when the starting point involves a rebuild.

But this on it own I could accept. A well intentioned project with legitmate postive impacts, that just fell short of what it was designed to achieve. But I can't. For I have to bear the knowledge of the Dunedin Bus Hub.

woman with a pram crossing a street with buses and cars. — The Hub.

just a block over from George is the bus hub, as well as the city's police department and hospital. Most buses in the city are aligned with George street, so the bus hub is a needless, slow detour for all routes.

and. Why. if we;re going to allow motor vehicles on george street, it should probably be buses only? bus drivers are very cautious, and there would signficantly less traffic since buses dont come constantly or park for long periods.

the hub is also just?? in a weird location? like very few destinations exist at the hub, and you need to a couple blocks to get to an actual desintation. which is silly? and im sure dunedin bus route consistency would love a dedicated road through the city centre

it also makes public transport a first choice for getting to george street, which, is probably the play? given the way the wind is blowing for orbus and the city.

same area but lined with cars — btw heres a picture of a traffic jam in the bus hub awesome

(yes i posted about this before in a previous webblog but thought it was important enough to warrant its own page)