The Wrong Side of my Car
The blog that wants to go obsolete
They’ve actually closed some streets for cars
A few weeks ago, images like this started popping up in my Twitter feed.
It is called the Arthur Grey Low Traffic Area.
It was like looking at another country. I’ve never seen anything like this in Auckland.
Dozens and dozens of similar pictures scrolled by.
There’s kids in the street? What sorcery is this?
It is a proposed low-traffic area. A small part of the street network where traffic will be as quiet as possible, so people have some breathing room — quite literally — to use these spaces for other things. To make getting out of your house without a car a sane option.
And I don’t know the entire story, but they have managed to put up a temporary installation before succumbing to the mob of angrily shouting people you usually get with consultations.
The reactions were a predictable mix of delight and surprise, versus angst and anger.
To Aucklanders a low traffic neighbourhood is about as familiar as a Mars base. People take it for granted, often subconsciously, that streets are for driving. And only for driving. Often leading to quite bizarre discussions. *1 How do you get people to imagine what will happen to a street if you close it for cars?
You can’t consult on this. Your feedback will be about as meaningful as feedback about your proposed Mars base. Show, don’t tell. They already had some people warm up to the idea once they saw it in person. It is such a big win to actually get this on the ground.
This is only a small area but it is a microcosm for the larger story of Auckland. A similar but larger scheme, Access For Everyone, has been proposed for the city centre. However it just doesn’t seem to get off the ground, and efforts to undermine have already started.
There is a deeply entrenched notion that people not driving a car are a lowly underclass that you can forget about. That regardless of all these frivolities, ‘real’ people have to drive their cars to ‘real’ things like work. Getting past this mindset is a serious challenge.
But all of a sudden this pops up. What a delight.
How often have you seen people who were genuinely not able to understand that walking is actually quite convenient? This seems stupid, until you realise that most homes in Auckland don’t even have a dairy within walking distance. Walking off your property is an exercise in futility. It is really hard to imagine something that has been impossible during your entire life.
Or people being completely baffled by the idea of bike lanes going to shops. After a lifetime in Auckland you’d be forgiven for not intuitively knowing that you can actually ride a bicycle to those shops. How many people have never heard of this in their entire life? And before you mention pannier bags, remember, just 10 years ago it was almost impossible to buy a bicycle with a luggage rack over here.
There is finally the potentially massive reduction in where you can easily go if driving becomes more cumbersome. People see this as a treat to their lifestyle. It is not easy to convince them they will still be able to go somewhere.
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