Locals Fight Dominion Rd Plan

 

A local residents and businesses “Save Dominion Road” campaign is in full swing with petitions in local cafes, a Facebook and Twitter presence and a public meeting on Monday.

This campaign group is warning locals of the road becoming ”four lanes of fast traffic” and the Dominion Rd widening “affecting about 290 properties with majority losing around one to two metres of their property frontage.”

They’re especially concerned about how parking changes would affect local businesses along the stretch.

The Save Dominion Rd group says in his message to locals:

“We are raising awareness about the Dominion Rd proposal.  We believe it will not work as it will undermine local businesses, move traffic into residential streets, make the road pedestrian unfriendly, potentially lead to an increase in accidents as cars and buses and at times cyclists compete for the same road space. Although the cycle lane would be great, it stops at the top of Dom Rd, leaving you to get knocked off your bike within the next 50 metres when normal service resumes.”

Their public meeting will be in the Balmoral School Hall 19 Brixton Road on Monday at 7.30.p.m.

This is an area where community protest about change is not uncommon.

Residents have just been through an exhaustive fight against the building of a large 24 hour McDonalds on the corner of Dominion and Balmoral Rd and although the go-ahead has been given, there are still moves being considered to try to halt it.

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6 Comments

 
  1. karl says:

    The Ian McKinnon drive walk and cycle works that Auckland City are planning are to happen before Dom Road works go ahead. They have been budgeted for years, and while there may still be delays, they are much more imminent than Dom Road, which is in a rather early stage yet.

    And I do not understand how that would be an argument against cycle lanes anyway? Is Auckland City supposed to fix all the cycle problems of the city in one go? I’d sure like them to, but that is unrealistic - uUpgrades happen in parts, its always been that way.

    On the pro side, at least they do not seem to think the cycle lanes themselves are a problem.

  2. Matt says:

    This area is certainly noted for its sense of entitlement, yes. I’m ambivalent about the McDonald’s, though as someone who campaigned against the plan to put a high school at Alexandra Park on the basis of already-awful traffic congestion in the area being made worse to the tune of 1900 pupils I can hardly fault them for objecting to additional vehicle movements.
    That said, public transport gets cars off the road. There’s also no shortage of side-street parking (in a post on another thread I counted 47 side streets, conservatively and ignoring the major cross streets) in the area under consideration. Local business may be affected, but it may also benefit from becoming an easy destination to reach by public transport, making it somewhere that people either go to for or stop at on the way to a night out.

  3. Kirsten says:

    There may well be 47 side streets, but they either have restricted parking hours/time limits, or they are full of the cars of the Dominion Road workers and the city bus patrons. But of course when all the Dominion Road businesses close down through the complete absence of car parking, there will be plenty of parking in the 47 side streets.
    What a good idea, right before the Rugby World Cup, remove all car parks from Dominion Road. Lets encourage all the businesses along Dominion Road to close down, thereby creating a waste land in walking distance to Eden Park. A great look for the world’s rugby tourists in 2011.

  4. Nick R says:

    Kristen, don’t the car parks actually on Dominion Rd have even greater restrictions on parking hours and time limits?

    I agree they shouldn’t remove the parking for four lanes of fast moving traffic, but they should definitely remove the lanes for two lanes of traffic, two lanes permanent 24/7 high quality bus lanes, and two cycle lanes.

  5. karl says:

    Kirsten, there’s a couple of points in your response that need some more context:

    There are actually more side streets than that, I remember something on the order of 90 (but the number I have in my head may count each “side” separately - but that is relevant, see my next paragraph).

    The proposal is not to simply say “Go park in the side streets” - the idea is to change the parallel parking in those side streets into angled parking in the sections close to Dom Road, which would provide a lot more parking.

    The argument that shops would simply die off and leave a wasteland is also pretty emotional - I will agree with you that IF handled badly, some shops may see a reduction in trade, though. However, there are numerous places throughout Auckland where parking is very limited and shops still thrive - and as explained above, it isn’t as if there won’t be any parking in the area. Some parking will, agreed, be a couple dozen meters further away.

    And last not least - this has nothing to do with the Rugby World Cup. This is planning and consultation for work that isn’t even to start before 2011-12, intentionally only after the RWC.

  6. Rick says:

    I think the answer to Dominion Rd traffic congestion will require some serious bullet biting. I don’t think making it 2 lanes each way will last very long as an effective measure and also how much policing will it need to keep it working. The time will come when another layer of road (by that I mean overhead) will have to be added. An expressway with links to Ian McKinnon, Balmoral and Mt Albert Rds. Valley Rd is already a nightmare which is why I wouldn’t suggest having on - ramps there

 

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