Manners Mall Task Force Formed

 

Wellington City Council and local bus companies today set up a “taskforce” to discuss the new two-way Manners Mall bus lanes which in their first week of operation saw a number of Wellington pedestrians bowled.
At a meeting today, senior council staff and executives from New Zealand Bus Ltd agreed to set up a task force involving bus companies’ management and operations staff as well as council “transport experts” to “formally evaluate the performance of the new route and identify ways to improve safety and manage risk to the lowest practicable level.”
City Council Infrastructure Director Stavros Michael claims the new route is successful. “It’s doing what we wanted it to do - to provide a more reliable, efficient and clearly-defined bus route through the CBD and to revitalise the old Manners Mall. However neither the Council nor the bus companies are at all happy that two pedestrians have been injured in the past week.”

MANNERS: Pedestrians getting hurt by not seeing buses|Kegan S

Mr Michael says the group, also involving the Mana and Newlands bus companies, will look at whether more substantial ‘transitional’ barriers are needed at some points along the route to deter pedestrians from walking out on to the roadway.
NZ Bus Chief Operating Officer Zane Fulljames says the company supports the establishment of the working group and a review of the operations of the traffic signals on the route, how phasing may be improved and whether more advertising or communication is necessary to remind pedestrians to ensure the roadway is clear before crossing.

Mr Michael says that over the next few weeks, the council will continue to work with the bus companies to monitor the intersections that have been altered and fine-tune the traffic light phasing.
Stavros says things are generally going very well with the new bus lanes but there is a running-in period for the fixtures, points, switches and joints on the overhead trolley network.
“This means that for the next few months, until these joints get smoother with use, bus drivers are having to remember to go through various points on the new network at less than 15 km/h. If they don’t, there is the potential for the trolley poles to come off the wires and we have seen that happening at times this week as drivers adjust to the changes.”

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3 Comments

 
  1. antz says:

    about time they replace some of those wires and poles, the last time i was in wellington they were truely looking like they are falling apart

  2. Matt says:

    Where’s the cycle lane?

  3. antz says:

    the cycle lanes goes around manners mall I believe.

 

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