Subscribe to RSSAucklanders Seize Queen St!
After all the debate about whether Queen St should be pedestrianised, hundreds of Aucklanders celebrating the opening of the Rugby World Cup in their town simply took the bulls by the horns Friday night and making it happen without any sign of authorities.
They took over CBD streets including Queen St between Commerce St Downtown and Victoria St Midtown and literally gave the finges to vehicles trying to travel the golden mile.
The same happened in other parts of Downtown.
In a totally shortsighted move, authorities closed off only Quay St instead of other parts of the CBD as thousands overwhelmed footpaths and moved on to the street, boldly ignoring buses, and cars.
It’s an appallingly shortsighted move by authorities who should have closed off more than just Quay St, by the waterfront.
Knowing 10,000 people would be partying, they should have closed off more streets as footpaths simply did not cope and people were in a boisterous spirit especially every time a Tongan or All Black group appeared.
Cars amidst the masses were dangerous.
Sadly, in Fanshawe St, there was an accident involving a bus, car and pedestrian.
Considering the total disregard for vehicles most pedestrians in Queen St had taking over the streets, it is remarkable others were not injured.
But the revolt by pedestrian spread to even other parts of the CBD where people just walked on the roasd disregarding the traffic - especially around areas close to the waterfront but areas not closed off.
What it showed was a picture of liberation, as happened over a year ago when people marched onto the Auckland Harbour bridge and walked it to the North Shore making the point that pedestrians and cyclists should share a space.
BRIDGE PROTEST; The day the people spoke
And quite frankly Queen St looked fun and manageable with pedestrians, cyclists and even the Red LINK bus sharing the space.
Claiming Queen St for pedestrians, a stand AKT has uncompromisingly made, was proven tonight as the way it should work especially when you add in street entertainers, be it in this instance, your standard Friday night Hare Krishnas!
And even bus shelters come in handy!
SEE
What we believe went wrong last night - 3 Fails
Urgent review after train disaster - people miss game
Government slams Auckland’s transport fail
World media miss Auckland’s transport fail
It was a crazy night in the CBD -Photos
4 Comments
The bus drivers from the bits I saw seemed to be ok, but there were still some absolute grade A retards in cars trying to drive at full speed down there.
Yes madness to keep the street open. People wanted to have a good time and need a palce to have it. Bad lack of foresight. I guess it comes from having a car dominated city. Things need to change.
How it should be! Big events are for people, not cars.
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