Our research found that as the town centre undergoes revitalisation, the function of the street will need to perform much more of a Civic Spaces role which will require a reallocation of the kerbside towards more pick-up/drop-off and enhancing the urban realm to make it a more comfortable place to dwell and accessible to people of all ages and abilities.
There will also be a greater need for multi-modal access to the station and to local businesses and residences, to evolve Onehunga into a place that supports the local community. Plans for Onehunga to transform its park and ride into a mobility hub will drive a need for multi-modal access, both to the station and local businesses and residences.
Both case studies demonstrate that kerbside allocation doesn’t effectively reflect demand. The private car is only one of the modes that people use to access an area, yet it dominates the kerbside. Passenger pick-up and drop-off by transit or ride share, walking and cycling are key modes for people to access these places but are not well provided for.
Changing needs
FACT: The share of automated vehicles in the vehicle fleet is expected to increase rapidly after the technology is proven and accepted to be safe by the community. Automated vehicles could potentially form the majority of the fleet over a 50-year horizon. The uptake of automated vehicles has implications for the kerbside.
Currently the management and allocation of the kerbside is suboptimal and facing increasing challenges. With an increase in population, new modes of transport and technology, we are reaching the point where dedicating large areas of public space to parked vehicles isn’t responsible.
This is particularly true in leveraging opportunities delivered by investment in transport infrastructure. We believe we should be using space more productively to support the interchange of people between new mobility modes including ride-share and shared micro-mobility, with transit at the heart.
With the onset of electric modes for first and last mile transport journeys, what provision is being given, and should be given to recharging facilities? Furthermore, is this an opportunity for local businesses, or governments, to investigate new revenue streams?
Where our cities are prioritising investment in high quality pedestrian and cycling infrastructure to support greater uptake of active transport, will this also support emerging modes? We only have to look at the tension created by the introduction of shared electric scooter services to see the challenges.
These are big picture decisions that impact on communities. The starting point for the Future Ready Kerbside is a proactive focus on what the community wants from their places and to consider how mobility best enables that vision.
