Placemaking in action with ‘Innovating Streets’

The old expression ‘May you live in interesting times’ is an apt way to describe 2021 and the transformation we’re seeing in transport planning and engineering.

Where previously the focus may have been on how many vehicles could pass through a street and how quickly, our understanding of the role of streets has evolved. This includes thinking about how people use our streets, environmental outcomes from carbon emissions, encouraging healthy active mode choices, accessibility for all ages and abilities, and the role of street design and speeds in creating a safe transport system.

The conversation around planning the urban form is now focused on concepts like placemaking and the 20-Minute City, which turn streets and communities into places you go ‘to’ not ‘through’.

For transport engineers, this means a new approach to designing the urban form and considering everyone who uses our streets. The new approach to road space allocation now prioritises:

1. Pedestrians
2. Public transport
3. Walking
4. Cycling
5. Speed Control
6. Emergency vehicle and service vehicle access
7. Vehicle access
8. Parking

In 2020/2021, Waka Kotahi invested $29 million in funding for its Innovating Streets for People programme. Their aim was to trial new road design approaches that deliver positive people-centred changes to streets in low-speed environments.

Rapidly transforming our urban environments with initiatives like these is needed to create safe, healthy, liveable communities, and to meet the country's carbon reduction goals.

Hitting the mark through collaboration

WSP was involved in delivering three Innovating Streets projects - two in Tasman District Council and one in Marlborough. We helped trial temporary solutions to street design and layout to improve safety, reduce emissions and encourage walking and cycling.

For our engineers, these projects meant being open to new ideas and in some cases exploring a whole new avenue that led to the creation of traffic regulation around road art.

Working with the community to build in the wider context of creating a safe system for all road users, reducing carbon emissions and getting people’s input in the process is crucial in creating better outcomes. The trick was to test out solutions, get the community to have skin in the game, and to understand that no matter what you do some sectors of the community will not be happy.

What we discovered with our Innovating Streets work is that the community didn’t engage or react until the rubber hit the road (literally) and changes happened. Our post-installation meeting with the Tasman community, for instance, was well-attended with triple the number of previous meetings.

While more work is needed upfront to get people engaged in the design process - rather than have them react after installation - it’s clear that communities do care about their streets and neighbourhoods. They want to get involved.

Setting out ‘The Why’

The key to getting this kind of change over the line with the public is to have them understand ‘Why’ they should get on board. It’s not an easy task - especially in New Zealand where many transport decisions are governed by elected local government councillors who only keep their jobs if they retain public support.

Many of the Innovating Streets projects faced significant community backlash, or ‘Bikelash’. Communities felt changes to their streetscapes were ugly or a waste of money. Some people didn’t understand why we were making changes and what aspects were intended to be temporary.

Public reaction against transport network changes often revolves around people’s attitudes towards the collective public realm, versus the individual private realm.

When we’re walking or cycling in the community, we’re in the public realm. We’re in the open, moving at a slow pace, can interact with others and consider everybody’s needs. We’re more connected and feel part of the community. But when we get in our cars, we often exhibit the same psychology as somebody in a private living room.

When we’re driving in private vehicles, we often react strongly against road closures, restricted access and traffic calming measures. It can feel like an invasion of freedom or privacy. But it’s important to consider that even when we’re in our cars, we’re still part of the community - not just a private person on a mission.

What comes next?

Waka Kotahi launched a new programme last year called Streets for People, which builds on the lessons learned from Innovating Streets.

The new programme focuses on continuing to build capability and working with projects that have a pathway to permanence. It’s hoped these solutions will create good case studies that can be transferred to other situations and showcase streets that live and breathe people and the public realm.

It’s an exciting time to be a transport engineer with all this happening. Over half of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from transport. The transport sector has a vital role to play in getting New Zealand’s emissions trajectory on a steep downward path.

WSP has a strong future focus, with low carbon infrastructure designs and advice now a key area of our work. We were proud to have received Waka Kotahi recognition for our Tasman and Marlborough Innovative Streets projects and look forward to being agents of change for the next stage in the transformation of New Zealand’s transport network.