Auckland - Te Ara Mua, Future Streets

Māngere is a large suburb located near Auckland Airport. The area is multicultural with large Pasifika, Asian, Māori, and European communities living in the suburb.

Like most Auckland suburbs, Māngere has historically seen more road capacity developed to meet the demands of increasing motor vehicle traffic and active travel infrastructure has been of relatively lower priority. The suburb is dissected by two motorways (SH20 and SH20A) as well as several busy arterial roads.

Completed in 2017, ‘Te Ara Mua – Future Streets(external link)’ was a flagship project in Central Māngere (see project area map below) that involved changing the features of Māngere streets in order to:

• Increase opportunities for walking, cycling and other forms of physical activity.
• Improve road user behaviour and safety.
• Quantify the economic, health and social benefits of safe roads and streets.

A key feature of the design process was community participation to understand local concerns and aspirations. The Local Board and a community reference group had a leadership role in the community engagement process and many meetings, conversations and events with various groups were held. A stall set up in the local shopping mall, with maps and opportunities for people to plot their normal trips and the issues experienced on them, was particularly successful. All together 43 formal community engagement sessions were carried out, in addition to numerous informal meetings of various kinds. A rich explanation of how travelling around Māngere was experienced by local people was achieved. The specific locations of problem areas were identified, as were key issues that had high levels of agreement.

These were:

• Personal safety – especially on off-road pathways with poor lighting, youth drinking and crime.
• Speeding traffic.
• Lack of crossings - especially on busier arterial roads.
• Roads are dangerous for cycling.
• Confusion about road user priorities, especially around the shopping mall.
• Dogs in the area posing a threat to pedestrians and cyclists.

All of the issues and opportunities were then combined with other city-wide aspirations (such as healthy communities, safer streets and a better cycle network) and background theory (self-explaining roads), to create design objectives for the street interventions.

A design committee, including representatives from the research team, Auckland Transport and other consultants, debated and developed the design concepts, in conjunction with the community reference group over a total of seven participatory planning sessions (three with the community reference group and four with the design committee). In between these meetings, design work was carried out by sub-groups taking direction from the design committee.

The introduction of high-quality cycling infrastructure was one aspect of the design approach that was not overtly raised by the community through the engagement process, although concerns about cycling safety on the road were raised. Improving cycling facilities was introduced by the design team, in response to emerging leading practices, a national desire to see better quality cycling routes, the development in cycling infrastructure in other parts of the city and a generally future-focussed approach. There were also some local champions for better cycling infrastructure.

The works included:

• A fitness loop including a shared path that runs from Waddon Place in the Māngere Town Centre to Windrush Close and then through parks and local roads to Mascot Avenue, then back to the town centre along Mascot Avenue. The loop includes directional, information signage, and design elements produced via engagement with mana whenua(external link).
• Improved pedestrian facilities including defined walking areas, speed tables at crossing points to calm traffic and reduce speeds across Māngere Central.
• Signs identifying local features including volcanic cones on one pedestrian crossing in the carpark leading to the town centre.
• Raised pedestrian crossings to calm traffic and reduce speeds particularly near Nga Iwi School and the town centre.
• Speed tables, chicanes and kerb extensions in Friesian Drive and Imrie Road to calm traffic and reduce speeds to make it safer and easier for pedestrians to cross.
• Coloured slightly raised intersections on Fresian Drive to slow traffic and break up forward sight lines.
• A new signalised pedestrian crossing in Massey Road, plus two enhanced pedestrian crossing points to make it easier for people to cross Massey Road.
• Improvements to the bus terminal in Bader Drive adjacent to the town centre.
• Separated cycle lanes in Bader Drive, Friesan Drive, Thomas Road and Orly Avenue.
• Improved street lighting.
• Two pou carved by local iwi adjacent to the town centre in Mascot Avenue and Orly Avenue.

Reference: Te Ara Mua - Future Streets suburban street retrofit(external link)

Project owner: Auckland Transport