DOUBLE BUS LANES thru PAPANUI? No Thanks!

John Neighbourly Lead from Papanui

NO BUS-LANES!! WHY I VOTED AGAINST Bus&Bike Lanes thru Papanui as your elected Papanui Representative on the Papanui-Innes Community Board! My personal opinion is...

1) The radical changes to Papanui Village are proposed by Staff to make bus commuting faster and speedier northward; a saving of between 40 sec - 2 minutes. But these benefits do not justify the RADICAL changes to our Village and the severe impacts on locals. I feel it is an imbalance between competing ideologies about "community."

2) Our Ward is unique with a large demographc of retirement homes and mobile elderly. They will no longer be able to cross a much busier Main North Rd safely (3-5 lanes of North-South traffic depending on where you are).

3) We lose ALL northside on-street Main North Rd carparking. On the southside we retain only 4 P30s and only useable between bus-lane hours.

4) Our small business owners object. Like Riccarton, it will affect retailers' viability and jobs.

5) Always designated a "village" we are effectively cut in two; there were no negatives recorded in consultation for Mana Whenua (Nga Tahu), but I would argue as 'mana whenua Papanui' there are severe cultural impacts on our cultural rights of settlement here since 1850, which are not factored above the higher "needs" of City bus commuters heading north (faster bus travel times).

6) Papanui Village is severed and becomes a rapid transit commuter corridor v pedestrians.

7) There are 5 banks and a NZPost/kiwibank and lots of small shops, Aged Care, bars, takeaways, that draw quick in/out visits. Removing on-street car parks severely impacts this P5 local need.

8) Your Community Board proposed a P5 carpark on Harewood Rd corner, but due to frequency of use Staff felt a P60 designatuon was better for safety (less in/out car use) or none at all. However, if it's unsafe to have a P5 or P60 carpark there, due to the added buses and bikes, why aren't those safety concerns carried over to the rest of Papanui Village as a whole, which is a pedsestain community shopping area?

9) The Plan is saying - "it's unsafe to be road side anywhere in Papanui due to added cycles and buses speeding down a dedicated bus/bike land."

10) Merivale Village and Mall on the same corridor with the same buses and cycles has not had its on-street carparking removed, so there is an issue of village equity here.

One other colleague and I voted against the Plan as a whole but it was carried 4/2. See post below (with maps).