Why solve problems when you can avoid them?

In Tokyo they have discovered a simple solution to their parking problem. They do not provide any. Anyone living in Tokyo could never understand why we would use one of the most beautiful waterfront promenades in the world as a parking lot.

Removing parking from the entire length Tamaki Drive would save all the space needed for the opening of car doors. Narrower and safer carriageways, along with the elimination of the major hazard for cyclists, would then allow ample space for a tram to run along the Drive. This is being advocated by Bob Harvey who will be the keynote speaker at the Annual General Meeting of the Tamaki Drive Protection Society to be held in the Akarana Yacht Club at 7.30pm on 3 November 2011.

The AGM will also consider why the Wynyard Quarter should be an earthquake red zone. The fate of similar reclaimed swamps in Christchurch shows how liquefaction results in a complete loss of infrastructure. The cost of rebuilding roads, sewers, and water supply lines would all be carried by the ratepayers rather than those who made a handsome profit out of the buildings, but left long ago.

With no formal process in the new city structure for citizens to comment on major initiatives being made by the new Council Controlled Organisations the TDPS AGM will ask how and why decisions are being made, particularly on the waterfront.

Tokyo suggests that we are obsessed with parking cars. The Tamaki Drive Protection Society has for a long time advocated a promenade rather than a parking lot. The bonus is that changing attitudes is also the least expensive alternative.

Tony Watkins

First published in the East and Bays Courier 21 October 2011