A BOTTLE-NECK

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1931, Page 14

A BOTTLE-NECK

CITY'S WASP WAIST

QUAY TO SEA CONGESTION

Some discussion of a preliminary nature occurred at a recent informal meeting of the committee of the Town Planning Institute (Wellington Branch) on the bottle-neck between Stewart Dawson's corner and the sea. Stewart Dawson's corner is the old Clay Point. There was not much room between Clay Point and the salt water in the early days. Reclamation pushed tho salt water back. Both Lambton quay and Lower Willis street thus be came two-sided streets. Behind them new streets came into being. Victoria street was laid down to run parallel with Lower Willis street. Victoria street became linked (inadequately) with Willis street by narrow lanes like Willeston street and Chew's lane, and by Mercer street (the widening of which in recent times has afforded much traffic relief). ....-' On the Lambton quay side of Clay Point, the reclamation also brought into being Hunter street (which evicted Noah's Ark). Hunter street linked Lambton quay, Lower Willis street (here known as Customhouse quay), Victoria street, and the^still- newer waterfront road called Jervois quay (which sprang up seaward of Victoria street). Hunter street iiould have prevented some of the present-day trouble if the wise generation that, made it had made it much wider and had thus provided a more satisfactory junction with Jervois quay. But the people of those days were as little educated to the idea of a wide Hunter street as are the people of to-day to the idea of a second arterial road for the lower Hutt Valley. . • :' Finally, the new reclaimed waterfront settled down as Customhouse quay and Post Office Square, linked with Jervois quay; and the wharf-constructing authority decided to write "finis" to reclamation/ in this locality. - To-day, instead of having to wait for the tide to fall before rounding Clay Point from' the Willis street side to the Lambton quay side (or vice versa), you can make the journey by No. 1 route—Lambton quay and (a) Willis street, or (b) Willeston street; or by No. 2 route—Lambton quay and Hunter street; or by No.: 3 route—Customhouse quay and Jervois quay; or by mixtures of these three-routes. .The trouble has always been that too many people go byNo.: 1-route. Although reclamation has provided alternative streets, traffic difficulties are relatively worse than in Clay Point's tide-affected days. : : ' This by way of preface. .In the course of a general discussion it, was remarked that the installation of lights' at Stewart: Dawson's, Perrett's, and Taranaki street had greatly increased the degree of diversion of motor traffic ~to the outer (seaward) routes. Whether that was one of the'aims of the policy of traffic-control by lights or*bot, there was no doubt of the result. , And it was a useful result. Sooner • than wait .for the lights, vehicles went along the sea-front or traversed one-way Hunter street—which made for reduction of : congestion." The question was raised whether the diversion of traffic from the crowded central to outer routes could be secured by traffic restrictions (light-controls or any other bars) to such a degree as would sufficiently remove congestion. Members of the committee agreed that the whole question deserves further examination, from regional, en-,, gineering, and traffic points of view,,.