Te Ara Mua - Future Streets suburban street retrofit: A researcher-community-government co-design process and intervention outcomes

Te Ara Mua - Future Streets is a controlled before-after study of neighbourhood infrastructure changes that aim to make walking and cycling safer and easier and reflect cultural identity in Mangere, Auckland, New Zealand. The project intervention was delivered through an innovative and challenging partnership between the research team and funding/delivery agencies. The purpose of this paper is to explain the underlying concepts behind Future Streets and the process of delivering an area-wide community street retrofit. Project documentation were reviewed so that the key concepts, steps and activities in project delivery could be described. Variations from planned delivery, the reasons for these variations, and broader delivery successes and challenges are also briefly discussed. A substantial community engagement process informed design objectives, which in-turn informed retrofit designs. The street modifications have been implemented and a different streetscape now exists for key routes in Mangere, giving greater affordance to walking and cycling and a more attractive urban realm. The initial response to the modifications from the community are generally positive although the loss of parking in favour of protected cycle lanes is causing concern for some. A range of difficulties in delivering the intervention included unclear governance, different researcher/practitioner cultures, unrealistic timeframes, project funding uncertainties, and regulatory barriers. Nevertheless, Future Streets is positively influencing new delivery projects and transport policy, and for next steps process improvements should be employed to make demonstration projects like Future Streets easier. Closer cooperation between the science and transport sectors are needed to test and progress transport approaches which have the potential to positively influence urban form, and the health and wellbeing of residents of towns and cities.