Dear Wellington City Council,

In a letter dated 18 September 2012 and published on the fyi.org.nz website, Paul Barker fromt the Wellington City Council made a number of statements in relation to the Cambridge & Kent Terrace Crosswalk.

a.) "Observations show that most pedestrians cross both Cambridge Terrace and Kent Terrace in a responsible manner."
b.) [states vehicle volumes and says] "by contrast pedestrian volumes are low".
c.) "Some pedestrians choose to wait for the pedestrian signals while others choose to cross after checking for oncoming traffic without utilising the pedestrian signal."

The Official New Zealand Road Code states "If you are within 20 metres of a pedestrian crossing or traffic signals, you must use the crossing, footbridge, underpass or pedestrian traffic signals to cross the road" and "At many intersections and busy roads, there are special traffic signals for pedestrians. When a non-flashing red figure is displayed, you must not cross the road."

Please release any and all details on pedestrian observations at this crossing and within 20 meters in either direction. This should include "low" pedestrian volumes cited by Mr. Barker.

Please provide for the record the Wellington City Council's opinion on both the legality and safety of crossing a road at a crosswalk "After checking for oncoming traffic without utilising the pedestrian signal".

Yours faithfully,

Jonathan Brewer

Dear Ian Hunter,

Thank you for the limited response the Wellington City Council has provided to date. I am unfortunately disappointed in the response, and do not believe that it has been given attention by the Council, as only part of the request has been responded to.

The request I made was in two parts:

In the first part I asked for some quantitative data to back up WCC's claim of "low pedestrian numbers" at the crossing. It is evident from your response that no such evidence exists.

In the second part I asked for the council's opinion on: "both the legality and safety of crossing a road at a crosswalk "After checking for oncoming traffic without utilising the pedestrian signal"."

This question was in response to WCC's implication that this might be an acceptable behaviour. No answer was made to this question.

Can you please let me know if the council intends to answer this request?

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Brewer