At 9pm yesterday, the Dunedin City Council closed George St between Hanover and St Andrew Sts to northbound traffic.
It will reopen at 8am on Monday.
Public event Glow will run from tomorrow to Sunday for which performers and installations will fill the street during the day while lights from artist Angus Muir will be lit from 5pm and 9pm daily.
The closure will affect bus services 3, 5, 8 and 10.
They will be diverted in both directions, travelling up and down Great King St and turning back on to George St at the intersection with Frederick, London and Pitt Sts.
It is the first in a series of trials and activities which will allow the public and the council to experience what the block might be like under the preliminary concept plans for George St.
Council principal urban designer Kathryn Ward said closing the street last night allowed time to set up for the event.
Related Stories
Comments
So it starts....... dcc forcing street closures. The best way to get people to buy something is to let people try it, rather like a used car salesman telling a prospective customer to take a car out for a ride.
Any attempt by council to say visitors attending a place during a festival will show what will happen when they permanently remove all parking will be nothing less than a con and a lie.
This has already be proven during their attempts to close the lower Octagon and lower Stuart st. Yes, markets, and "festivals" bring people. Removing all parking to make a cycling mecca does the opposite.
Just as an aside, are DCC planning sped restrictions on cyclists? Or is Dunedin going to have similar problems as they have at Southbank in Melbourne. There, pedestrians are regularly knocked over by speeding lycra clad tossers who think all bike rides are a race.
Sounds interesting. Be good to have people walking around the shops and streets as they do around shopping malls- with no fear of being bowled over by vehicles and fumes.
I think they should just ban Lycra. Much easier to police than a cyclist speed limit, because it's highly visible, and more harmful than a speeding push bike. Benefits the greater population too as it's spared views they can't unsee later. Not surprisingly such a suggestion won't come from Keith though as he wouldn't know what to wear on his carbon fibre chariot ramblings...