Colourful art, strategically placed safety features, plants, seating and tables were all deployed to slow traffic and create a community heart directly outside the shops and Russell School.
At the same time as the work in Fantame Street was done, safety improvements were installed at the Castor Crescent and Fantame Street intersections with Warspite Avenue to make people safer crossing those side streets, and calm traffic as it enters the area of Fantame Street.
Completed in September 2021, the project used the ‘tactical urbanism’ process, a first for Porirua. It was a collaboration between the ‘Engineroom’, a committed group of community volunteers, and the Council.
As soon as the new layout was installed for trying out, it was proving effective; 85 per cent of the cars passing the shops and Russell School started travelling well under the survivable speed of 30kph. Following monitoring and community feedback, the layout has been adapted by shifting some of its moveable materials – see below.
The project was implemented by Council and largely funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s (Waka Kotahi) Innovating Streets fund with supporting funding from Kāinga Ora (Porirua Development) and the Council.
The project was born out of long-standing community concerns about speeding vehicles, crashes and near misses, and the strong neighbourhood spirit around Russell School and the heart of Fantame Street.
Other streets in eastern Porirua experience many of the same issues, some worse than Fantame was. But Fantame Street was the right place for Porirua’s first go at using the new tactical urbanism process, due to having lower traffic volumes, a small neighbourhood centre with few intersections, and a strong neighbourhood culture anchored by Russell School and Pukerau Kōhanga.
Council’s new Road Safety Strategy prioritises several other streets in eastern Porirua for safety improvement works through Council’s regular transport programme.
In February and March 2021 the Engine Room group of community members worked intensively with Council in a five-week process to co-design the improvements to be made on the street for people to try out.
You can read more about the co-design process and experiences in the co-design report Summary of Community Co-design Workshops
In February and March 2021 the Engineroom group of community members worked intensively with Council in a five-week process to co-design the improvements to be made on the street for people to try out.
During this intensive period additional workshops were held with young people, primary school children, parents, and the wider community to hear their views on designs for the street.
You can check out photos of our progress, workshops, Russell School tamariki involvement and the street party here, and can read the detailed project updates below.
During May 2021 adjustable features, colourful street art, plants and seating were installed for the community to try out and give feedback on, and for the Council to monitor. These features were installed on Fantame Street and the intersections with Fawn and Falcon streets, plus the Castor Crescent and Fantame Street intersections with Warspite Avenue.
In late May a large street party was held to introduce people to the new look Fantame Street and to kick-off the feedback period.
In June and July 2021 feedback was sought on the initial layout and lots of community comments were received and gathered through surveys, feedback postcards, walk-throughs for community members and from Russell School kids. Monitoring of the street also took place during this time. The initial results showed that despite comparing winter with summer and other challenges, the new configuration is having a good effect on people’s behaviour and is calming traffic in Fantame Street.
You can view our monitoring and evaluation report here The monitoring and evaluation results of Porirua City’s People Changing Streets.
Part of the kaupapa for a tactical urbanism project like this is to move things around on the street if monitoring and community feedback show that’s needed.
During the feedback period people said they weren’t happy with the initial changes to the vehicle parking in front of the Fantame Street shops. Reducing the number of parks and changing the layout from angle to parallel parking has significantly reduced the danger to people from reversing cars on the busy street, and made room for places for people to sit, meet and relax.
However, parking is important for many people wanting to shop and take loads of washing into the laundromat. So in the spirit of tactical urbanism, Council and the co-design Engineroom decided to add additional car parking and a dedicated footpath on Fawn Street, directly around the corner from the shops. That way, the design keeps spaces for people to gather as well as providing more parking.
Other changes, such as moving some of the planter boxes around and some minor layout changes at the Castor Crescent and Fantame Street intersections with Warspite Avenue, were also made in response to feedback and monitoring.
Council is always looking at how better to engage with communities, and streets are an important focus for community involvement. Waka Kotahi’s new Innovating Streets for People programme offered significant funding and support for councils around the country to try out tactical urbanism for street improvement, and the Fantame Street Neighbourhood project seized this opportunity. See the Innovating Streets for People website for more information and case studies from the programme.
Fantame Street’s improved layout is expected to be in place for several years. This will provide the community with a long-term opportunity to consider whether the street layout is serving the neighbourhood well. Porirua Development and Porirua City Council will use this intel to decide if the improvements to the streets should be made permanent, as part of the wider redevelopment of eastern Porirua.
Porirua’s first experience of using tactical urbanism has generated lots of insights for Council and the community partners. Council, Porirua Development, and Wesley Community Action all see value in investing in collaborative innovation in Porirua.
"As a community organization, we are really interested in supporting the use of more participatory processes, where the local community are able to give all they have to offer. They take a bit of practice, but as we all grow skills in doing better community decision making, we will get much better decisions that are driven by and really fit the local community.” - Wesley Community Action
There is a combination of changes – some designed specifically to address safety concerns and others to make the street a nicer environment. Safety measures include narrowing the lane widths, tightening the intersections of Fantame Street with Fawn and Falcon streets, removing angle parking and replacing with safer parallel parks, and installing a dedicated disability park. The things designed to make this a nicer environment where people want to spend some time include creating places to sit and eat, putting art and colour in the street that show off the neighbourhood identity, adding plants and trees, and adding astroturf to make hard concrete areas more welcoming.
Fantame Street’s improved layout is expected to be in place for several years. This will provide the community with a long-term opportunity to consider whether the street layout is serving the neighbourhood well. Porirua Development and Porirua City Council will use this intel to decide if the improvements to the streets should be made permanent, as part of the wider redevelopment of eastern Porirua.
The Council worked with a group of local community members who co-designed the changes with us. The community co-design group, known as the ‘Engine Room’, consisted of 15 locals from Fantame Street and the wider Cannons Creek area, and came up with the design of the improvements over five workshop sessions. We also held wider community workshops that anyone could attend, two sessions with Russell School and one session with a local youth group – all of the feedback fed into the final design.
Angle parking is dangerous in streets where there are lots of people around, due to it encouraging people in cars to pull in fast and back out fast with less visibility of what’s behind. Parallel parking is considerably safer, and safety was the co-design group’s principal reason for changing the arrangement.
Parking is something we spent a lot of time discussing with the community co-design team and others in the neighbourhood. Locals told us that small crashes would happen when people reversed out of these parks into cars parked on the other side of the road.
We trialled reducing the number of parks outside the shops and changing the layout from angle to parallel parking. This significantly reduced the danger to people from reversing cars on the busy street, and made room for places for people to sit, meet and relax.
However, feedback was that lots of people weren’t happy with fewer carparks right by the shops, especially those wanting to take loads of washing into the laundromat. So, in the spirit of tactical urbanism, we decided to change the layout: we have added additional car parking and a dedicated footpath on Fawn Street, directly around the corner from the shops. That way, the design keeps spaces for people to gather as well as providing more parking.
One of the best ways to slow traffic is narrowing how wide the traffic lane feels when you’re driving, and sharpening turning angles for cars. The community co-design group have applied international good practice in using the “build-outs” of bollards, wheel stops and planters, to narrow the feel of the street for people driving.
The lanes of Fantame Street and the side streets are all legal width, and two cars can pass safely, but the lanes look and feel much narrower now. This encourages those driving to naturally slow down, focus on what's around them and pass carefully. It also reduces the distance of live traffic lane for people crossing the road – especially important for people with children, with disabilities, or carrying shopping or laundry. All of this helps make Fantame Street safer.
These involved safety improvements designed to slow traffic down and make it much safer for people walking to cross the intersection. We narrowed the intersections to sharpen the turning angles and provided a raised platform – both of which slow traffic down and make people safer when crossing over.
The project was implemented by Porirua City Council and largely funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s (Waka Kotahi) Innovating Streets fund.
The results are in; monitoring, surveying, research and community feedback from the two-month trial of Fantame Street’s new configuration, show that the changes are working.
There’s a big win: 85 per cent of people driving by the shops and Russell School are now going well under the survivable speed of 30kph – a direct result of the traffic-calming improvements in the heart of Fantame Street. This was the first of the five design goals adopted by the community co-design ‘Engineroom’ team. The installations in Fantame are achieving improvements against four of the five goals:
We haven’t seen the reduction in non-stop through-traffic we had expected, probably due to a large rise in construction vehicles in the area. An additional goal was to make Fantame Street safer and easier for kids to walk, scoot, and bike on, and the slower traffic and shorter crossing distances have made a big difference. These wins have been achieved by the Engineroom’s choices of good-practice techniques that significantly reduce road risk and make the street a nicer place to be.
Overall, even with winter weather and a short window for feedback on the interim installations, it’s clear that the Fantame improvements are achieving the project goals. Therefore, the main elements of the improvements will stay as is, with some minor adjustments for workability.
There will be one significant adjustment, responding to widespread concern at fewer carparks within two seconds’ walk of the shops: we will create additional formal car parks. These will be 90-degree angle parks on much quieter Fawn Street, replacing the under-used space directly adjacent to the big mural. This change has been endorsed by the Engineroom and discussed with the Fantame Street shop owners.
Changes to the parking and the other minor layout changes will happen during August 2021
It’s been a few weeks since the street party to celebrate the kick-off of public consultation and trying out an improved Fantame Street.
We hope you’re all getting a first-hand sense of how Fantame is starting to work: when you’re walking, biking, scooting, or driving through, and when waiting, sitting, eating, or having a chat.
The coming few weeks are about getting as much insight as possible on whether the interim street changes are achieving the five design goals agreed by the community co-design group (the Engineroom).
The design goals are:
Insight from your feedback and from formal monitoring will let us see what adjustments we could make to the layout so it works better
We’re also currently in the process of putting in safety improvements at the Castor Crescent and Fantame Street intersections with Warspite Ave. This is to slow the speeds of traffic entering Castor Crescent/Fantame Street from Warspite Ave and make crossing safer for people who are walking.
The Fantame Street changes have been designed jointly by Council and the community co-design group (the Engineroom) to respond to community desires to slow traffic down, make the streets safer and nicer for all, and express the culture and identity of the neighbourhood.
We want to know what you think!
There are several ways you can tell us what you think:
Please note: the feedback period closes on Friday 9 July.
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be measuring the:
This monitoring information will let us compare our ‘before’ measurements to see if the street changes are encouraging people to drive more safely, and to use the street more freely when walking, biking, scooting, or just spending time.
After feedback closes and monitoring is completed, we will analyse the information and look at whether or not changes to the layout need to be made, and what they are. We’ll test our reasoning with the Engineroom. Any adjustments to the layout will be made during August.
The resulting refined layout will be in place for several years, until Porirua Development's comprehensive redevelopment of the area. This will give everyone the opportunity to try out the better Fantame longer-term, and see whether or not the refined layout is slowing traffic and making Fantame safer and nicer for people.
Kāinga Ora and Council will use the insights from that period to decide how much of the improvements to the street should be done through the bigger redevelopment.
The Fantame Street Party on Friday 28 May kicked off consultation on the new street layout. The party was well attended by tamariki, whanau and locals with lots of fun activities despite the gloomy weather. Thanks to Cr Seiuli for opening proceedings on behalf of the Mayor, and to our party MCs Paula and Dennis from Fantame Street. Thanks also to the many community people that took part in the occasion and the awesome singing from Russell School tamariki.
As well as enjoying the entertainment and kai we got lots of comments on things people were concerned about like parking and unsafe driving, and also things that they liked – the artwork and creating a village feel.
Now is the opportunity for everyone to have their say – there are feedback forms in the laundromat, and there’ll be a formal survey in a couple of weeks once people have had a chance to try out the new layout.
Because this is an Innovating Streets project, we get to review the feedback, monitor what’s happening in the street and then see what adjustments can be made to the layout if needed.
We are also putting in some safety improvements at the intersections where Castor Cres and Fantame St meet Warspite Ave.
Fantame Street and Castor Cres area locals are invited to the Fantame St party on Friday 28 May from 2.30-6pm. (If the weather doesn’t play ball the rain-off date is Friday 11 June).
Come and celebrate the new-look street and tell Council and the community co-design team what you think of the improvements.
There’ll be performances, a time capsule, free kai and activities for tamariki (face painting, dancing and chalk art).
This is a family friendly event so leave your dogs and alcohol at home.!
Construction work for improving Fantame Street and the Warspite Avenue intersections starts on Sunday 9 May.
Where work is taking place
Fantame Street between Falcon Street and Fawn Street, including the Warspite Avenue intersections.
Please note surrounding streets may experience some changes to traffic, and/or have some machinery or work vehicles parked on them.
When work is happening
Fantame Street: Sunday 9 May 2021 to Friday 28 May 2021.
Warspite Avenue Intersections: Friday 28 May to Wednesday 30 June.
Work will be carried out during the day between 7am and 6pm with occasional night works between 7pm and 6am
We’re excited to be able to share some artist’s impressions of the co-designed improvements to be tried out on Fantame Street, and the safety improvements at the three intersections on Warspite Ave (with Castor Cres and Fantame Street).
Download the image here
This is the ‘roughly right’ design for Fantame Street produced through community co-design. It’s all about making the street more about people and less about cars.
It’s ‘roughly right’ because after we install all the features with adjustable materials, it’s time to come down to the street and experience the changes. You can see and feel how it’s working and tell us what you think from your own experience instead of having to look at pictures. Then we can adjust things that aren’t quite right, before anything is finalised.
The community co-design group have generated and tested the fledgling designs with the wider community through three public workshops and special sessions with tamariki and whānau of Russell School and Pukerau Kōhanga. Many good local ideas have been incorporated into the design.
Download the image here
The basic safety changes where Castor Crescent and Fantame Street intersect with Warspite Ave will slow traffic down a bit as it approaches the ‘heart’ of Fantame Street, and also make these intersections themselves safer.
Ordering materials for the street changes
Lots of work has been going on behind the scenes to get prices for all the items and order all the items needed before we can start installing the new features on Fantame Street during May.
Budding Russell School artists
Tamariki from Russell School are helping to turn boring concrete wheel-stops into works of art. They will look great on the street as well as help delineate street space for people.
What’s next?
May/early June: Initial changes will be made in Fantame Street, including art and colour if weather permits, and the basic safety improvements will be made to the intersections. There’ll be a block party to celebrate the new look Fantame, and kick off the period of trying it out. Everyone should come down – for the party and during the following weeks – to experience how the improvements are working and tell us how you’re finding it.
June/July: We’ll move the new objects around in response to the community’s feedback about the new layout and we will also monitor the area to see what is working best. Once it’s improved, the final design will be confirmed.
The ‘roughly right’ design for improvements to Fantame Street is nearly finished. Our core community codesign group, made up of Cannons Creek locals, has spent about 20 hours of hard work with us generating the design that looks to make the street safer and nicer for all.
The design incorporates safety features to slow traffic down and in doing so makes it safer for people to cross the road, safer for tamariki to scoot and bike, and easier for those with mobility issues to get around. It also features areas that will be pleasant for people to sit and relax, with plants and trees, and has areas of art and colour to liven up the street and show off the neighbourhood’s identity.
We’ve discussed the project’s goals and the fledgling designs at three public community workshops and special sessions with tamariki and whānau of Russell School and Pukerau Kōhanga and incorporated lots of ideas into the design.
Next steps
We’re now in the process of reviewing the design to ensure it meets safety requirements, before it can be shared publicly and then translated into buildable directions for contractors.
We hope to be able to share this ‘roughly right’ design with you in the next few weeks.
Once finalised, we can start ordering the materials and get the codesigned improvements ‘live’ into the street in May.
That’s when everyone should come down to Fantame Street, see and feel how the improvements are working, and say how you’re finding it.
At the same time there’ll be some basic safety improvements going in at the Castor Crescent and Fantame Street intersections with Warspite Ave, to calm traffic a little as it approaches the ‘heart’ of Fantame Street.
During May and June, we’ll be moving the new objects around in the central section of Fantame Street in response to how people are finding the new layout. Once it’s working better, the final design will be confirmed.
We’ve had an intense month of community kōrero in workshops, and hard mahi with our core community codesign group, coming up with a ‘roughly right’ design for improving Fantame Street in the way locals want.
Last week we had an awesome morning with Russell School children and a great afternoon session with whānau and friends of Russell School and Pukerau Kōhanga.
It was really good to get a really rich picture of what local people like about Fantame Street, what they’d like to see improved, and people’s ideas for making the street safer and nicer. Some of the concerns raised by tamariki included speeding cars and how that was dangerous for people (and for pets), and that there was nowhere to sit after school when you’re waiting (or when you get tired!).
They wanted more places to feel safe from traffic, as they like walking and scooting to school. They really liked the idea of more art on the street showing off local culture and Russell School’s HEART values, plus more plants, more places to sit, and more space for play and chalking.
Adults from the school and kōhanga communities were united in their desire for a safer street for tamariki. While there were lots of views about how to get people parking and driving a bit better during busy times, there was an overwhelming preference for trying out a “community stopping zone” outside the front of the school. The school community is starting to think about how to provide a people element (e.g. a kaitiaki keeping things flowing) to complement the physical street change (art) in the zone.
Also, this week we passed an important milestone: our last codesign workshop with the core group. They reviewed their ‘roughly right’ layout for the street in light of the latest information from community workshops and school/kōhanga sessions and confirmed it as a good first step in improving safety and making more space for people. They also gave directions around how they want to “furnish” the street to make it inviting, with things like planters, seating, a bike rack, and picnic tables.
Next steps
We will have a reflection and wrap-up with our core codesign group to honour the dozens of hours they’ve given to this process. Our designers are going to finalise the ‘roughly right’ design based on the feedback we’ve had this week and the steer from our codesign group. Watch this space, and we’ll post up the final ‘roughly right’ design for Fantame Street’s improvements.
Next comes ordering all the materials and then we can finally get the codesigned improvements into the street in May. That’s when everyone should come down to Fantame Street, see and feel how the improvements are working, and say how you’re finding it. We’ll move things around to make it work better, and the final design will be confirmed soon after that.
At the same time there’ll be some basic safety improvements going in at the Castor Crescent and Fantame Street intersections with Warspite Ave, to calm traffic a little as it approaches the “heart” of Fantame Street.
We’ve now held three workshops with our core codesign group (the ‘engine-room’) and have had two community workshops (with tamariki and rangatahi through Wesley Waitangirua, and a public workshop on 15th February).
Across all these workshops are consistent themes: locals want Fantame Street to:
Over the past three weeks the codesign mahi has achieved its first step: identifying a safer overall layout for most of the street. The last piece of street to get a trial layout chosen is the stretch by Russell School gate. This will be done this coming week with the school and kōhanga communities.
The remaining step for the codesign phase is to decide what objects and colour to use to “furnish” the safer street. Trees and planting, road and footpath artwork, places to sit and eat – things to help bring the street to life for people.
We need your help in deciding what activities the street environment should encourage in different places: waiting for their moko, eating, meeting people, waiting for laundry, and so on. And we need your help to know how to make Fantame Street nice to do these things.
Community workshops
We’ve got more workshops coming up – come along and get into the designs:
Warspite and Fantame
RSVP on Creeksiders’ Facebook page, or just come with your friends – to one or both.
As well as more community workshops we have two dedicated sessions with tamariki and whānau of Russell School and Pukerau Kōhanga to get their input. The engine-room codesign group will absorb all this input as we move towards a full ‘roughly right’ design.
By the end of next week, the community codesign will have completed the ‘roughly right’ concept for a safer, nicer Fantame Street, to try out in real life in a couple of months’ time. Stay tuned!
Joint workshops with our core codesign group have started and we’re also starting to roll out community workshops and sessions with Russell School tamariki and whanau – we’ll keep you posted on this web page.
Creeksiders and Wesley Community Action are helping lead the process and encouraging the community to get involved in making Fantame Street better.
The focus so far is on developing ‘roughly right’ physical changes to the street that reflect what this community wants. Over the next couple of weeks’, you may see a survey-taker around the shops in Fantame Street observing how the street is being used now – stop and say hi!
It’s important to get a wide representation of design ideas from the community so come along to a community workshop:
RSVP on Creeksiders’ Facebook page, or just come with your friends – to one or all.
If you can’t come along to a workshop you can find out more:
A fusion of art, colour, plants, seats, picnic tables and road safety features appearing this month heralds the community-led transformation of Fantame Street in eastern Porirua.
The street improvements being tried out this winter are bringing to life ideas the community co-design group and Council have been working on together, to make Fantame’s streetscape safer and nicer for the community.
Front and centre will be some brightly painted wheel stops courtesy of Russell School students who are keen to see their neighbourhood look more colourful. Ideas from these tamariki and their whānau helped create the street design which will start taking shape as a new layout is installed during May.
The project was born out of long-standing community concerns about speeding cars, crashes and near misses, and the strong neighbourhood spirit around the heart of Fantame Street.
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker says last year Council tapped into the Innovating Streets funding available from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport for this project, called People Changing Streets – Fantame Neighbourhood.
“Council then worked with a group of Creek locals to co-design the changes so they would reflect what the community actually wants and needs,” says Mayor Baker.
“This co-design team has become known as the ‘Engineroom’ because of the huge amount of mahi they’ve put in over the past few months because they believe in community making good change in their neighbourhoods.
“The Engineroom has put in many hours debating street layout ideas, checking them with the community, helping facilitate community workshops and generally sharing their knowledge and passion for their neighbourhood.”
“Everyone wanted the streets to be safer – that was the easy part. What the team had to nut out was exactly how to change Fantame Street’s layout to be safer, in ways that also make the street look and feel like the special neighbourhood place it is. The Engineroom’s proposed design has started Fantame’s journey in the roughly right direction, and once the new features are in place it’s time for the community to try it out and see how it feels.”
Jacqui Edwards, a member of the Engineroom says it was a bit of a balancing act to get a ’roughly right’ mix that all the group members could stand behind.
“We had strong project goals that we all bought into, a finite budget to work with, and we debated long and hard to get to the roughly right design. The beauty of the People Changing Streets project is that once the initial improvements are in place, everybody can actually experience them, in the real street. Locals can give feedback from real personal experience, not pictures on paper, and the project can adjust the layout before anything’s made permanent.”
Installation of the improvements in Fantame Street begins on Sunday 9 May, work will be carried out during the day between 7am and 6pm with occasional night work. The work in Fantame Street is planned for completion by the end of May. Council will also be installing some basic safety improvements to slow traffic at the intersections where Castor Crescent and Fantame Street meet Warspite Ave during June.
“Once the improvements are in place in Fantame Street there’ll be a neighbourhood block party to celebrate the new look and to kick off the period of trying it out. Everyone should come down – for the party and during the following weeks – to experience how the improvements are working and tell us how you’re finding it,” says Jacqui.
Mayor Baker says it’s about community and Council together finding the optimal layout for Fantame.
“We will be looking to the community for initial feedback in June and July and considering that alongside our monitoring to see what will work best in reality.
“After that we will remain in contact with the Engineroom to ensure that ongoing feedback is received to make sure the layout works well.”
The Council’s People Changing Streets project is one of many collaborative street-improvement projects rolling out across the country, fuelled by 90 per cent funding from Waka Kotahi-NZ Transport Agency’s Innovating Streets For People programme.
Further information is available from poriruacity.govt.nz/fantame-street, by emailing PeopleChangingStreets@PoriruaCIty.govt.nz or at the Kāinga Ora Porirua Development Community Info Hub (26 Warspite Ave).
This project involved a massive effort from all sorts of people to make things happen. Special thanks go to the Engineroom (our community co-design group of 14 passionate locals), plus Wesley Community Action, Russell School, Pukerau Kōhanga, and artists Nina Nimarota and Liana Leiataua.
Our Engineroom members were:
