A pedestrian crossing Auckland Transport (AT) is proposing to build across one of the country’s busiest roads is set to cost almost $500,000 if it goes ahead.
Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown strongly opposes the plan to install a raised pedestrian crossing with traffic lights on Pakuranga Road immediately west of Grammar School Road and Johns Lane.
As the Times has previously reported, the project includes the relocation of two bus stops, upgrades to kerb ramps and adding tactile pavers.
AT spokesperson Natalie Polley says it’s designed to make Pakuranga Road, which is New Zealand’s sixth busiest road, safer and easier to cross.
Brown has labelled the project “crazy” and says the raised crossing will cause significant disruption to traffic flows and frustrate motorists.
“There is no doubt the Johns Lane and Grammar School Road intersections are dangerous, and I am open to ideas about what could be done to reduce the potential for accidents here, but a raised crossing will result only in a significant and unnecessary slowdown of traffic.”
Brown filed a request with AT on May 18 for the proposed cost of the project.
A response he received from AT group manager network management, Melanie Alexander, on June 16 says the crossing was identified due to the crash record and the pedestrian demand generated by the nearby land use.
“The adjacent bus stops and a college in the area are the main generators for pedestrians to cross Pakuranga Road,” Alexander says.
“A recent pedestrian survey showed 37 pedestrians crossed Pakuranga Road between 7am and 9am and 68 between 2.30pm and 4pm, [of] which the majority were school children and bus commuters.
“The combined patronage of the two nearby bus stops is approximately 200 per day.
“The estimated cost to design and construct the proposed crossing is $450,000, which also includes a new pedestrian refuge on Grammar School Road, the relocation of the existing bus stop and shelter, and improvements to the existing pram crossings on Grammar School Road and Johns Lane.”
Alexander says in the five-year period from 2016-2020 there has been two serious and five minor injuries at that location and a further seven recorded non-injury crashes.
The average social cost on urban roads in 2020 was $844,000 per serious injury and $80,000 per minor injury, she says.
“The location of the proposed crossing therefore has a social cost of $2,088,000.”
In response, Brown says $450,000 is an “extraordinary” amount of money to spend on a “speed bump on Pakuranga Road”.
“Not only is this a waste of money but it will slow everyone down trying to get in and out of east Auckland on one of the busiest roads in New Zealand.
“It will not solve any safety issues at that intersection as there is a safe crossing only 300 metres away.
“AT should drop this proposal before going ahead with wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of ratepayers’ funds on a project which will do nothing to make our roads safe.”
Public feedback on the proposal closed on June 1.
