About 90 per cent of the people who submitted feedback on a controversial plan to install a pedestrian crossing on a busy east Auckland road say it shouldn’t go ahead.
That’s among the information revealed to the large crowd which turned out to a public meeting on the issue staged at Farm Cove Intermediate School by Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown.
Auckland Transport (AT) is proposing to install a raised crossing with traffic signals on Pakuranga Road immediately west of Grammar School Road and Johns Lane.
The work includes moving the existing bus stop and shelter from east of the Johns Lane intersection to west of it, removing existing bus bays and moving bus stops into traffic lanes.
A new pedestrian refuge crossing would be installed on Grammar School Road and the nearby kerb ramps on that road and Johns Lane would be upgraded.
The $450,000 project has been met by outspoken opposition from locals and Brown, who’s labelled it “crazy”.
Several AT officials fronted up to the public meeting on August 29 to hear directly from residents and share information on the project.
Among them was Andrew Allen, the agency’s executive general manager of service delivery.
He said more than 1200 submissions were received during the public feedback period and about 90 per cent of submitters opposed it.
Allen said key themes in the feedback were the plan would worsen congestion, it’s unnecessary as there’s a crossing at a nearby intersection, the raised crossing isn’t appropriate for the busy road, and the proposal doesn’t make sense.
AT road safety engineering manager Michael Brown outlined why the pedestrian crossing is proposed.
The closest existing crossing facilities are 300 metres and 500m away from the site of the proposed crossing, Brown said.
“The evidence is clear that people don’t want to walk those distances and they will start to take the risk of trying to make those dangerous decisions to cross the road at that location.”
He said there’s a high risk to people crossing the road as there are three traffic lanes in each direction.
“Speed is the single largest factor in an accident’s outcome.
“A pedestrian hit by a car has a 95 per cent chance of death at 60kmh and an 80 per cent chance at 50kmh.”
There were 12 recorded crashes at the location between 2016 and 2020, one of which involved a pedestrian being seriously injured, he said.
The proposed location of the crossing provides “optimal distance” between intersections and for access to the nearby school and bus stop.
The AT staff present emphasised several times that no decision on the project had been made and they were there to listen to people’s concerns and feedback.
They were asked numerous questions by audience members including how the crossing would be constructed without causing traffic gridlock, if any of them used Pakuranga Road regularly, and what speed they wanted vehicles to travel across the raised crossing, among others.
The general theme of many questions and comments was the crossing would cause gridlock on a road that’s already frequently heavily congested.
Allen said analysis is nearly complete on submissions with a feedback report to be published soon.
The agency is considering the feedback provided for feasible design solutions.
