The hits just keep coming from Auckland Transport this week with their latest announcement that as of Monday the city has a new bus lane.
Travelling in the fast lane
Auckland Transport’s (AT’s) drive to improve the speed and reliability of journey times across its frequent service network, takes another step on Monday morning with a new bus lane coming into operation in Symonds Street, shaving up to four minutes off the morning commute (20 minutes a week) of some 6000 passengers.
Symonds Street is Auckland’s second busiest bus corridor with an average of 70% of people travelling along the route choosing to use public transport.
The new bus lane will operate between Charlotte Street on New North Road to Alex Evans Street on Symonds Street between 7am and 9am.
Mark Lambert, Auckland Transport’s Public Transport Group Manager, says: “during the morning peak we have 181 buses feeding into Symonds Street from Mt Eden Road and New North Road competing for space with other road users.
“The new bus lane will vastly improve the travel times and transport options for people travelling into the city from these suburbs.”
Mr Lambert says bus lanes help manage competing interests for limited road space at peak times of the day – allowing a more efficient and effective bus service.
“In Auckland buses make up 2.5% of vehicles but carry nearly a third of commuters into the city. They are key to using our road space more efficiently, providing more capacity and getting people to where they want to go faster.”
The Symonds St bus lane is a component in a frequent service network encompassing 38 routes, mainly on arterial and collector roads. Routes in the network will receive a range of bus priority measures designed to enable high frequency bus services to operate reliably, efficiently and to timetable at peak times. The aim is to make bus transport an attractive alternative to private vehicles. This will reduce road congestion to the benefit of all road users.
And it is working. Monitoring shows that the newly installed outbound bus lane in Fanshawe Street has yielded travel time savings and improved reliability.
The 2014/15 financial year targets approximately 15km of bus/transit lane implementation across the network. Another 25 km is programmed for next two financial years.
This is great news and definitely a welcome addition. I wonder how good the economic evaluation must look for saving 6,000 people four minutes per day all for a a bit of paint. We’re often prepared to spend hundreds of millions to get those kind of savings for drivers.
I look forward to seeing more added over the course of the next few months and years.
and here are a few other images I’ve seen on Twitter
Nice. Pinch off the auto sewer while increasing people moving capacity. Bus lanes on Symonds St. pic.twitter.com/kASGejKQ3u
— Kent Lundberg (@kentslundberg) February 12, 2015
And just as it had been installed.
Wandered out to investigate this rumoured upper Symonds bus lane… low and behold… @TransportBlog pic.twitter.com/Bk3LNcSfh1
— Geogoose (@geogoose) February 12, 2015
OK, not sure how much of this is new, but: fresh green on upper new north road starts at about Charlotte st…. pic.twitter.com/jaJFGXp8EZ
— Geogoose (@geogoose) February 12, 2015
…going past exmouth st pic.twitter.com/MsPRtBQI7Q
— Geogoose (@geogoose) February 12, 2015
Processing...
About bloody time and it better not be the last lane to go in this year.
First of many AT said late last year that they’d be putting in the current (ends 30 June 2015), and next (ends 30 June 2016) financial years.
This is brilliant – will help a lot and good on AT Doing something that is actually PT first, not PT wash like down in St Lukes.
Good to get some of the easy parts done while they plan solutions for the main bottlenecks, which are for New North Rd through Kingsland and either side of the intersection with K Rd/Grafton Bridge for Symonds St.
I’d love to see someone’s suggestions for the latter, as left hand bus lanes would get tangled with the queue of cars trying to turn left onto K Rd in the morning, and in the evening the uphill bus lanes on Symonds St get wasted with the cross over of cars getting on the motorway.
Easy fix for the motorway on-ramp issue – close it. No queueing = No tailbacks.
Simple. Safe. Effective.
As for K’rd/Symonds St (city bound), make left hand lanes inc K’Rd slip lane bus only.
Cars are banned from using bus lane – so left turns into K’Rd at peak are therefore banned, if they want to access K’Rd they can use Newton Road/Upper queen or Alex Evans and Upper Queen or use other streets after K’Rd intersection.
Close it permanently and widen that footpath to provide extra room for the bus stops. You could also add another entrance to the Grafton cycleway.
Good to see problem is the product use at a high cost will only go white in a sort period of time .and when your standing on the side of the road look at it it looks uneven in texture and has a uneven surface .In the heat of the day this coloured surface will also be soft and it goes sticky .We like what AT are doing but they need to have a look at the products they are using
The marked bus lanes on Remuera Road are falling apart next Remuera Village and its been not even 3 years since they were re-marked as T3 lanes.
The colouring has got huge holes in it and is peeling away from the road surface underneath.
To last only 3 years is pretty useless for road markings.
Any idea when they are going yo paint the bus lane message on it? Noticed prople just using it as a regular lane at peak
Doesn’t matter – if the road signage is present (which those twitter shots show it is) then thats all thats legally needed to make it enforceable as one.
The signage is barely noticeable, how do you expect people to read a sign on the far upper left with a time range without serious distraction from the road, sure they may be able to give fines but whats the point if tons of people do it by mistake, its just a pointless trap that benefits nobody, drivers get the fines and buses get held up anyway. “Bus lane” needs to be painted on it for it to work properly and I am assuming we will see that soon if AT are taking this seriously.
I’m sure AT will paint the Bus lane symbols on the road, but they will only appear every few hundred metres or so, but they are not legally required to be able to enforce them.
The legal definition of a special purpose lane (which this is) in law is determined by the designation and is notified to road users by the signage, not the road markings
– exactly in the same way as parking and clearway signs – they don’t paint Clearway on the road adjacent to where a clearway is do they?
The road signs determine that.
Its up to you as a road user to know what the legal situation is with regards road designation usage times – by reading the signs.
Anyway, the twitter pics make it very clear that the lane is a Bus lane – the signs at the road intersections show “Bus Lane begins” and “Bus lane” further on. Enough for anyone to notice.
The same as other bus lanes are marked everywhere else in the city.
Hours of operation are just a clarification. If you’re driving in that direction, you should assume the Bus lane is in operation – unless the signage says otherwise.
And lastly, ignorance of the law (or signs) is no defence.
Clearway signs and bus lane signs are quite different where one you will be parking and the other travelling through at possibly 50km/h, the rules might state a sign is all that is necessary but if that stands up legally if taken to court is a different matter. Its like putting a “no overtaking” sign without any double yellow-lined road markings, sure they can make a road rule/bylaw/etc for that but as to it holding up legally, I doubt it, as it is too difficult for the average driver perceive and therefore follow.
There is a complete lack of logic in your thinking and understanding of the law.
It is not a requirement that all road rules be painted on the road.
Some signs, like No overtaking are painted only on the road (or kerbside for No Stopping) – but “No Stopping” markings are backed up with “No stopping” signs as well).
And Bus lanes signs are not “No overtaking” lines, to be painted only on roads.
Heres a real life example that you seem to have overlooked:
Speed limits – there are indicated by road **side** signs, which are always mandatory (outlined/bordered in red – thats what the red border on a road sign means – its a mandatory sign/rule you must comply with – in case you’ve never noticed that before).
And its also a reason why they test you for colour blindness when you sit your license test/renewal.
Sometimes the speed change may also be painted on the road or indicated above the lane as it is on the harbour bridge. But thats in addition to, not instead of/replacing existing signs.
The road-side sign is the primary legal mechanism by which the speed limit is communicated. e.g. on the Harbour bridge (and through the CMJ) the fixed speed limits signs are all “80”, at the road side.
Temporary speed limits below that can be indicated by the signs above each lane such as during windy weather.
Now go look at the photos above of those Bus lane road side signs, what are they signs outlined in? Thats right: “red” – and you know what all that means?
its a mandatory rule, like a speed limit is. So its telling you and everyone else: “If you ain’t no ‘bus’ don’t drive here – during the hours of operation indicated” – and no indication of operation means 24 hours a day”
And yes a ‘bus’ is legally defined in law as a vehicle able to carry a minimum number of people/passengers plus a driver, (9 or passengers more from memory), so you can’t pretend your people mover is a bus, it is not.
In fact when the Super City was formed, according to one of AT’s representatives, who made a presentation to the Orakei Local Board.
AT refused to enforce the bus lanes on Remuera Road (as they were then) as they had legal advice from their legal team that the road side signage the old Auckland City Council put up, was not sufficient. The on road markings were plenty good enough, in fact more frequent than they are now.
Now its a T3 lane. And AT re-did all the road side signage along Remuera Road – then started enforcing it again. The AT legal Department knows the rules and knows that signs are the thing needed for both enforceability and for “fairness”.
As AT ripped out all of the Bus lane road markings and put even less T3 markings on the road, AT place even less emphasis on the on road markings than ACC did on the same road.
Either way, you wouldn’t have got off a bus lane fine with ACC or AT by arguing about the on road signs (or lack of them).
As a motorist/road user of any ilk, it is quite simply your duty to be aware of, and compliant with all road signs (be they road side or otherwise), at all times – including of course speed limit (and bus lane signs). No matter how fast (or slow) you go past them and whether they are marked on road as well.
If you want to argue the point, try telling your local cop when you’re next caught speeding that its not legal ‘cos the speed limit wasn’t marked on the road, and/or you were driving past too fast to read the signs (or simply not paying attention as you drove by)
– and see how far that will get you with both the cop and the courts. You’ll get whacked with inattentive driving or dangerous driving – if nothing else.
Same will apply to your next Bus lane ticket too.
Not sure where my so called “lack of logic in thinking and understanding of the law” is?
I never said it was a requirement to paint road rules on the road, in fact I argued the contrary if you read my reply more carefully, both signing and road markings have their own place and sometimes both are necessary.
Speed limit signs are clearly visible in most places and have a simple number on them, and where appropriate they are painted on the road also. Contrary to a bus lane sign with a “Mon-Fri” “4-6” painted on it which takes a lot more conscious effort to read if you even notice it at all, especially in a car lower to the ground.
Transit lanes with “T2” or “T3” painted on the road and bus lanes with “Bus Lane” painted on the road are common throughout Auckland, Bus lanes with nothing but green and no identifiers painted on them are not. So I doubt that it will stay this way.
As a motorist you are indeed required to be compliant with road signs however when they are not easily perceived by drivers then arguing that fact in court would be perfectly acceptable in the case of this bus lane and any like it, as it does not have standard indication painted on it like every other of its kind in Auckland.
Once again, not sure why you are turning this into an argument about speed limit signs, major difference there. There is also no constructive reason for you to argue about this; as keeping the status quo does not benefit PV users (due to tickets) or PT users (crowded bus lanes with PV users who are unaware of it being so) as mentioned in my last reply.
Hope to see bus lane painted on this shortly as I regularly commute to work through here on the 221/222 Bus from Rosebank Road.
Markings & signage have been appearing bit by bit incrementally over the past week or two … I am guessing if AT’s release says its first official day of operation is Monday, they intend to have the missing markings finished by then, weather permitting.
” I wonder how good the economic evaluation must look for saving 6,000 people four minutes per day all for a a bit of paint”
Hmm, but you forgot to subtract the cost – the fact that now 4000 motorists have had their trips delayed by 10 or more minutes a day, so on the whole the EEM manual says, once you add the two together – its then “a “bad idea”.
(24,000 trip minutes saved for PT users, less 40,000 trip minutes lost by car users = “-16,000” trip minutes caused by adding bus lanes).
And then some TE will say “oh, and while you remove the bus lanes and markings, we must add another lane for more cars to really extend and lock in those motorists time savings” 🙂
There aren’t 4000 people in cars and it won’t cost them ten minutes
Ah but SB, you know delaying even one motorist, but even 1 minute to let a bus go first, is complete sacrilege, that will result in a deluge of complaints to AT.
So its irrelevant to them as to number of motorists or minutes of delay.
Witness the outburst from “Lance” below to the idea.
I know you’re being tongue in check but the AT press release states that 70% of people are travelling by bus, so even if you add the two together it’s still +ve as the majority are travelling in the new bus lane. Despite this it should still be noted that as usual the tables are still tipped to the car drivers benefit with left turns still allowed in the bus lanes, and 66% of the road when including the car parking still being handed over to 25% of the users. Furthermore, the Symonds Street motorway overbridge still reverts back to being shared, i.e. despite all their rhetoric AT still can’t bring themselves to allocate roadspace based on how many people are choosing to use PT.
I know that AT is considering bus lanes further north than Alex Evans, but hasn’t progressed them as far yet.
On one hand, great to see AT moving forward on this without being held up by endless consultation (perhaps this one was less controversial since this bus lane doesn’t involve any material loss of parking, I think it was almost all a peak-time clearway or full-time no parking lane anyway). But on the other, a missed opportunity to fold in other low-cost improvements if the designers weren’t aware of their possibility. E.g. a problem with buses here is that New North Rd has a longish uphill section, it has become quite popular with cyclists, and cyclists share the bus lane and hold the buses up as they are very slow on the uphill section and the old clearway / now bus lane is too narrow for buses to pass them safely. I don’t begrudge the cyclists. I cycle a bit myself and it’s not their fault the best route for the journey doesn’t have better cycle facilities, and the road width already with no median probably means it a bus lane vs cycle lane choice. But for most of this section, the left-most downhill lane is quite a bit wider than the uphill lanes. If the centre line of the road and other lane markings were shifted by 80 cm or so for part of New North Rd, especially between Korari St and Flower St, the bus lane would probably be wide enough for a bus to pass a cycle safely. And for downhill traffic, now more likely to be caught behind a cyclist, this is less of a concern, as the cyclists will be faster downhill, and the downhill direction is less prone to congestion so traffic can probably move into the other lane to pass the cyclist.
Yes bus lanes are not bike lanes, their use as such causes disastrous mix of scales and speeds. But to the auto-priority world both go together in the category of ‘other’.
So now we have a situation where the AKL bike network has huge amount of colour that are just bus lanes so a real bike map of AKl would look very very poor indeed. I can see the political desire to maintain that fantasy…
…. Stage two, take out the parked cars for the necessary bike lane. Problem solved.
Not for this specific uphill section, no parking on this section during bus lane operating hours.
Well we’re now at a point where 3/4s of people are on a bus, to continue to provide 75% of the road to cars doesn’t make sense (seeing as bus lanes are peak only in each direction). Considering how many other roads there are in the area and the presence of a motorway parallel it’s about time both inbound lanes were made PT and cycle only during the peak.
Absolutely ridiculous. Cause more congestion causing more motorists frustration and extra travel time, causing heaps more pollution and all for a few PT users to get there a bit earlier for their lattes and conferences.
Oh look! That bus over there is moving faster than my car and by golly it’s going where I’m going. Maybe I should try the bus and get to my destination faster……. It’s called choice and now the differences are real so it forces you to make a choice; stay auto dependent and feed your ulcers or maybe travel social and multitask through your commute.
Those poor motorists can easily become happy and more productive simply by leaving their car at home and catching the fast bus! No parking fees. Less wear and tear on your car. No petrol costs. Get to catch up with work and play on your phone during your commute. Easy as.
Did someone not read the fact that 70% of people moved on Symonds Street is by public transport. The bus lanes mean faster travel times for more people.
A “few”… You should have a look at the loads those buses carry at peak.
So Lance you believe that “motorists” time is far more valuable than people who use PT and that the PT users will simply fritter any time saved in a coffee shop?
It used to be considered that way by NZTA, but they now realise, that in fact, time on PT can in fact be **a lot more** productive and useful than time spent at either end or stuck in a car in traffic.
So they now treat PT users and motorists (and their seldom seen car passengers) the same when it comes to comparing time savings.
Maybe you need to, too?
Welcome to 21st century Auckland.
Lance that comment is in pole position for Epic Fail of the Year and it’s only February.
On most of Auckland’s arterials at peak time, the majority of people are in 2-2.5%% of the vehicles. On Symonds IIRC it is more like 75%.
That you can’t see your own disproportionate contribution to both pollution and congestion is frankly laughable.
As Greg N says, welcome to the 21st century.
I’d expect for majority of car users, there is only a small change in travel time. The bottleneck for most cars going through this section is still getting onto Symonds St past K’Road, or K’Road, and those roads still have just as much car capacity. All that’s changed is the queue to get on to these roads is a longer skinnier one that buses can bypass rather than a shorter fatter one that buses can’t bypass. Cars coming from New Nth Rd into city will trapped for longer behind cars turning right into Mt Eden, but they have a good alternative route up Dominion Rd to avoid this queue.
Buses will still be trapped behind cars that queue on the Symonds Street motorway overbridge as nothing is changing there it would appear. It still amazes me that despite the vast majority of people on buses (and that despite piecemeal bus lanes) that AT still spend next to no money and still takes years to even consider bus lanes – and still fail to install true bus only lanes that don’t end at every single intersection to allow cars to turn left and right.
Easy to fix, just run the bus lane to K’Rd in the left lane – no need to remove the bus lane once Symonds St crosses the motorway overbridge as its 1 lane for traffic before the bridge and can widen to two lanes after the bridge,so simply have the bus lane stay inthe left land all the way to K’Rd. Bus can then go ahead or left at K’Rd.
Couldn’t agree with you more Lance. Word for word. Detour signs should be mandatory. That is how bad things are. Utter Chaos in the streets. Thanks AT. Well done !!
Where is the DETOUR sign for motorists who want to exit Queen St to access southern motorway ?
Just a little thing – but the calculations are out a wee bit – there are more than 181 buses (and therefore more people) mentioned as Mark Lambert didn’t also include the buses coming from Khyber Pass into Symonds St ( 302, 304, 305, 312, 392, 605). Most of these buses will welcome this as they run along Manukau Rd, one of the busiest roads in peak WITHOUT a bus lane at all.
Agree and would be a boon for the cyclists that use iManakau Rd as well. The problem area I see is the Gardner Rd intersection. A lot of cars in the morning stop in the lane to turn right as a rat run to the Hospital. The shoulders are tight there already, so some work may need to be done there or no right turn enforcement.
love it! they have to really speed up the delivery of new bus lanes, it’s the best and most efficient way to reduce peak time congestion, without spending any money.
this is fantastic news. Well done AT and *pat on back* to TransportBloggers for pushing the bus lane issue to the fore of the debate. This really is the single quickest / most effective way to improve public transport in Auckland.
With bus lanes and a removal of another delay, the 70% is likely to become 80% or higher. This not only makes the system faster, it also becomes more reliable, and it allows higher frequencies on the same route, increasing capital utilisation (bus plus driver) and making the entire system more sustainable.
This is as it should be. Intelligent work from Auckland Transport. Now to fix up the lanes on Mt Eden Rd, and elsewhere.
Sorry for the left field question, which is not directly related to the topic. But does anyone know if or when the Auckland transport public transport statistics for December 2014 or January 2015 will be released. It is halfway though Feb and I have been interested to see if the timetable changes implemented in December has affected ridership on the southern and eastern lines? Also, since the most recent shutdown over Christmas has been shorter than previous ones, I am wondering how much that has impacted ridership (i.e. with increased frequency of trains over the weekends and the availability of trains have stations such as Sylvia Park or Newmarket or even Manukau seen an increase in use?). I am wondering with the increased frequency of weekend transport options are Aucklanders using public transport to go shopping, or is Dick Quax right?
They are released at each Board meeting, the next one is on the 20th of this month, we have asked for earlier but have been declined. Word is that they are looking even better than the recent extraordinally good ones. We suspect AT wish to blow their trumpet with them, and why not? And no Dick Quax is not right, he is in fact one of those useful animals, the reverse barometer: if he says up then the answer will invariably be down.
Andy,
Patrick is right about the next meeting (1st since December) is on the 20th Feb.
Normally AT board meetings are Tuesdays (and from March Board meeting onwards they will be), and the agenda and related items (including Patronage reports) go up at the end of the business day (usually sometime after 5:00pm) – on the Friday before the board meeting.
As this next meeting is on a Friday, then the agenda should go up maybe Tuesday/Wednesday before, i.e. Tues/Wed next week – to allow the review of the reports by those attending.
Even though they’ve had over 2 months to prepare the reports.
Check this URL for the details of the Agenda and stuff: https://at.govt.nz/about-us/our-role-organisation/meetings-minutes/ – if you don’t already have this link in your browser bookmarks.
And as Patrick says, I also wouldn’t be surprised if the patronage figure is absolutely stunning and maybe over 13m total for the 12 months to end of Jan 15
– especially given the reports of overloaded buses/trains from the get go in January – and if it is, AT will trumpet it in a press release next week.
The patronage numbers will be for December and January only, as Feb patronage is still in progress and we won’t know that until near end of March, and we won’t get March’s numbers until Aprils Board Agenda is released, Aprils board meeting will be very late in April (28th April).
Thanks Patrick, I guess I will have to wait until then. I wonder how long it will be before there will be enough information to be confident on when the 20 million figure will be exceeded. Someone I was talking to mention we may need at least a year worth of data after the electric trains have been introduced (so late 2016 to early 2017) before it would be clear what idea what are long term sustainable increases in rail patronage.
Well to be certain we’ll have to wait unti it arrives. But we can be pretty confident that the only thing that can delay it is a failure to complete the New Network, or delays to fare integration. It is deeply regrettable that the gov has reduced the investment into new public transport capital works to ZERO for the next funding round: no extensions to Northern Busway, no NW Busway, no CRL funding, etc and that this is concealed by the continuing roll out of EMUs and AT’s hard work to try to keep the catch-up going on a stretched budget….
But even without the rational deployment of our investment into the systems with the greatest marginal growth and therefore the biggest payback, the growth in demand to at least average levels for a city of Auckalnds size, density, and form is a given.
Andy,
NZTA would build new motorways and add lanes to existing ones immediately on a mere 2 months of “historic demand” – even if the demand is showing they might be needed in 20 years time.
Based on all “reasonable” forecasts that will pass a sniff test – we have enough data now to call it.
But for this Government, I think they won’t “believe it, until they see it”, i.e. once we hit 20 million, then they’ll think about it, as you know, the numbers could go down again once 20m is reached!
What is the history of this new bus lane? Was there public notification, community engagement etc? Doesnt sound like it and if thats the case there is a lesson there for AT. Just do it and manage the objectors later. Or, “its easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission”.
Indeed, AT has the controlling authority over the road, the lanes were already clearways, and very little has changed but controlling the use for a short period of time. I reckon if you don’t have to go through all the pre- hoo haa for such a small change then who cares, and if there is enough post- hoo haa or you actually got it wrong then you can always change it back.
The local board signalled most of this when they redid the plans for Grafton/Newton town centre plan, in preparation for the CRL station at Newton (now canned). The public feedback they got from residents and others (I submitted at the time as I recall).
So it should not be a surprise to anyone that it was coming. (Well maybe tit will for hose who live far away from Newton but who drive through it every day expecting “status quo” to remain forever and who never submit on local board plans)
Maybe a surprise to some over how quickly its gone in – considering ATs dragged the chain for the last 4 or so years but the AT signalled late last year that they have a lot of bus lanes to roll out this financial year and the next so this is the first of many.
Great to read this. I hope Parnell Road from St Stephens Ave to the roundabout at Broadway is on their list. This stretch forms part of two FTN routes (Inner Link and Outer Link) plus routes 635, 645 and 655 and frequently grinds to a halt.
Tons of road space – officially only one lane in each direction but if you go there at peak times you will often see cars forming two lines each way, turning the road into a de facto 4-laner.
Removing about a dozen car parks and creating bus lanes (preferably all day and weekends too) would be a massive quick win.
I regularly bus to work as being lucky enough to be a stage 1 fare. My overall travel costs for the day is $3.80. Driving & finding car parks is stressful especially when you are in a rush and can lead to unsafe behavior for everyone on the road, (speeding, red light running, u-turns etc)
Having these low cost measures which are reversible is a fantastic idea, the 6000 PT users x 4 minute saving over which is a short stretch is a good result which does cause some delay to these single occupancy cars, which you can see lined up for KM’s most peak periods
but what it should do is tempt those who live near a good PT network to use the bus and let those who need to use a car …free up some road space
although buses are becoming so popular they are now regularly full and AT will have to make sure they enough capacity for the demand and the bus fleet is of a good enough standard as some are quite old compared to those buses used on the link services
Thoughts on day one.
My bus used the new lanes today, but given traffic was very light (at 7:45) the bus driver didn’t use most of it I can’t report on many benefits yet.
We were held up momentarily at the Newton Rd traffic lights while a car attempted to back out of the bus lane into the general straight. It looks like the markings end too soon here – to give a sweeping path into the left turn lane for cars – so some drivers don’t realise the left is bus only. I saw drivers do the same thing yesterday too (thankfully without the crazy reversing manoeuvre). That’s a minor detail – they could easily paint a bit more green to leave a shorter break in the markings.
The more significant omission is the fact the lanes end just short of the motorway bridge. The merge after K’Rd has always been a big bottleneck as drivers jostle to push in and cut each other off. Now it just seems totally futile with the road fanning out immediately before the problem. Let’s get bus lanes across this bridge pronto. This would leave room to just close off the left slip lane too, which given there is a Barnes crossing makes a lot of sense here.
Interesting the headline on the PR – Travelling in the fast lane. This is one of many major problems with bus lanes – for safety and many other resons a fast lane should be on the outside. Obvious why it can’t be – but bus lanes are hideously flawed. Also – that shade of green is an aesthetic disaster.
Despite your thoughts on bus lanes, there are some democratic and legislative concerns here that AT and the local board actually haven’t done the level of consultation for this bus lane that would be expected by the Local Government Act .
From what I can find through the local board, it drafted plans for a bus lane in Dec. 2014, but did not consult on them. Instead, bang, we suddenly have a bus lane!
It’s also questionable if local boards should actually have such a large say in regional transport decisions.
There are genuine and logical concerns that this bus lane actually will delay buses as they get caught on New North Road (before the new bus lane) in the queue of cars stuck behind right turning traffic. As a daily bus user from Charlotte Street, I’m very sceptical that 4 mins will be be saved by this lane, as this area and the old clearway did not result in delays for my daily commute. Delays are most prolific at the K Rd intersection and along Wellesley Street in the heart of the city.
As an observation, it seems car drivers are currently slow to notice the bus lanes.
Go back about a year and see the local area centre plan was drawn up and consulted on then by the local board. Thats when the bus lane feedback was gathered/acknowledged.
Dec 14 was when the previously public consulted on plans were drawn up for implementation – don’t need to consult people again when you’re doing what they already told you they wanted!
Interesting. Although, from what I can find it would appear that the local area centre plan has not been adopted. Also, I can’t find a copy of it at present to check the level of detail re the bus lane.
This is an absolute joke which just backs up NNR traffic even more at the junction with Mt Eden Road. Now drivers going straight have to queue in the right hand lane while the bus lane sits empty. Ridiculous planning.
If the bus lane was usually not empty, it would mean the bus is stuck and something has gone wrong. An empty bus lane (most of the time) is a working bus lane: you don’t see the bus because it’s already gone.
Think of it this way: instead of two painful queues of vehicles, there’s now just one. Excellent planning.
70% of people traveling along the street now do so without suffering from congestion. This has improved things for the vast majority. That’s great planning
Agree with Alan M. But again highlight that the newly created queue of cars is actually going to delay buses before the bus lane even begins! Bus lanes are a good concept where the width and design of the road allows, this road is more efficient for all road users (including buses) as a clearway.
Yeah poor car drivers. You just don’t get enough priority in Auckland.
If only there was a massive spending programme for 60 years that spent 95% of the money on providing roads exclusively for cars. Surely that would solve the congestion problem?
Now Auckland Transport is putting a bus lane on Dominion Road between the Richardson Road roundabout and the southwestern motorway intersection. This is desperately needed as the design of the motorway as it affected Dominion Road is incompetent to say the least. Gridlock at 7.55am….. very poor design. I’m hoping the bus lane will help a little.
I’ve heard that AT will begin work on a bus lane south bound along park road from the hospital to carlton gore to be operation from 7am-7pm Monday to Friday, removing the parking beside the domain during hours that the bus lane is operational
Hi, can anyone tell why the bus stop at the top of Symonds Street (downhill side by the shops, number 7151) has been blocked off. The footpath has been widened out to the main traffic lane and there is a temporary stop further down. Is the stop being moved up the hill back towards Newton Road? Or scrapped completely? Thanks. Glynn