Source: Radio New Zealand
Auckland Transport has proposed significant changes to one of the city’s most important roads.
Park Road runs alongside Auckland Hospital and the Domain and is a main thoroughfare connecting Auckland’s CBD to Newmarket, the city’s busiest retail centres.
The city’s transport agency is now proposing a dynamic lane layout between Grafton Road and Auckland Hospital to increase traffic flow.
AT estimated 13,500 people travelled via car on Park Road every weekday, and another 14,300 travelled by bus.
Road Network Operations manager Chris Martin said the road became a major bottleneck between 10am and 2pm most days.
“During the day, a short journey along Park Road that should take only 30 seconds from the Grafton Road intersection to just past the traffic lights and outside the hospital entrance can take up to ten minutes,” he said in a statement.
“We’re even seeing some frustrated motorists resorting to unsafe driving behaviours, by driving on the wrong side of the road and into oncoming traffic.”
Under the proposal, Martin explained that electronic LED road markers would be installed on all three lanes.
Currently, the road has one lane in each direction and a bus lane heading towards the city centre, which meant cars waiting to turn left into the hospital brought traffic to a halt.
The dynamic solution would allow AT to turn the bus lane “off” between 10am and 2pm, opening a free lane to general traffic.
“We want to be able to switch how these lanes are used and want the bus lane on Park Road to be turned into a dynamic lane for general traffic during a set time, and the other two lanes to service traffic heading towards the hospital entrance,” Martin said.
Health NZ spokesperson Dr Michael Shepherd supported the proposal.
“Our patients, staff and visitors should all expect to get in and out of Auckland Hospital safely and in good time, and we support these proposed improvements to Park Road to better improve this access,” he said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
