Grace Rd and Neighbourhood Residents' Association spokesman Phil Green at Turret Rd. Photo / George Novak
Grace Rd and Neighbourhood Residents' Association spokesman Phil Green at Turret Rd. Photo / George Novak
Council staff are looking at ways to discourage rush hour commuters from using shortcuts such as the Turret Rd slipway and Burrows St following a traffic trial.
In October Tauranga City Council blocked the Turret Rd slipway at the end of 14th Ave for six weeks and monitored the results.
Early findings showed that rat-runners may have made their own journeys quicker but overall made rush hour congestion worse for everyone.
Cheeky motorists removed barriers at Turret Rd during the trial last year. File photo
Meanwhile, people living in the residential streets-turned -"traffic zones" due to shortcutting commuters say they saw little difference in the traffic volumes during the trial.
The Turret Rd slipway and Burrows St are popular evening shortcuts for drivers looking to skip queues at traffic light-controlled intersections at the top of 15th Ave - Fraser St and Cameron Rd.
Transport Operations Centre manager James Wickham said the trial showed drivers had good reason to be frustrated by those willing to let people in from shortcut streets.
"The behaviour is counterproductive. From a flow perspective, it is very disruptive."
Tauranga City Council transport operations centre manager James Wickham. File Photo
Vehicles cutting into the flow created "side friction" that created traffic "shockwaves", contributing to congestion.
Wickham said the closure reduced the rush hour queue a small amount overall, allowing more cars to move through faster, but also moved the queue up 15th Ave.
Staff were looking at ways to make shortcuts on the route less effective - and less attractive - such as putting in traffic lights at Burrows St and the highway and making people wait to join the flow.
The aim was to get people joining the traffic at the top end of 15th Ave.
"Overall for everyone that would be better."
Phil Green, spokesman for the Grace Road and Neighbourhood Residents Association, said residents did not note much traffic difference during the trial.
"People still came down Harvey St, or 13th or 14th Ave but used Grace St or Burrows St instead.
"There was a small saving in traffic but not a lot. But I think that was expected."
Green said it was good to see the council working through steps to improve congestion on the route, and thought lights at Burrows St and 15th Ave would be good, especially because of major developments neat that intersection.
"Everyone realises something has to happen with 15th Ave, Turret Rd and the Hairini Bridge."
Fourteenth Ave resident Cathy Kerr said there was a brief respite at the start of the trial, but commuters quickly found Burrows St.
She was not sure about the idea of more lights, saying it seemed like a "sticking a band-aid" on the bigger problem of too many cars on too little road.
"The problem is the bridge, that's what's causing the bottleneck."
Staff will present their full findings and recommendations to the council early this year.
A $51m roading project to duplicate the Turret Rd bridge and four-lane Turret Rd and 15th Ave has been pencilled in to happen after 2021.
