Ask Phoebe: Motorists have to give way to people walking past driveways

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I have commercial premises in the middle of Lunn Ave, a direct route to the airport for residents of St Heliers and Kohimarama and a favoured route for police cars. I had traffic surveys done three years ago that showed 27,000 vehicles a day transit Lunn Ave or make Lunn Ave their destination. My question is, when crossing retail driveways, in particular the Mitre 10 driveway, who has right of way - pedestrians or the cars trying to force their way on or off Lunn Ave? Cars coming into Mitre 10 and adjacent shops are so intent on crossing the oncoming traffic they simply do not see pedestrians, while cars leaving simply do not care.

Hamish Allison, Mt Wellington.

The road code states very clearly that when a vehicle is entering or leaving a driveway that crosses a footpath the driver must give way to people using the footpath.

But pedestrians need to take care when crossing driveways and not assume drivers will stop for them.

If we put jam jar lids, beer bottle tops or wine bottle screw tops in the recycling bins, what happens to them? If we want to make sure the metal content in these gets recycled, what should we do?

Alicia Warren, New Lynn.

All of these things can safely be put in your recycling bin or bag. If glass is broken, it should be wrapped in newspaper before being put in a recycling bag.

Lids should be removed from jars and bottles before the items are put in your recycling bin.

The contents of recycling bins are delivered to one of several material recovery facilities around the country. Here they are sorted and baled into groups: paper, cardboard, glass, plastics, steel and aluminium.

The sorting process is a combination of manual, screening and optical systems, as well as electromagnetic procedures.

Material with a steel content is removed by magnet. An eddy current separator is used to induce a magnetic field in aluminium items so that they can be separated from other recyclable material.

Going uphill on Landscape Rd, cars are allowed to park at the side, and do not leave enough room for cars to pass without crossing the no-overtaking lines in the centre. What is the legal position on this? There is a similar problem on Park Rd in Titirangi near Toby's, where there is clearly not enough room to pass.

Chris Lewis, Mt Eden.

A driver who safely crosses the yellow centre lines to move past a stationary vehicle is not committing an offence. The lines prohibit passing vehicles which are moving in the same direction and do not apply to avoiding parked vehicles.