Blue, green, blue: Signs of our time

The dark blue signs are for "way-finding," says the city council.

Council opts for green, but then a different shade pops up to puzzle residents on a busy city thoroughfare.

First they were blue, then they started going green ... now some Auckland street signs are in a darker shade of blue.

Navy blue signs at intersections along Dominion Rd have puzzled residents including Albert-Eden Local Board chair Peter Haynes, who wants Auckland Transport to clarify its intentions.

The council transport body last year decided to replace tens of thousands of light-blue street signs with green ones as they come up for replacement. The dark blue signs have been erected after that decision.

But spokesman Mark Hannan says the newcomers are "way-finding" signs rather than street signs, and do not signal a move away from green.

Including street names on them was to point to a new $6.1 million safe-cycling network to entice pedallers away from busy Dominion Rd.

Although blue, they also carry a green cycling symbol.

Mr Hannan said way-finding signs would be also be trialled in other places before a decision was made on whether to use them throughout the city to point people to community facilities such as libraries, parks and shopping centres.

The decision that all 132,000 of the region's regular street signs should eventually be green was made without public consultation.

But Mr Hannan said he expected that Aucklanders' views would be sought once the way-finding trial was fully in progress next year.

Wynyard Quarter, New Lynn and Northcote are also to get trial signs.

Mr Haynes accepted the explanation that the purpose of the Dominion Rd signs was to point to 12km of newly-delineated cycling routes, which include dozens of speed humps.

But he said he was disappointed that it was the Herald, rather than Auckland Transport, that informed him.

He expected public confusion, similar to that caused when the council painted red stripes across entrances to some streets before adding signs explaining that their purpose was to encourage drivers to slow down.

"When it comes to road signage, they really need to get their act together," he said.

Of greater disappointment to Mr Haynes and the Dominion Road Business Association is that the bulk of a $66 million upgrade for what he calls "one of Auckland's best-loved boulevards" will be delayed until at least 2016, unless the council can find alternative funds for that and other transport schemes through road tolls or higher rates.

Although the side-streets cycling project has begun, a construction contract for Dominion Rd - including extensions of bus lanes and improvements to three of its shopping centres - has been deferred, even though Auckland Transport announced in May that the work would start in September.