Confusing road markings 'an accident waiting to happen'

Coffee General cafe manager Jordy Rimmell says the road markings are "a bit silly". Photo / Jason Oxenham

Drivers have been queuing at a busy Auckland intersection behind parked cars, thinking they are waiting to turn left, after becoming confused by new road markings.

The markings on the Carton Gore Rd intersection with Park Rd in Newmarket have left them just three metres to squeeze past cars parked on the outside of a new bike-way.

Auckland Transport, which faced hefty opposition to the bike-way from some residents without off-street parking, agreed to leave room for about nine cars in the city-bound carriageway approaching the intersection.

But those parking spaces are on the outside of a 1.4-metre-wide bike lane and 0.8m buffer zone, forcing drivers to loop around the parking spaces to reach the intersection with just 28m to spare for a two-lane split in the traffic.

Some drivers have been lining up behind the parked cars, thinking they were waiting to turn left, before realising their error and having to inch back into traffic to get around them.

The Herald witnessed chaotic scenes on the first afternoon of the new configuration last Wednesday, in which wide SUVs were crossing the centreline to get past the pinchpoint.

Frances Valintine, whose Mindlab learning centre is next to some of the new parks, thinks it is "an accident waiting to happen."

"I just thought it was one of those silly things that on paper looks like a great idea," she said of the redesigned road.

"But I've never seen anything like this - people are just laughing at it now."

Coffee General cafe manager Jordy Rimmell was quick to take advantage of the return of parking spaces after more than a month of roadworks, which he said had inflicted "a huge fall in sales" on his business.

The downside was a cacophony of vehicle horns as drivers got in behind his parked Mark 1 Volkswagon Golf car outside the cafe, thinking it was waiting to turn left.

Mr Rimmell, a VW enthusiast who believes his imported 1992 model is one of just three first generation Golfs in the country, acknowledges he risks having his pride and joy clipped.

But he wants to reclaim the area for his customers.

"I definitely approve of cycling and saving the environment but the way they have done things, it's a bit silly," he said.

Since the first hair-raising day of the new parking spaces, they have been temporarily suspended to allow traffic through them, while the road is split by cones to allow construction of a bike-way on the other side of the road.

But although Auckland Transport has directed contractors to rip up and replace new pavement outside Mr Rimmell's cafe, saying it is "not up to standard", it is not backing down on the road's new configuration.

"The distance between the Park Rd-Carlton Gore road intersection and car parking does not create a safety issue," a spokesman for the council body insisted.

"The project has been through an independent safety audit."

He noted that the $400,000 project, in which the cycle lanes will be extended down both sides of Carlton Gore Rd to Davis Crescent near Broadway to create a safer pedalling alternative to Khyber Pass Rd, was not yet complete.

"Once completed, there will be signage to clearly indicate the new road layout," he said.

"No parking will be permitted on this stretch of road in the evening peak, 4pm to 6pm, so as to not affect traffic flow."