Drivers: New Auckland street signs hard to read

The new-style street signs are not as clear as the old style. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Auckland Transport says newly installed directions can be ‘re-skinned’ if typeface deemed too small

New signs peppering streets around Auckland's Dominion Rd may have to be "re-skinned" to make them easier for motorists to read, the city's transport authority admits.

Auckland Transport said yesterday that some drivers had complained lettering on the dark blue "way-finding" signs is not large enough for them to make out.

"Initial feedback is that the typeface ... is too small, particularly if you are driving," said marketing general manager Mike Loftus. "This is certainly something we will be reviewing."

But he said the signs were designed so they could be re-skinned with larger type if necessary, rather than replaced at greater cost.

Although they were introduced primarily to point to a 12km network of routes developed for $5.9 million as safer cycling alternatives to busy Dominion Rd, they have replaced larger street signs in a number of locations. Those include four intersections along Dominion Rd.

The larger - more legible - versions will remain in storage during a trial by Auckland Transport and other council organisations to develop a standard wayfaring sign to point to community facilities throughout the Super City.

Mr Loftus said the budget covered about 100 signs and route maps installed along the Grafton Gully cycleway as well as two sets of routes parallel to Dominion Rd, for which contractors have also installed speed bumps, pathways and boardwalks, leaving only a bridge to be erected in Mt Roskill's War Memorial Park.

Auckland Transport said last month the pointers were not intended to replace regular street signs, which are themselves being changed from light blue to green as they come up for replacement throughout the Super City. But it has since decided to remove some street signs to test the navigational skills of focus groups it intends setting up for the trial, which will also include Wynyard Quarter, New Lynn and Northcote.

"This will include practical testing. The signage is designed to assist pedestrians and cyclists as well as to function for motorists," Mr Loftus said.

That is in contrast to a decision Auckland Transport made without public consultation in late 2013 to change regular street signs in three of the city's seven "legacy" council areas from light blue to green, which was already the official colour for the other four.

Mr Loftus said: "Auckland Transport wants to clean up the jumble of signs in our city to make it easier for all of us to get around."

But Albert Eden Local Board chairman Peter Haynes questioned the point of the new signs given the visibility problem.

"They're not even very legible in the daytime, let alone at night."

One resident said they made life harder "if you are driving or trying to navigate". Another said that he was too busy looking out for road hazards to notice them.

Dominion Rd Business Association chairman Chris Hammonds, whose main concern is a delay to a far more substantial $60 million upgrade of the key arterial route, wondered why a small cluster of new signs was not sight-tested. "It sounds like something wasn't thought through properly - if they're not visible they're a waste of time."

Direction finders in the dark

An informal sight test of the new signs by the Herald suggests they may have little more than half the visibility during daylight hours, and even less at night, as they are not luminous.

A reporter was able to read an old blue sign indicating the intersection of Grange Rd with Dominion Rd from just over a block away, a distance of 113m, on Tuesday afternoon.
But he could not make out a new "way-finding" sign for the same street from more than about 58m.

Although that intersection has both signs for motorists to choose from, four others along Dominion Rd have only the less legible newer variety, as have a number of its side streets through Mt Eden and Sandringham.