Get moving: Don't park on central strip

Q. Is it legal for car transporters to use the median strips to park their big trucks while they unload? Robyn Booth, Remuera.

A. No. The LTSA says it is illegal and dangerous and people should not do it.

Q. Is it practical to extend clearway times to accommodate what is now a rush two-hours? Some clearways start at 4pm, some at 4.30pm, and they end at 5.30pm or 6pm, which is too early. Mike Maguire, Auckland, and Theresa, Mt Eden.

A. When setting the clearway times, Auckland City has to take into consideration things such as local schools, business hours, traffic flow and feedback from the community. It is trying to achieve some sort of city-wide consistency, but is flexible; if the peak time has changed, it will adjust the clearways to suit. It just needs to know about it.

Q. Keep left unless passing. This used to be an unwritten rule of motorway driving, to lessen the irritation caused by slow drivers in the outside lane. What is the official line? Barry Birchall, Whangarata.

A. It's a courtesy thing, really. If you want to drive at less than 100 km/h, the legal speed limit, for whatever reason (towing a trailer, nerves) keep in a left-hand lane. There is no law against driving slowly in what is called "the fast lane" but Dave Walker of the police motorways division says it is an offence to impede the flow of traffic and the police will enforce this law, particularly at holiday times.

Q. There are many suburban intersections that have very low traffic volumes after 10pm. Why do we not adopt the convention used overseas of flashing amber lights at intersections at night? The traffic must then adopt "give way" rules, but wouldn't have to wait, sometimes for several minutes, for the automatic timer to work. Bill Kun, Mairangi Bay.

A. Murray Parker, acting Traffic Management Centre manager, says that under New Zealand law traffic lights must operate at all times and there is no provision for part-time signals, on safety grounds. The flashing amber signal is used only when there is a traffic light fault.

The lights work by demand on the approach road, not on an automatic timer, and are set off by detection loops in the roadway. Sometimes roadworks or a fault in the loop leads to a longer than usual light phase, more noticeable at night, but these faults are repaired as soon as possible.


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