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A NAME YOU CAN TRUST! Thursday, June 2, 2016
Vol 45, No 21
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BUNNY HOPPING: Moving a Howick bus stop will result in people crossing four lanes of traffic and accompanying islands. But Auckland Transport is proposing to tweak them with cosmetic changes. Times photos Wayne Martin
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Unsafe bus stop back on agenda D
espite going back to the drawing board at Howick Local Board’s behest, Auckland Transport is continuing its plans to relocate the bus stop at the intersection of Picton Street and Ridge Road further down Ridge Road at the base of Stockade Hill. Local residents fear the move is an accident waiting to happen. Rather than crossing busy Ridge Road to reach Picton Street, AT says people could cross Picton Street a short distance up from the Ridge Road junction. But, says local resident, Robert Finley, since when would teenagers in a hurry take longer route? “Kids being kids” are likely to take the most direct route by crossing the four lanes of traf-
fic over a series of islands at the intersection which Mr Finley regards as positively dangerous. Meanwhile AT has now released proposed improvements to the intersection and is calling for feedback by June 8. It wants to install a new pedestrian refuge island on Picton Street, connecting between Stockade Hill and Crawford Reserve and install new pram crossings adjacent to the refuge island. It also has a similar plan for the intersection of Mellons Bay and the top of Picton Street at the base of Stockade Hill. But Mr Finley says: “It’s clear this latest preposterous proposal has been generated solely by the proposed shift of the bus stop. It
will then convey a false degree of safety/respectability to bus users that simply won’t exist.” AT says the relocation project was initiated to remove the bus stop from the left-turn lane on Picton Street and in response to requests from Howick and Eastern Bus Company. In a letter to AT Mr Finley says: “You have at least now had the courage to admit that this whole stupid idea emanated from the bus company, all to save 16 seconds and omit one give-way sign, dressed up as an accessibility issue.” The proposal, he says, is ill thought-out and creates a major safety risk for every user at the location. “I trust that when the inevitable
AGHAST: Howick resident Robert Finley isn’t impressed with the proposals to shift the bus stop. Times photo Marianne Kelly
serious injury accident, or worse, occurs to a bus user here, AT will put its hand up and admit: “It was all our fault and we did it to save 16 seconds.” Howick Local Board chairman David Collings says the board has been against the Ridge Road bus stop site from the start. “Our concern is that people getting off the bus in Ridge Road will have to walk across a busy road to get to the village. It’s frustrating and we don’t really agree with the rationale behind the change.”
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