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The re-siting of a school bus stop on the approach to the new Matakana link road has been branded as ridiculous by a local truck driver.
Anna Voice thinks moving the bus stop from its old site, opposite Clayden Road, along to the entrance lane of the new roundabout heading into Warkworth makes no sense.
“That’s an extremely dangerous place, I would have thought,” she said. “Not only for pedestrians wanting on or off the bus, but it also impedes any traffic trying to head towards Warkworth township.”
However, Auckland Transport (AT) said impeding the traffic – albeit briefly – was a deliberate part of the design to make it the safest spot for students to cross Matakana Road.
“The school bus stop is positioned to provide the safest crossing point for the students near the roundabout, at a point where traffic needs to wait behind the briefly stopped bus, rather than make an unsafe overtaking manoeuvre,” a spokesperson said.
“The centre island was extended opposite the bus stop to provide additional safety by discouraging vehicles from overtaking.”
AT said the positioning of the stop had been the subject of a great deal of consultation.
“There have been numerous discussions on the location of this bus stop with the AT internal team,
Ministry of Education and the schools that are using it, and the design went through a robust review process with AT and an independent safety audit team.
“The bus stop has infrequent use, mainly servicing school children in the Clayden Road area, so it needs to be positioned to encourage school children to safely cross from Clayden Road via the roundabout splitter island,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, AT has shed light on another query on a design aspect of the new roundabout. Warkworth vet Ross Lynch was wondering why, when driving towards Matakana, there was a dropped kerb on the left as one drove into the roundabout, and a dropped kerb continuing across the centre island that split the carriageways, but only two drains, a high kerb and a grass berm on the other, Warkworth-bound lane.
He was concerned that anyone crossing in a mobility scooter or with a pram had nowhere to go once they reached the other side.
However, AT said the dropped kerbs were not intended to lead pedestrians in that direction, but were for cyclists using Matakana Road.
“The dropdown kerb is to facilitate cyclists entering the cycleway from Matakana Road and entering Matakana Road from the cycleway,” the spokesperson said.
