Traffic lights placed in middle of $14.4m cycle lane - deputy mayor fumes - New Zealand Herald

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Traffic lights have been installed in the middle of a cycleway on Tamaki Drive in Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton

Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson has expressed her anger over a traffic light popping up in the middle of a relatively new $14.4 million cycle lane.

However, Auckland Transport is assuring cyclists the light is only temporary and that patience will be rewarded with the addition of new cycle infrastructure in Auckland.

A few hundred metres from the Ngapipi bridge, in the direction of the Outboard Boating Club, the temporary traffic signals have been placed on Tamaki Drive.

They will be there for the approximate six-month duration of the bridge extension works, after which they will be taken down.

A traffic light has been built on Tamaki Drive in Auckland in the middle of a cycle way. Photo / Alex Burton

Auckland Transport said they are working on widening Ngapipi Bridge to accommodate a cycle lane - which will join the Tamaki Drive and Glen Innes to Tamaki cycle paths.

By making the bridge wider, more space will be made accessible for pedestrians and cyclists, and a seamless connection will be made between the Tamaki Drive Cycle Route to the west and the cycleways to the east of the bridge. The bridge’s expansion also makes it possible to maintain the four current lanes of traffic.

Artist's impression of the widened Ngāpipi Bridge. Image / Auckland Transport

Bicyclists and pedestrians must be rerouted to the south side of Tamaki Drive in order to avoid getting in the way of the construction projects being done at both of the old road bridge’s extensions as the new pedestrian bridge’s extensions are being built.

Tamaki Drive has four lanes, therefore traffic lights are necessary; if a pedestrian crossing were to be installed instead, it would not be safe for bikes and pedestrians to cross the road.

Desley Simpson took to social media yesterday to share her disappointment at not being consulted over the placement of the lights.

Deputy Mayor of Auckland Desley Simpson has expressed her anger over a traffic light popping up in the middle of a relatively new cycle lane. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

Simpson said she accepted the need for the lights, but had she been consulted, she would’ve put them in a different place.

“Had they asked me for my opinion ( I had no idea they were getting installed - don’t know what happened to the “no surprises” policy and for the record nor did OLB ), I’d simply say use the existing lights at Ngapipi share the new Southside footpath with care and come back onto separated cycle lane at Solent St for the short time the installers of new pedestrian section need to use it,” Simpson shared to Facebook.

“If you absolutely had to install them please use the garden don’t put them in the middle of the new cycleway (you remember how many times this surface had to be redone).”

She called the plan “simply not well considered”.

An Auckland Transport spokesperson confirmed this has been through a “rigorous temporary traffic management approval process”.

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