Surrey Crescent Feedback Guide

The ‘Surrey Crescent and Old Mill Rd improvements’ project is a sorely-needed safety treatment, making it easier for kids, parents, and local shoppers alike to get to their neighbourhood destinations safely and conveniently, in ways other than the private automobile. It fits in to a broader plan, the ‘Inner-west cycleways and street enhancements’ project, which is comprised of long-fought-for improvements on several key arterial and collector roads throughout the area. This particular project, the Surrey Crescent one, almost connects up to the Point Chev and Meola Road project, and is not far from connecting right up to the incoming Great North Road project (a couple of gaps which need to be filled). Surrey was paused due to “lack of funding”, but they’ve aligned it with roading renewals to make it cheaper, so it’s unpaused now! 

‘Surrey Crescent and Old Mill Rd improvements’ is overall highly supported by locals (and has been for a long long time), but the latest designs aren’t quite up to scratch, with a few glaring safety and logistical concerns that undermine the intent of the project. And as it happens, Auckland Transport are still taking feedback for the project, which is great, because we have some notes!

In this article, we have included our key thoughts on the Surrey Crescent and Old Mill rd Improvements project that you, the humble local, could use as inspiration for your feedback to Auckland Transport. At the bottom we have also included the more nitty-gritty, technical stuff that is arguably less crucial, but which you could take into account when you send in your email! 

First, let’s all acknowledge how awesome it is that this area is getting a safety treatment – it really is needed, and wanted, and we do not want Auckland Transport to cancel this one. In the interest of getting it in the ground cheaply, they have lined up the improvements with planned road resurfacing, which we absolutely love to see. Fundamentally, we are highly supportive that Auckland Transport want to make it safer to get around by bike, cheaply, and especially when it helps kids and families to do so. And also, we want them to get it right, so that it actually does what they intend it to do, and so that there is less risk of a bad response from users once it’s in place. 

Email your feedback to: ATengagement@at.govt.nz

Our key thoughts

1. We want speed treatments on side streets

This design does nothing to slow traffic coming into and out of the side streets, which is not ideal, especially in this project which, in part, is supposed to be protecting kids. The side streets need raised treatments to make them safe – ideally, crossings which are the same height as the shared paths. This is important not just for general safety, but also for accessibility. And if that is “not possible”, a somewhat acceptable alternative would be priority crossings with speed bumps before and after. This lacks the accessibility benefits of a raised crossing, but it is at least safer than doing nothing to slow cars at all. 

2. Two very unsafe intersections in this design need to be fixed

Old Mill Road x Garnet Road. 

This entire intersection needs a redesign to make it safer. The green paint suggests that Westbound bike lane users have priority turning onto Garnet Road, but that could get people killed, since motorists following Old Mill rd are travelling in a straight line and have nothing telling them to give way otherwise, and nothing physically slowing them down.

One potential small-ish fix would be to turn Westview Road into a one way or dead end at this section, and use a concrete build out to create a corner for people following Old Mill Rd. A corner would slow people driving, and give them more time to look before turning, making it safer for people cycling across the intersection.

Without a redesign, this bit of cycle lane must not go in. If the intersection is left as is, it would be safer to end the cycleway before the intersection and to extend it at a later date as part of an intersection improvement project. 

Old Mill Road x Richmond Road. 

Richmond Road crossing point is inherently unsafe. The refuge island is too narrow to fit a bike, so bikes will overhang into the traffic lane. Also, the crossing point will easily be blocked by queued vehicles. The crossing distance is also very long. A raised priority crossing further back from the intersection is critical here. More room could be created by reducing the two turn lanes into a single lane.

We also advise a raised pedestrian/bike crossing across Surrey Crescent just West of Richmond Road so people can access Richmond Rd from the shared path on the South side of Surrey Cres. 

3. Tall fences, bad sightlines

Shared paths can be unsafe around tall fences since they block sightlines for drivers exiting driveways and users of the shared path alike (especially kids). Because of general transport etiquette, it is normal for people to keep left. When faster users (e.g. bike riders) hug the fenceline, the risk of being hit goes up, especially for shorter people (kids!) who are less visible.

This risk can be reduced by either:

• dividing the path into a cycling side (to the outside) and a walking side (on the inside) by adding a strip of paint to the middle of the path. This encourages those faster users to stick closer to the road, where sightlines are best. The path should be kept flat across driveways, otherwise you end up with what is effectively a pump track! This we do not want. 
• Reallocating road space to create an on-road protected cycleway. This can be created in at least one direction by removing the flush median (while using a divided path on the other side of the road), or in both directions with removal of some parking.

Choose which option of the above you’d prefer and let Auckland Transport know!

4. Grey Lynn Shops missing link

A glaring gap in the network. This project ends a block or two from Great North Road, itself receiving safety upgrades up to the Grey Lynn shops relatively soon, with no safe cycle infrastructure bridging the gap. We want this gap to be filled – if not now, then in a near-future follow-on project. The Grey Lynn residents association has developed a community-led vision for Great North Road at this location which we would love to see come to life.

It is awesome when safe infrastructure gets put in, but it is a big deterrent to riding it when that same infrastructure suddenly stops and funnels you directly into the path of a two-tonne death machine. 

And that’s that! Thank you for your time, and your effort. It is much appreciated. As an individual that actively uses this part of the city, it is important that your voice is heard, and hopefully we’ve helped to get you started.

Email your feedback to: ATengagement@at.govt.nz

Below we’ve pasted in the actual comments from the volunteers in the Bike Auckland Infrastructure Team, as-is. If you are curious, or would like more to include in your email, feel free to read on!

Overall comments

• Parking enforcement is a major issue along this route. Without it, cyclists will resort to riding on the road, as the off-road cycle lanes cannot be used. 
• Intersections on this design are generally unsafe and inefficient for pedestrians and cyclists. As Old Mill Rd is arterial, motorists will wait considerably to turn blocking the side road crossings.
  • Raised priority crossings are advised on all legs for 4-way intersections and at least 2 legs for 3 way intersections. Cycling and footpath facilities should be continuous in level and obvious to drivers. 
  • Alternatively, flat dual crossings with speed humps just before and after the crossing to slow traffic speeds. 
• Right turns in and out of side roads have not been considered for people on bikes. There should be a legible, obvious way to access side roads from the main road. Otherwise, cyclists have no way of accessing the new path and will not use it. 
• Shared path on footpath is directly alongside property boundaries. This limits sightlines, and children on bikes (being low to the ground and faster moving than walking) are likely to be in danger from cars coming out of driveways. An on road protected cycleway or divided ped/cycle path (space permitting) would give more space from the driveways, allowing people driving to be more likely to see the kids, reducing likelihood of crashes.
• Park and walk zones or remote drop off should be encouraged. Children want to travel in active ways and school drop off & pick up outside the school gate can make roads dangerous for children. Teachers have told us that they have to be at the school early and late to ensure parents don’t accidentally run over children in the chaos of pick up and drop off. We encourage you to work with the AT schools teams to support the school to promote active travel and park and walk zones, to make the school road safer at pick up and drop off times. 

Priorities

1. Parking Enforcement: 

• There is a high degree of parking on the berms and across the existing cycle path on Old Mill Road. This needs to be enforced before anyone will be able to use the existing path.
• Cars tend to park overhanging the existing footpaths which if the trend continues will mean the wider shared paths could be largely blocked.
• Car parking in town centres is prioritised over cycling facilities, to the point where TCD rules are not being followed. Great North Rd/Surrey Cres at the southern end of the project is an example where an existing on-road lane (not shown in AT’s drawings) terminates at parking THROUGH THE GNR INTERSECTION. We are not sure how this is allowed and not being enforced. 
• There are existing painted buffered on-road cycle lanes on Richmond Road (on the approach to Surrey Cres) which are also parked over, they aren’t really recognisable as cycle lanes. Some separators should do the trick. It shows that separators really are required to prevent parking in the cycle lanes, as enforcement is not doing the job.

2. Lack of Ped/cycle priority crossings

• Seems from the meeting and design proposed, there is a reluctance to not only propose raised ped/cycle crossings, but any priority crossings. These are absolutely critical for safety and to maximise active mode uptake. 
• Ideally priority crossings should be on every side road and across the main road at every major intersection or bus stop pairing, but we acknowledge there is a cost involved. However, along this route we count only one existing zebra crossing being retained on Surrey Crescent and one other being removed close to Great North Road (again deceptively not shown in AT’s drawings), so there is a net loss of crossings. This is unacceptable. 

3. Visibility at driveways

• Shared paths work in that all users keep left. Therefore, the default position of riding will be along the fenceline in both directions. 
• Visibility along this stretch was not as much of an issue as it could be, as a lot of fences are shorter or somewhat permeable, particularly as they are older in this neighbourhood. However, newer fences tend to be very high and completely block visibility of the path from exiting motorists. 
• A fix to this could be:
  • A divided path where a centreline divides the cycling and walking sides of the path, with cycling (faster users) closer to the road. 4m of space ideally would be needed, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with 3.5m. The path would need to be flat, (not going up and down as it crosses driveways).
  • On road protected cycleway in at least one direction between Richmond Rd and Bullock Track where space can be reallocated away from street parking or flush median. The refuge crossings should largely be able to be retained as designed, with the exception of not having side islands on the direction of the cycle lane. 

4. Grey Lynn Shops missing link

• Reallocating road space along Great North Road through Grey Lynn shops would permit easy extension of on-road protected cycle facilities through Grey Lynn and to connect with western end of GNR cycle project. We highly recommend this to maximise the benefits of both projects. The Grey Lynn residents association has developed a community-led vision for Great North Road at this location. We support modifications of the road space to support this vision (which include protected cycle lanes) or a temporary Cycleway to allow for future redesign to deliver on it.

Great-North-Road-Community-led-Vision-v3-A3-WEB

Detailed comments:

See: Design drawings as pdf

Drawing 1-4

• Parking enforcement is necessary to allow existing northbound cycle lane to be formalised and used here, as many vehicles are blocking the lane all along its length.

Drawing 1

• Westbound traffic into Old Mill Road can just shoot straight through what is technically an intersection. The green cycle lane would imply cyclist priority, but in practice, you can do this “left turn” without even turning at all, i.e. some drivers will drive across this “priority-having” cycle lane at 60-70kph. Needs some traffic calming or at least minor intersection changes to make sure the left turn into Old Mill from the east is actually a TURN. Otherwise, we cannot support that green lane here. It would be better to not have it marked at all. As this is termination of project, recommend removing separators just prior to West View Road to allow merging into primary position in traffic stream. 
• Recommend adding sharrows throughout intersection to legitimise ‘taking the lane’ as it is a complex intersection where moving into and out of traffic stream adds risk and unpredictability. A sharrow or two would legitimise cyclist use of the main traffic lane where they are transitioning from being separated.
• Otherwise, budget permitting, we recommend realigning the westbound ‘left turn’ to Old Mill Rd to make it a T intersection alongside the EB approach lanes. This would involve removing the concrete islands and creating a kerb builtout where the slip lane currently is. If Old Mill Rd intersected at a perpendicular angle, the cycle lane could remain painted as shown, as it’s a given what the ‘main road’ is, and turns off the ‘main road’ give way. 
• If budget allows, include full upgrade of this intersection in project to include priority cyclist and ped crossings on all legs (or with one crossing across the main road) and speed calming to 30kph. 

Drawing 2

• Priority crossing needed across Francis St. Position of crossing point there, means there would be space for a single vehicle to wait without blocking the crossing. 
• Cyclist Right turns in and out of Francis St should be accommodated. Priority raised paired crossing across Old Mill Rd advised at this location due to this intersection and bus stops. 
• Priority crossing advised for West View Road. 

Drawing 5

• Crossing at Bullock Track is windy and awkward for people on bikes and peds. Advise a simple raised crossing at the narrow point of Bullock Track just south of the slip lane. Would be a good desire line and simplify the crossing.
• Right turns into and out of Bullock Track have not been considered. Clear access to the north side cycle path is needed. To do this, a raised paired crossing across Old Mill Rd is advised on east side of the Bullock Track junction (closest to bus stop pair). 
• Priority crossing advised across Sherwood Ave

Drawing 6

• Four-way intersections where two of the four directions have priority are hazardous for all road users, and unsafe to navigate for people on bikes/foot. Advise priority paired crossings on all four legs, and changing the intersection to operate as a roundabout. Does not have to be raised. Seems this could be achieved here with paint and rubber speed humps on Surrey Cres approaches. 

Drawing 7

• Richmond Road crossing point is inherently unsafe. Refuge island too narrow to fit a bike so cyclists will overhang into the traffic lane. Also the crossing point is too close to the intersection and easily blocked by queued vehicles. Crossing distance is also very long. A raised priority crossing recessed back is critical at this location, with the two turn lanes reduced to a single lane. 
• Right turns into and out of Richmond Rd to south side cycle path are not catered for. Advise a raised paired crossing across Surrey Cres just west of Richmond Rd if a roundabout can’t be achieved. (Roundabout STRONGLY preferred)
• Green paint should be included across commercial driveways. 

Drawing 8

• Right turns out of Browning Street not feasible for less confident riders. Advise shortening or removing the parking block on far side of Browning St to accommodate a path to the cycle facility on south side. 
• Right turns out of Firth Road not feasible due to solid block of parking on south side. Advise a gap in parking bay and cycle separators to achieve right turn access. 

Drawing 9

Existing zebra crossing and on-road lane in SB direction at southern end of project are not shown or indicated in the drawings. This is quite deceptive. Effectively a pinch point is being designed and pedestrian priority removed. 

• An on-road lane exists just past the existing zebra and end of proposed cycle lane. Cycle lane termination point of the project should be extended to connect with this existing lane. 
• We highly recommend extension of existing cycle lane (mentioned above) through Grey Lynn shops and to connect with western end of GNR cycle project. This would MAXIMISE THE BENEFITS OF BOTH PROJECTS, as well as could improve the safety and efficiency of traffic movements through this intersection and town centre.