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College Hill, St Marys Bay - Pedestrian improvements College Hill, St Marys Bay - Pedestrian improvements

Consultation status:  closed 14 June 2018

Proposal reference: MIP1718-019

Signalising the mid-block pedestrian crossing on College Hill, outside the Mercy Hospice.

Installing a variable speed limit (50kph to 40kph) school zone on College Hill Road and New Street.

View the consultation drawing for the St Mary's College school speed zone (PDF 389KB) 

View the consultation drawing for the College Hill mid-block signalised crossing (PDF 1.3MB)

Why the changes are needed

School children from St Marys College have been observed crossing here in large numbers and there are times where there are too many to wait safely within the existing pedestrian refuge. A signalised crossing will greatly improve the safety of all pedestrians, especially school children, crossing here.

The safety of students from St Marys College crossing College Hill Road has been an ongoing concern for the last five years. We previously implemented active warning signs instead of a school zone. However, the safety concerns still exist and the speeds have not decreased, even with the active warning signs. We are now proposing to upgrade these active warning signs to variable speed limit signs.

The speed zone will be active in the:

  • Morning: For 35 minutes before school starts.
  • Afternoon: For 5 minutes before school ends until 15 minutes after school ends.

Proposal outcome

This project will proceed without changes to the next stage of detailed planning. 

Feedback received

  • Suggestion to remove the side island and kerb build-outs and to add protected bike lanes to College Hill in order to make the road safer for all road users. The crossing here has been future proofed so that it can be adjusted to accommodate a full cycleway if one is installed along College Hill. This area is identified for future cycleways investment with indicative funding in the approved programme business case for the period 2021-2028. Further upgrades to this road corridor may be required to uplift the quality of service to something better suited for all ages and abilities. The later planned changes will build upon the intersection improvements currently being designed. AT is committed to confirm the funding allocation for the longer-term cycling facilities on this cycling corridor under this 10 year programme. Read more information about the cycling investment programme (PDF 4.2MB)
  • Suggestion to add flashing surface lights to the proposed crossing. We do not normally install flashing surface lights to signalised crossings as at a signalised crossing facility, motorists are guided by the status of the traffic signals displays which are positioned in compliance to the Driver’s Sight Line. Also to secure safe operation, the traffic signals layout for the new signalised mid-block crossing will allow a 6m clearance between the vehicle’s stop line and the crossing walk-lines on both directions of College Hill.
  • Suggestion to extend the reduced speed zone and make the limit 30kph permanently. The relevant streets surrounding the proposed school zone have been observed to already have relatively low speeds and so extending the school zone to these streets would likely have little, if any, additional benefit. The criteria in our speed management guide does not support a permanent speed limit reduction in this road. To support a reduction in the speed limit on the road this would need to be supported with physical calming measure on College Hill, which are currently not warranted.
  • Suggestion to implement zebra crossing lines rather than red crossing lines due to limited knowledge of what the red lines mean. The red surfacing is solely to highlight the presence of the signalised crossing to drivers. We do not install zebra markings for signalised crossings.
  • Respondent expressed that there is no need for tree removal. We will maintain the tree and instead carry out regular pruning to maintain minimum visibility requirements.
  • Request to not have the traffic lights installed due to increased traffic congestions. The congestion created by the signals will be minimal as they will only be activated by pedestrians and can be accepted due to the safety benefits created for crossing pedestrians.
  • Requests for additional works including:
    • Request to add bus lanes to both sides of College Hill. While this request does not fall within the scope of this proposal which focuses on pedestrian crossing improvements at College Hill, Mary’s Bay, we have passed your concerns onto the relevant AT team for further investigation.

Next steps

This work will happen from July 2018 to June 2019 but we will let you know if there are further changes or delays. Our contractors will send notices to affected residents 48-hours prior to construction starting.