Donald Bruce Road, Surfdale - Parking restrictions Donald Bruce Road, Surfdale - Parking restrictions

Proposal status: closed 27 February 2019

Reference number: RTV-206

We're proposing changes in your area

We are proposing that no parking be permitted off the roadway of Donald Bruce Road in Surfdale, Waiheke.

Download the proposal drawing for Donald Bruce Road (PDF 470KB).

Why the changes are needed

These changes are needed to improve road safety by increasing the visibility for vehicles entering and exiting the car park on Donald Bruce Road.

Speeding has been consistently raised as an issue on Donald Bruce Road with drivers seeking to get to the ferry on time. This concern has been magnified by restricted visibility, as vehicles parking on the berm are impeding the visibility of queuing traffic.

There have been 3 incidents approaching the entrance to the car park in the past 5 years, two relating to loss of control and another resulting in a rear end crash into queued traffic.

Proposal outcome

This project will proceed without changes to the next stage of detailed planning. Thank you to everyone who submitted feedback. A summary of this feedback and answers to community questions and concerns is below.

Feedback received

  • This proposal received positive responses from community members and stakeholders who supported improving road safety by increasing the visibility for vehicles entering and exiting the car park on Donald Bruce Road.
  • Requests for further transport options.
    Regarding the bus network on Waiheke Island, public consultation has been completed and it is anticipated that a recommendation will be placed before the AT Board in early 2019. Read the feedback results for the Waiheke consultation. AT fully understands the rationale of aligning the new bus network with this proposal and parking on the berm being symptomatic of a lack of parking, however it remains that parking on the berm is in contravention of the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004 and creates safety issues which AT feels it is more important to address.
  • Concerns there was no safety issue to address.
    While other factors might also have been applicable to the collisions cited as the reason these parking restrictions are required, the issue of vehicles parking on the berm has been investigated by Auckland Transport’s Traffic Engineering team. The result of this investigation was that vehicles parked on the berm contributed to restricted visibility.
  • Concerns that the parking restriction won’t be enforced.
    This proposal will remove any ambiguity that might exist regarding parking on the grass berm and allow Auckland Transport to ensure compliance is achieved.
  • Request to investigate the possibility of a residential permit parking system on Kennedy Point Road.
    Auckland Transport will consider proposing a residential parking zone when the peak parking occupancy reaches 85%. The volume of requests that AT receives for residential schemes is such that the Parking Design team cannot respond to them immediately. Instead we keep a log which we use to prioritise our work programme in this area. Auckland Transport would wish to monitor the situation before making any recommendations in the future.

Next steps

We estimate that this proposal will be implemented by approximately August 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.