Grafton Mews, Grafton – New Auckland Council parking plan Grafton Mews, Grafton – New Auckland Council parking plan

Road safety

• Concern that Grafton Road and Stanley Street are to be kept clear for emergency vehicles. A minimum width of 3.5 metres is available on all carriageways and emergency services have confirmed 2.8 metres is the minimum space required for their vehicles to have access.
• Concern about vehicles being able to enter or exit the intersection safely from the paid parking. The entry/exit is being made safer through adding the left turn only sign and arrow exiting the intersection onto Grafton Road from Grafton Mews and by making the Grafton Road slip road one way only.
• Concern that people have been parking over current broken yellow lines in the area and ignoring these restrictions. Auckland Transport issues infringements to vehicles parked on broken yellow lines. If you would like to request a parking officer to visit the site, please contact us on (09) 355 3553 with the vehicle details.
• Concern this proposal will cause congestion in this area as people look for alternative places to park. This proposal aims to create parking availability. By creating availability, it reduces the need for people to drive around searching for a parking space, thereby reducing congestion.
• Concern the one-way system in 100 Stanley Street will be a nuisance to drivers. The one-way system has been acting in this way safely for many years. We are now simply formalising the arrangement.
• Request for a pedestrian crossing to be added where the 110 Stanley Street signage sits. This will improve driver visibility of pedestrians/bikes/scooters that may be coming down the hill. This is currently operating safely as a crossing in a low speed area. Further, we will be formalising this as one-way and so drivers should only be approaching up-hill. Therefore, we do not believe a formalised crossing is justified.
• Respondents suggested for larger and clearer signage in the area. The formalised one way will be easier to understand, new signage and road markings will make this clear.
• Suggestion to change the direction of the one-way system to make the intersection safer. The one-way system has been acting in this way for many years and Traffic Engineers were consulted to ensure the intersections continue in a safe manner.

Cost of parking

• Concerns for students being able to afford the parking costs and parking affordability. As an alternative, the area has excellent public transport links.
• Concern that there is a lack of public transport to this area and parking availability in this area is already at a premium cost and limited.Parking availability in this area is limited which is why paid parking is being introduced. The paid parking will be $2 per hour for the first two hours, to encourage short term visitors.
  There are good public transport links in this area; for example:
  • a 5-minute walk to 10 Grafton Road where you can catch the Outer Link Bus
  • a 9-minute walk to Symonds Street with 5 major bus routes
  • a 10-minute walk to Parnell Railway Station
  • an 11-minute walk to Beach Road to catch an Inner Link bus.
• Concerns that short stay visitors will lose free parking options and therefore be deterred from visiting the domain. Visitors to the Domain are encouraged to walk and take public transport. For those who decide to drive the paid parking will provide available parking close by.
• Concerns that the motivities behind changing the parking plan is to make profit not help with parking solutions. Any revenue collected from paid parking is used to fund broader AT projects and helps to offset ratepayer funding from Auckland Council. This includes road maintenance, new public transport services and major infrastructure improvements.
• Concerns about lack of free parking and requests that the parking plan should be for time restricted parking as these spaces are used by students, gym users and park goers. The management of on-street and off-street parking facilities is designed to align with Auckland Transport’s strategic objectives, which are focused on a mode shift towards public transport to help minimise traffic congestion. To achieve this, AT’s policies will prioritise short-stay parking over all day parking and achieve a consistent approach to setting parking rates. Find out more about AT’s Parking Strategy. https://at.govt.nz/about-us/transport-plans-strategies/parking-strategy/ .
• Suggestion for AT to make money from fining people to overstay in parking and therefore not needing a revenue from paid parking. That is not part of our Parking Strategy, nor the rationale for this change.

Nearby business

• Concerns for healthcare workers who use this parking in order to work and rely heavily on the 3-hour parking. The issue highlighted is common across the region for those businesses that do not have sufficient staff parking. The paid parking will make parking nearby more available, for more people.
• Concern that the new parking will affect local business as it will encourage people who want to avoid paid parking to park in business parking areas. Local businesses that provide their own parking have signs in place and, if required, utilise tow trucks.
• Request to further investigate better solutions to allow for more time restricted parking of 3 to 4 hours long for nearby business use. Paid parking will make parking nearby more available for these businesses.

Vulnerable road users

• Concern that the parking plan on the slip road will affect cyclists and pedestrians using the route to travel from the hospital area to Grafton Gully/Beach Road cycle path. Parking on the slip road should not affect cyclists or pedestrians as there will be similar amounts of users on the slip road and the parked vehicles will narrow the road which will help slow vehicle speeds down. The slip road has low traffic volumes and speeds, and also the recorded crash data shows that it currently operates relatively safely. Further, by formalising the one-way there are fewer potential conflicts with vehicles.
• Request for an addition footpath or cycle path on the intersection crossing. This crossing is currently operating safely in a low speed area. Making this into a formalised crossing would conflict with the signalised intersection as drivers may not expect a raised crossing so soon after a signalised intersection; therefore, creating a risk that they drive straight through the crossing. For these reasons, we are currently unable to justify making this into a formalised crossing.
• Request to prioritise cyclists and pedestrians on the slip lane by: making the slip road bidirectional for cycles and landscaping the slip road similar to further up the slip lane. We are unable to formalise 2-way for cyclists here. Making it 2 way for cyclists could lead to confusion as drivers may either also think they can travel both ways or not expect cyclists approaching from the other direction.
  As there are no formal facilities for cyclists to use, they should use the general road space and follow the rules that general vehicles have to follow. There is an existing footpath for pedestrians to use.
• Suggestion to use the slip as a ‘Shared Zone’ rather than paid parking. This means that vehicles stop only for deliveries and taxis reaching nearby businesses and the domain. The slip road is left over from when the motorway was installed. It is an unusual configuration and not well placed to be a shared zone which are about prioritising pedestrians. We find it unlikely that taxis or delivery drivers will use the area as it is further away than other parts of the car park. These drivers tend to park right outside where they are going.
• Suggestion to improve the intersection safety for vulnerable road users by making it a raised crossing, as vehicles tend to drive fast in this area. The parked vehicles will narrow the road, slowing vehicle speeds down. Further, this intersection is currently operating relatively safely as a crossing in a low speed area. Making this into a formalised crossing would conflict with the signalised intersection as drivers may not expect a raised crossing so soon after a signalised intersection; therefore, creating a risk that they drive straight through the crossing. For these reasons, we are unable to justify making this into a formalised crossing.

Other

• Suggestion to relocate the parking plan to a site on Alten Road where there is a large area with potential for a car park. We do not have funding allocated to investigate a new off-street car park in this area and would not see it as a priority when this area has good public transport links.
• Request for electric vehicle parking to be incorporated into the parking plan. AT does not currently provide charging points in the public road reserve. With regard to off street car parks, while AT does provide charging ports they tend to be in areas where the demand for short charging periods is high; such as close to a retail centre. We would not consider this to be the case in this car park.
• Suggestion that Resource Consent is required. AT does not need to apply for resource consent as the use of the area is not changing, it is still the parking area for the Auckland Domain and the Associated Sporting Facilities.