Mitchelson Street, Ellerslie - Broken yellow lines Mitchelson Street, Ellerslie - Broken yellow lines

Proposal status: closed 22 November 2018

Reference number: BYL-350

We're proposing changes in your area

We are proposing to install broken yellow lines restrictions on Mitchelson Street, Ellerslie.

Download the proposal drawing for Mitchelson Street (PDF 367KB)

Why the changes are needed

These changes are needed as drivers are parking on the inside of the curve on Mitchelson Street (near Gate 5 for the Ellerslie Race course), these parked vehicles can obstruct forward visibility of westbound drivers.

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.

This proposal received positive responses from community members and stakeholders who supported increased visibility, and requested further expansions of broken yellow lines.

Feedback received

  • Respondents suggest there should be restricted parking on both sides. The parking restriction is not required on both sides since the proposal is being implemented to mitigate limited visibility of oncoming traffic, when travelling around the curve.
  • There should be no parking inside the tunnel.  Cars are always zooming through there, and if you allow parking on one side, vehicles are going to have to drive over the centreline (which are double lines which are no crossing lines) to bypass parked vehicles. It's also quite dark in the tunnel during the day, and the radius of the curve through that tunnel is quite tight. Having vehicles parked in the tunnel is not desirable. Removing parking in the tunnel will effectively increase the width of the traffic lanes, which in turn is known to increase vehicle speeds, making the street a more attractive route and encouraging greater volumes of traffic. These same parked vehicles discourage drivers from speeding as cars parked on the side of the road give drivers the impression of a narrow road, encouraging greater care and lower speed when driving.
  • Respondent suggests that the grass berm on the motorway side be turned in to parking as it is very rarely mowed and often rubbish is dumped. There is extensive on street parking along both sides of Mitchelson Street so additional parking is not required. Additionally, the installation of parking bays requires full reconstruction of the berm area and footpath, including tree removal, relocating power lines and other utilities, to meet the minimum road standards. These works have a very high cost and due to our limited funding we normally do not install this type of facility except in special circumstances where there are no parking alternatives.
  • Driving southbound can be difficult as the oncoming traffic generally speed up after they have driven over the last speed bump. We are introducing a new programme to reduce speed and increase safety on our residential roads. The new Residential Speed Management programme is an area based programme recognising traffic calming changes on one street impact on the surrounding network. These areas have been prioritised to reduce the incidence and impact of crashes. This is based on several factors, including the number of crashes, safety risk, traffic speed, land use and concerns raised by local residents and their elected representatives.
    Mitchelson Street is not within a high priority area for speed calming in the next 3 years and although we will be unable to investigate and respond to your individual request, we have added your comments to our database to indicate support for safer speeds in your residential area.

Next steps

This work will happen before July 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.