Cavendish Drive, Papatoetoe - Intersection improvements Cavendish Drive, Papatoetoe - Intersection improvements

Cycling safety

• Suggestion for no Advanced Stop Boxes - as they do not work and are highly discouraged by the NATCO Transport Design regime and concern that the cycle promote box for right hand turns off Cavendish is not great for bikes. Advanced Stop Boxes are a safety feature designed to further highlight the presence of cyclists. They provide safe refuges for cyclists to wait at the front of a lane of traffic as they wait to turn at signalised intersections. To allow cyclists to turn safely at busy intersections we will continue to use this safety feature.
• Suggestion to paint the cycle lane green where it crosses driveways. We will ensure that the cycle lane will be painted green where it crosses driveways on the midblock.
• Multiple requests to separate the Cavendish Drive cycle lanes from the main road. Request to separate with concrete sleepers that extend 400 metres in either direction from the intersection to protect cyclists. Physical bike lane separation is beyond the scope of this project. There are clearly marked bike lanes on either side of the road and the proposed signalised controls for pedestrians and cyclists should help improve safety at the intersection.
• Request to establish cycling signals at the intersection. We wish to clarify that to improve safety at this intersection both pedestrians and cyclists will be controlled by the proposed signalisation on all 4 legs of the intersection and the service access driveway.
• Suggestion that it is better to create a dog leg crossing with signals for cycling. Cavendish Drive has an existing cycle lane on both sides of the road, and cyclists will be controlled by the proposed signalisation of all 4 legs of the intersection. A dog leg crossing allows people to cross the road in two stages by having a safe refuge to wait. However, Cavendish Drive and Norman Spencer Drive are not wide enough roads to install a refuge island suitable for both cyclists and pedestrians.

Suggestions

• Request to keep the left turn slip lane out of Norman Spencer. We considered this option during early project planning, but it did not progress. We checked the intersection performance should the slip lanes be removed, and it is predicted to perform within the acceptable level of service. If the slip lanes are retained it is likely they would require an upgrade with raised speed tables.
• Suggestion that a roundabout might improve traffic flow more than traffic lights. This option was considered during early project planning, but it did not progress as a multi-lane roundabout design presents a risk to vulnerable road users in a 60kph speed limit urban environment. Land acquisition may also have been required to allow vehicles to move freely around the roundabout.
• Suggestion that a third merging line will help the intersection. Request to compare the data for accidents at this intersection with the accidents at Great South Road and Cavendish Drive intersection. Both Cavendish Drive/Norman Spencer Drive and Cavendish Drive/Great South Road intersections are identified as high-risk intersections. Our investigation indicates that Cavendish Drive/Norman Spencer Drive is performing worse than 70% of similar intersections and warranted safety intervention changes. We are monitoring the operation and safety performance of the Cavendish Drive/Great South Road high-risk intersection.
• Request for good light phasing, as the phasing at Great South Road and Manukau Station Road causes people to jump the lights. The traffic light phasing will be designed to support the efficient and safe operation of the intersection. Traffic patterns at the intersection have been studied and will be used to make light phasing most suited to the intersection.

Other concerns

• Request for no signalisation of this intersection, as there are already lights at adjacent intersections and will increase congestion and impact businesses at peak times. Our assessment estimates that the proposed changes should perform at an acceptable level of service with minimal delays. The purpose of the proposal is to address the safety issues identified at the intersection. The Cavendish Drive/Norman Spencer Drive intersection is a known high-risk intersection including 3 serious car accidents in the last 5 years. Our assessment estimates that the proposal is likely to reduce accidents at this intersection.
• Concern that when there is a lot of traffic it is very difficult to turn right out of the BP petrol station. Our assessment estimates that with the proposal the driveway at #116 Cavendish Drive, the BP Petrol Station, is likely to continue to operate in a way similar to the existing intersection design.