We have lived at the corner of Bullock Track and Surrey Crescent for 27 years. I was surprised to learn – via a Facebook post rather than any formal communication – that Auckland Transport (AT) is considering changes to this intersection.
As an immediate neighbour, I would expect early consultation. To date, I have seen none. Yet in a conversation with AT design engineer David Boulton, the project was repeatedly described not as an investigation, but as a concrete plan to “signalise” the intersection.
While AT has publicly suggested it is exploring options (including doing nothing, installing a traffic island, or other alternatives), the repeated framing of the project as a plan to install traffic lights suggests a predetermined outcome. When I raised the possibility of a roundabout, I was told this had effectively already been ruled out. While AT claims to be exploring options, it appears a decision has already been made. If consultation is to be meaningful, it must occur before decisions are made – not after.
Traffic lights here would solve little and create new problems. In nearly three decades, I am not aware of any pedestrian injury or fatal crash at this site. Minor vehicle incidents do occur, as they do anywhere, but at low speeds and so far with limited consequence. Pedestrians already cross safely using the narrow roadway and central refuge.
What lights would do, however, is create new congestion. We know this because AT has already run the experiment. Temporary signals installed during recent cycleway works produced queues stretching hundreds of metres in both directions.
The attached photos, taken around 8:30am in late January, show congestion backed up to Francis Street and along Surrey Crescent toward Gilbert Avenue – during school holidays. Permanent lights would make this a daily reality. It is not difficult to imagine how much worse this would become during peak school traffic. A free-flowing route would be turned into permanent gridlock.
Meanwhile, a real problem, the bottleneck at the bottom of The Bullock Track and Great North Road, remains unaddressed.
Mark McNeill
Grey Lynn
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