Skip to main content

Sartors Avenue, Northcross - Raised Zebra Crossing Sartors Avenue, Northcross - Raised Zebra Crossing

Proposal status: Closed

Reference number: 20100522

Proposal outcome

In November 2022, we proposed to raise two zebra crossings outside 5 and 43 Sartors Avenue to improve pedestrian safety and reduce vehicle speeds near Northcross Intermediate and Sherwood Primary School. After reviewing all the feedback we received from the local community, we are proceeding with the works as proposed. These works will help support Tāmaki Makaurau’s Vision Zero goal.

What happens next

We anticipate the changes will be constructed in July-September 2023. We will be in touch with local residents and businesses prior to any construction taking place.

Community feedback

Thank you for helping us make better decisions for your neighbourhood, informed by your local knowledge.

From the feedback we received, 60% of respondents have let us know that the proposed changes would benefit the community.

Members of the community who supported the proposal, including Northcross Intermediate and Sherwood Primary School, have told us the changes would:

  • Improve the safety of children
  • Slow drivers down

We also received some concerns and questions from the community regarding the changes.

Raised crossing

  • Concern that raising the crossing would cause further congestion on Sartors Avenue during peak school traffic periods.

The design of the raised zebra crossings is gentle with 1:15 ramp grades and a height of 75 mm. This allows smooth transitions for motorists as well as providing traffic calming and safety benefits. Therefore, the proposed scheme is unlikely to cause congestion outside of school times. Raised zebra crossings will control the flow of traffic at a safe and appropriate speed of approximately 30km/h.

  • Concern that the safety benefits of raising the crossing is negligible during pick up and drop off times as these crossings are patrolled by the school.

Although, most children cross here when it’s patrolled, others use this crossing outside of patrolled hours for sporting events and after school activities, for example. Raised zebra crossings have been proven to be an effective way of slowing vehicles to 30km/h or less which significantly reduces the risk of a death or serious injury if a crash happens. Slow speeds are essential to ensure pedestrian safety is maintained at all times.

  • Concern regarding the effectiveness of speed bumps to reduce speeds.

Raised zebra crossings have been proven to be an effective way of slowing vehicles to approximately 30km/h or less. Research shows that a reduction in vehicle speeds from 50km/h to 30km/h can reduce the likelihood of a death or serious injury in a crash involving a vehicle and pedestrian from 80% down to 10%.

  • Concern regarding speed bumps causing additional road noise. Request for reporting and plans to mitigate road noise caused by the raised crossing.

We have investigated concerns raised by members of the public regarding noise and vibration generated by the installation of speed bumps and raised crossings on Tāmaki Makaurau’s roads.

Several factors contribute to noise and vibration such as the speed of vehicles, traffic volume, heavy vehicle usage, road surface imperfections, underlaying ground condition, and the type of construction.

The latest traffic counts shows that Sartors Avenue carries approximately 3200 vehicles per day with only 2.3% (73) heavy vehicles. As the volume of heavy vehicles on Sartors Avenue is low, an increase in noise level due to the raised crossings should be minimal. The advance warning of the crossings should also slow down drivers as they approach the crossings, rather than changing speed abruptly which can create noise. The design of the raised zebra crossings is gentle with 1:15 ramp grades and a height of 75 mm. This allows a smooth transition for motorists as they travel over the crossing as well as reducing speed and increasing safety. For additional information relating to noise and vibration, please visit Waka Kotahi's webpage about noise and vibration.

  • Concern regarding the potential long-term damage of speedbumps on vehicles.

There is no evidence of damage to vehicles from raised crossings when motorists drive over them at appropriate speeds. They are designed to provide a smooth transition from the road when motorists drive over them at the advised speed limit.

  • Concern that the raised crossing will be poorly constructed and uncomfortable to travel over. Request for the raised crossing to be permanent and well-constructed.

Thank you for your feedback. The raised zebra crossings on Sartors Avenue will be constructed to AT’s Transport Design Manual Standards which provides the design guidance and engineering requirements for the development and delivery of well-designed transport projects and their operation.

  • Concern regarding speed bumps being an obstacle for emergency vehicles, especially for Ambulance vehicles.

We appreciate you raising concerns about this project’s impact on emergency services. We have consulted with Fire and Emergency, Police and Ambulance services and have received feedback from Fire and Emergency in support of the design of the raised crossings.

  • Request for construction to align with school holiday periods to limit congestion.

We aim to align the construction period with the school holidays to reduce disruption if possible.

  • Concern that installing the new pedestrian island at #43 would not improve safety and cause additional congestion as vehicles will not be able to over pass.

The new pedestrian island will be an upgrade to the existing pedestrian island outside 43 Sartors Avenue. The island provides a safe space for pedestrians to wait for vehicles to come to a complete stop before continuing to cross. The island also reduces the crossing distance, which provides improved safety and ease for pedestrians.

  • Concern that rebuilding the footpaths, extending the broken yellow lines, and installing new signage are cosmetic and therefore unnecessary.

We are reconstructing the footpath so that it is level with the crossing, so it is easier for people with wheelchairs and prams to use the crossing.  Cars parked close to crossings restrict visibility so painting broken yellow lines ensures drivers and pedestrians can see each other clearly. Signage is used to give advance warning to drivers that they are approaching a speed bump and zebra crossing. Belisha beacons, which are striped poles with orange lamps, alert drivers to the crossing location.

  • Suggestion to paint the road crossings in the proposed manner to provide strong visual cues for road users.

Painting the zebra crossings and dragon tooth markings (triangular road markings) alone, without raising the crossing will not provide the necessary speed calming benefits that will improve the safety of pedestrians crossing here.

Project necessity

  • Concern that raising the crossing is unnecessary as no traffic accidents have been observed in the last 20 years and Waka Kotahi's crash analysis data shows the historic issues on Sartors Ave are all non-injury or minor, there are no deaths or serious injuries. No accidents involved pedestrians. They are all accidents involving parked vehicles or single vehicles.

Thankfully there haven’t been any crashes at the crossing that have resulted in injuries. But there are many students and other pedestrians crossing here and we want to prioritise improving safety now, rather than waiting for a crash to happen to make changes. Raised crossings are an effective way to slow vehicles down to 30km/h or less which significantly reduces the risk of a death or serious injury when an accident happens.

  • Concern that the raised crossing is unnecessary as the high traffic volumes during school pick up and drop off prevents speeding.

The proposed changes encourage people to drive at safer speeds at all times, including outside of school hours when the road may be less busy. Improving the safety of pedestrians and cyclists on Sartors Avenue is important as this is a designated walking network, and there is pedestrian activity outside of school hours including sporting events and after school activities.

  • Concern that the raised crossing is unnecessary because parked vehicles narrow the road and people can’t drive at high speeds.

Our site observations and the feedback we have received show that outside of school times, speeding can be an issue on Sartors Avenue. The raised crossings reduce speeds which improves the safety of all road users.

Parking restrictions during school pick up and drop off times, widens the road at pedestrian crossing locations to increase visibility.

  • Concern that raising the existing crossings are unnecessary as the current crossing facilities are safe.

Raised zebra crossings help to reduce speeds to 30km/h where pedestrians enter the road space, creating a safer crossing environment. Research shows that a reduction in speeds from 50km/h to 30km/h can reduce the likelihood of a death or serious injury in a crash involving a vehicle and pedestrian from 80% down to 10%.

  • Concern that the proposed changes are unnecessary because there are not many people in wheelchairs or with prams using the crossings.

As pedestrians have right of way to use the crossings at all times, we must ensure the crossing facilities are safe, especially for all road users.

Speeds

  • Request for AT to consider reducing the speed limit to 40 km/h or less permanently or during busy school periods.

Sartors Avenue will be investigated in the School Speed Management Plan which can introduce a variable 30km/h speed limit outside schools. At this stage, we are unable to confirm the timeframes for this. For more information about this plan, please visit the Safe speeds around schools webpage.

There are no plans for a 40km/h speed limit restriction at this stage.

  • Suggestion to install additional speed bumps between the two raised crossings, i.e., near the Woodridge Intersection.

We will not be proposing any additional speed bumps here at this stage, however, we will continue to monitor speeds along Sartors Avenue and make additional improvements if required in the future.

  • Suggestion to install a speed camera to monitor and discourage speeding on this road.

Where speed cameras are installed depends on many factors. This can include roads or intersections where speeding, high-speed related crashes, motorists not complying with signals and red light running have been identified.

Our site observations and the feedback we have received show that speed can be an issue outside of school times. But, the latest traffic counts and low crash history doesn’t suggest that speed cameras are required at this stage. If speeding is observed after the crossings have been installed, we will consider further measures to improve safety and lower speeds.

If you observe risky or unsafe driving and you would like to report the incident to the Police, please visit the NZ Police webpage to report a road incident or unsafe driver.

  • Suggestion to install additional speed calming measures on Sartors Avenue.

When we consider locations to install raised crossings, we investigate areas where there’s demand for pedestrians to cross the road such as outside a school or near shops. At this stage, there are no other identified areas on Sartors Avenue with high pedestrian crossing demand, so additional measures are not planned at this stage.

  • Request for police monitoring and enforcement to deter people from driving at inappropriate speeds.

While enforcement plays an important part of speed management and safety, changing the speed environment through improvements to the pedestrian crossing infrastructure promotes safer speeds at all times.

If high speeds are observed as an issue after the improvements have been installed, Auckland Transport will consider further measures to improve safety and lower speeds.

Road safety and access

  • Request for Sartors Avenue to be widened to improve safety, accessibility, and traffic flow. The road is narrowest from #2 - #60. Suggestion to remove the grass berms along Sartors Avenue to widen the road.

We are not currently considering widening the road as it has high associated costs such as the relocation of underground services including water, storm water and gas. Wider roads can also encourage higher speeds, therefore reducing the overall safety for all road users. Additional parking restrictions may be considered if congestion causes safety issues for pedestrians and cyclists.

  • Suggestion to install traffic lights at the top of Sartors Ave (Sartors Avenue and East Coast Road intersection). It is difficult to travel through this area during peak traffic periods. It has also been observed that most accidents happen around this area, not around the schools.

We appreciate your feedback to improve the safety of your community. The Sartors Avenue and East Coast Road intersection is operating satisfactorily with no identified safety issues. There are no plans to install improvements at the intersection of Sartors Avenue and East Coast Road at this stage.

  • Suggestion to make Sartors Avenue a one-way road during peak traffic times.

Thank you for your suggestion to improve the safety of your community. There are several factors to be considered when deciding on implementing a one-way street, such as land use, crash history, road hierarchy, and inconvenience to residents. Apart from the two schools, Sartors Avenue is predominantly residential and the low crash history along Sartors Avenue does not suggest the need for making Sartors Avenue one way during peak times at this stage.

  • Suggestion to install signage at the Sartors Avenue and East Coast Road intersection to warn drivers about the upcoming crossing.

Our proposal includes installing signage to give drivers advanced warning that they’re approaching a raised zebra crossing. We are also installing belisha beacons which are striped poles with orange lamps, which improves awareness during low lit hours that drivers are approaching a crossing.

  • Suggestion to improve the visibility of signage (currently too high up or small).

New signage will be installed to be clearly visible to all road users and pedestrians.

Pedestrian facilities

  • Suggestion for an additional crossing between Northcross Intermediate and Sherwood Primary School.

Thank you for your suggestion. When we consider locations to install crossing facilities, we look into areas where there’s demand for pedestrians to cross the road such as outside a school or near shops. Currently, there is low pedestrian demand between the two crossings, so we will not be installing additional crossing facilities there at this time.

However, if we receive additional requests from the community and observe an increase in pedestrian demand for a crossing at this location, we will look into this further.

  • Concern that the signalised pedestrian crossing on East Coast Road is in the wrong location.

We’d appreciate some further information about why the signalised pedestrian crossing outside 868 East Coast Road is at the wrong location. To our current knowledge, this signalised crossing has been in place since 2007 with no identified safety issue.

This project aims to improve pedestrian safety by upgrading the crossings outside the schools on Sartors Avenue only. Please contact us on 09 355 3553 or write to us if you would like to provide us with some additional information that would help us better understand your concern.

  • Suggestion to install a zebra crossing at 145 Glencoe Road, just off Sartors Avenue. This will be beneficial for children going to and from the schools nearby, and there are many vehicles travelling at high speeds at this location that has poor visibility.

Thank you for your suggestion to improve road safety in your community. We will include your site in our master list for prioritisation for existing and new pedestrian crossing improvements in the Auckland region. At this stage, we are unable to provide you any time frames for the investigation of this site. We receive a high number of requests for pedestrian improvements throughout the region, so we prioritise sites that have a history of pedestrian related crashes, are considered high risk, and/or have high pedestrian demand.

Parking

  • Suggestion to utilise parking wardens on Sartors Avenue during school pick up and drop off times as people park inappropriately.

Community Transport Coordinators from Auckland Transport work with schools to develop various programmes such as walking school busses and to discourage illegal parking during school peak times.

We will continue to work with schools to carry out random enforcement to discourage illegal parking during school peak periods. Please contact our Parking Compliance Department on (09) 355 3553 whenever you face an illegal parking issue. This will allow us to dispatch a parking warden to the advised location as we can only take action against an illegally parked vehicle if one of our parking wardens witnesses it at the time of offence.

  • Suggestion to install parking restrictions along one side of the road to alleviate congestion during peak traffic hours. Request for additional parking restrictions, including broken yellow lines, on Sartors Avenue.

Thank you for your suggestion. When we put in parking restrictions, we consider the parking demand and safety needs of the community. As the existing parking restrictions along Sartors Avenue are appropriate for the community, we will not be installing additional parking restrictions at this stage. Also, as parking restrictions increase the available road space, it can encourage people to drive at higher speeds than if the road were narrower.

  • Concern regarding the removal of parking spaces.

We understand that the removal of on-street parking can be inconvenient, however, we need to ensure pedestrians using the zebra crossing have enough visibility of approaching drivers to safely cross the road and that drivers can see people waiting to cross the road and stop safely.

  • Request for broken yellow lines outside 6 Sartors Avenue, Northcross.

The broken yellow lines near the crossing at 8 Sartors Road were painted to ensure that there is adequate visibility between vehicles and pedestrians crossing there. Vehicles parking outside 6 Sartors Avenue do not raise any safety or visibility concerns, therefore we will not be painting broken yellow lines there as part of this project.

Other/miscellaneous

  • Concern that raising the zebra crossings will not solve poor driving attitudes along this road.

Raised zebra crossings encourage people to drive at slower, safer speeds at all times but they cannot prevent risky or unsafe driving behaviours entirely.

If you observe any risky or unsafe driving in your community and you would like to report the incident to the Police, please visit the NZ Police webpage to report a road incident or unsafe driver.

  • Concern that the traffic congestion problem along Sartors Avenue was caused by installing crossings on John Downs Drive, Eastwood Rise, Oaktree Ave which turned Sartors Ave into the main route for traffic from points north and Albany.

Thank you for raising this concern with us. The existing raised crossings in John Downs Drive, Eastwood Rise, Oaktree Ave help create a safer, low-speed environment. The daily average traffic volume along Sartors Avenue is expected for an arterial road with two schools with a combined roll of approximately 1800 students and is likely not affected by crossings on the nearby side streets.

We’re proposing improvements in your area

To improve pedestrian safety and reduce vehicle speeds near Northcross Intermediate and Sherwood Primary School, we are proposing to upgrade two zebra crossings on Sartors Avenue in Northcross.

We've visited and investigated this area and found that drivers often travel above 50km/h.

We are proposing to: 

  • Raise the zebra crossings outside 5 and 43 Sartors Avenue. Both raised crossings will have gentle exit slopes to make it more comfortable for drivers and buses.
  • Install a new pedestrian island at the centre of the crossing outside 43 Sartors Avenue. A pedestrian island is a raised platform in the middle of a road that makes crossing safer by separating the two traffic lanes and breaking up the journey.
  • Rebuild the footpath and install tactile pavers at the crossing points. These are yellow guidance paving markers to help visually impaired people to find their way to crossings and safely across roads.
  • Extending broken yellow lines (no stopping at all times) outside 3 Sartors Avenue to improve visibility between pedestrians and motorists.
  • Install new signage, a streetlight, and paint road markings to support the change.

Benefits:

  • Encouraging drivers to slow down and travel at a safer speed which improves safety for everyone. Slower speeds help reduce the likelihood of serious injuries or death in the event of an accident.
  • Improve visibility between drivers and pedestrians at the crossings.
  • Making crossing at these locations more comfortable for everyone, especially people with prams and wheelchairs, as the raised crossing will be level with the footpath.

Download proposal drawings for Sartors Avenue, Northcross (PDF 1.52MB)

These improvements would remove 2 on street parking spaces as a result. We understand the removal of parking can be inconvenient, so we have minimised it as much as possible while still improving safety and visibility.

Auckland Transport would like to work with you to deliver safer roads in your neighbourhood.

What happens next

  • We’ll consider all the feedback we receive, and then decide the best way to move forward.
  • We’ll post the outcome of this proposal and a summary of community feedback on this webpage.
  • We can email you the proposal outcome as soon as it’s ready – just select that option when you fill in the survey.

More information

  • This proposal is supported with funding from the Auckland regional fuel tax.

Northcross: Safe with us

Auckland Transport cares for your safety. We want to make our roads safe for everyone, people walking and cycling, especially for our kids and senior citizens and people driving.

Projects like this one in Northcross are another step towards our goal of achieving no deaths or serious injuries on our roads. We are guided by the Vision Zero approach to transport safety, which prioritises human safety over other measures (like minor time saving).