Historic HB: Drivers confused over use of roundabout

Havelock North in 1958. Note the outline of the roundabout. Photo / Hastings District Council CTA-02-12-07-71

When Havelock was surveyed as a town during 1858/59, it had a central meeting junction where six roads converged at what became known as the 'village'.

The first Havelock sections were offered for sale in 1860, and these roads named were Te Aute (part of which is now Napier Rd), Te Mata and Middle Rds. Havelock, Joll and Napier Rds all came later.

As Hastings and the railway through it did not come along until some 14 years later, Havelock was the main thoroughfare from the south to Napier via Middle and Te Aute Rds.

Bullocks pulling carts of wool to Napier, or livestock driven through the village centre came unstuck during winter and the muddy unsealed roads caused many of the animals to topple over.

Thirty-five residents of Havelock wrote to the Hawke's Bay Provincial Council in 1862 to ask for road improvements. This was granted and several contracts were let to "Europeans and Natives" for road formation and metalling on Te Aute Rd.

With Havelock becoming a more desirable place to live in the early 1900s (above the flood plains before river control) and the arrival of the motor vehicle, new issues began to emerge at the junction.

In 1917 a speed limit was put in place by the Havelock North Town Board through the village of 15 miles per hour (24km/h), and eight mph (13km/h) when going around a corner.

Signs were put up to the entrance to the village to remind motorists of the speed limits.

Motorists were also reminded to "sound the horn before turning any corner, to give timely warning to anyone approaching from the opposite corner."

By 1956, with motor vehicles now in common ownership, the junction where all the six roads met had become somewhat of a 'traffic wild west''.

The Havelock North Borough Council had been concerned for a number of years about the high traffic density, a large intersection area with no clearly defined route and a high percentage of turning traffic.

Its solution was a roundabout, which was marked out with concrete pavers, and put in place in October 1957. The Havelock North Borough Council then applied for a subsidy for the estimated £2,832 (2021: $146,000) cost from the National Roads Board for a permanent roundabout.

The permanent roundabout was completed in early 1958 after land to create the shape was taken from the Joll Rd corner (BNZ corner) and from McDuff's Hotel on Havelock Rd.

While it appears Havelock North didn't have the first temporary roundabout (one was established in February 1957 in Christchurch), it appears it was the first permanent one in New Zealand.

Michael Fowler

Many Havelockite's, who for years had driven through the junctions' "no man's land" in their own particular style, did not adapt well to the new roundabout, and a fair amount of confusion arose on exactly how to use it.

Some of them apparently weren't even aware a roundabout had been created.

Peter Arthur tells a story when he was a schoolboy of a visit to his grandmother, Mrs Maude Lowe, when the roundabout was formed. She lived in what was then called Fitzroy Ave (changed to Busby Hill). They set off for Hastings in her Willys Jeep, travelling along Campbell St, then turning into Joll Rd.

Peter recalls his grandmother coming down Joll Rd, and then driving right over the roundabout into Havelock Rd.

"Why have they put those bumps in the road?" she said to Peter.

Unknowingly, she had driven over the concrete kerbing twice as she passed through the roundabout. Apparently, this was repeated by Maude on a number of occasions.

Another elderly lady driver was often seen to pull up to the roundabout and then drive in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction, whichever way she wanted to go.

Faced with this and other occurrences, the Havelock North Borough Council was rather perplexed as how to ensure orderly use of it.

Therefore in January 1959, the Havelock North Borough Council ordered six "KEEP LEFT" signs to be mounted on poles to the entrance to the roundabout on each of the six roads.

Many drivers entering the roundabout from Te Mata Rd drove straight ahead and did not give way to roundabout traffic proceeding to Joll, Middle or Te Aute Rds.

This was not lost on a very active Havelock North Citizens' Association which wrote to both the Council and Hastings-based Traffic Department stating, "misuse of the roundabout by a considerable proportion of the driving public."

"Motorists coming from Hastings and proceeding to Middle, or Te Aute Rd have to brake sharply to avoid oncoming traffic entering the roundabout from Te Mata Rd."

By 1963, and still concerned about traffic operation on the roundabout, the Havelock North Borough Council wrote to Transport Department requesting it be allowed to put give way signs to the approaches to the roundabout. They agreed, stating traffic entering a roundabout would have to give way to vehicles already on the roundabout. (It could be said confusion on roundabouts – especially two laned ones, is still an issue today for many).

Traffic build-up grew at the roundabout as new suburbs and subsequent population growth occurred in Havelock North during the early 1960s. The roundabout, being the only way then to move through Havelock North became a traffic bottleneck (as some might say it still is today).

The first solution to move traffic away from the centre of Havelock North was the Karenema Drive by-pass opened in 1966, which connected with Napier and Te Mata Rds.

During Jeff Whittaker's time as mayor of Havelock North, Porter Drive was opened which diverted traffic away from the roundabout to Middle, Te Aute and Joll Rds, which was completed in 1977.

- Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory