At Exit 431 they're eager to see you

Cameron Brewer adds to the sign that he says is no use to drivers trying to decide where to turn off. Picture / Richard Robinson

Newmarket businesspeople are astonished that Transit New Zealand can call a new system of motorway exit signs "user-friendly" when it relies on numbers rather than place names.

They have offered the highways agency what they say is a lesson in common sense by knocking up their own sign to point motorists their way.

This is in the absence of any reference to Newmarket in signs visible to southbound motorway traffic.

Transit said last week that it was making Auckland motorway off-ramps and links more user-friendly by introducing an exit numbering system according to an international standard adopted by countries including Australia, Britain and the United States.

The number of a motorway exit denotes how far it is from the beginning of the state highway in question.

Southbound motorists headed for Newmarket should therefore look for Exit 431, indicating the number of kilometres from the origin of State Highway 1, at Cape Reinga.

Those travelling from central Auckland along the Northwestern Motorway to St Lukes Rd should look for Exit 6, as they are using State Highway 16, which starts 6km away at the port.

The numbering system is in addition to existing signs and does not replace geographical names.

But the Newmarket Business Association is irked that the names on signs leading to the main off-ramp to their suburb announce it only as "Exit 431, Gillies Ave and Airport".

There is a sign halfway along the off-ramp pointing the way to Newmarket, and another at the junction with Gillies Ave, but association general manager Cameron Brewer says these are no use to drivers on the motorway trying to decide where to turn off.

Mr Brewer has written to Transit congratulating it on improvements to Spaghetti Junction, and on widening the Newmarket off-ramp.

"However, it's such a shame no one will know it's the Newmarket exit, unless of course they know Auckland's geography relatively well," he said in his letter to Transit's northern regional manager, Richard Hancy.

"We in Newmarket see the omission of 'Newmarket' on SH1 as unhelpful, particularly as over 200,000 cars travel through Spaghetti Junction each day - undoubtedly some of these drivers are trying to find our premier retail and business precinct."

Mr Hancy could not be reached to respond to the business association's offer to provide his agency with a sign it made on Friday for the Mountain Rd bridge over the Southern Motorway, pointing the way to Newmarket.

But he said earlier that exit numbering would make navigating the motorway system easier, especially for visitors to Auckland.

The numbers would appear on street maps and electronic signs, and Mr Hancy said they would also help emergency services respond faster to breakdowns or crashes.

"Visitors to Auckland will no longer need to remember unfamiliar place names to find the right motorway exits and instead will be able to use a method more familiar to them."

But Mr Brewer said the signs before the Newmarket exit were no help to a friend of his from out of Auckland, who had never heard of Gillies Ave and missed the turnoff.

He wondered how user-friendly the number 431 would be to a Cape Reinga lighthouse keeper and his family heading for a weekend of shopping at Newmarket and setting their odometer at the start of the trip.

"When it rolls over to 431km they can flick the left indicator and take the turn to Newmarket - very user-friendly," he said.

"We just want Transit to be a little more practical and have signs that reflect how drivers think and navigate."