Get moving: Peak-time use of parking spaces outside tavern illegal

By PHOEBE FALCONER

Q. In Fanshawe St, heading north, there are three parking spaces outside a nightclub. Why do the three lanes of traffic there have to merge into two just to accommodate three parked cars? - Rick Wood, Auckland.

A. Chris Geerlings, of Auckland City, says these three spots are loading zones for the Immigrant Tavern, which has no other parking area. If cars were parked there in peak hours, they were parked illegally. The council will now keep an eye out for further miscreants. You have been warned.

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Q. I have noticed a drilling rig working at the new intersection at Barrys Point Rd. It has a small-diameter auger with a white ribbon attached, and lots of other white ribbons protruding from the sandy area where it is working. Are these small-diameter piles or injection points for some sort of ground improvements? - Dave Smith, Orakei.

A. Or even, it has been suggested, subterranean maypole dancers. Much more prosaic, I'm afraid. They are wick drains, to hasten the settlement and consolidation of the area by squeezing out moisture from the underlying marine mud, before other stuff is built on top. But it will all stop soon, as winter draws on.

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Q. Why are motorcycles not allowed to use the buslanes on the motorway, as they are in the city? - Mike Mora, Browns Bay, and David Sandford, Auckland.

A. Transit NZ feels that motorcycles would not be safe among the fast-moving buses (or high-occupancy vehicles as we lovingly call them), and also rather defeat the aim of keeping the buslanes congestion-free. On the North Shore, once the busway and its stations are in use, there is a fear that motorbikes would get tangled up with pedestrians in the bus station areas.

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Q. I would like to know why the clearway hours in the city and suburbs can't be extended, say from 3pm to 7pm. Surely this would clear homeward traffic faster, especially if the clearways were actually cleared when they are supposed to be. - Patsy Gordon, Auckland.

A. These things take time, Patsy. A report has gone to the transport and roading committee of Auckland City, but it will require thinking about and a resolution. As for clearing the clearways, there are a limited number of parking wardens to issue tickets and call towtrucks, and then the towies can't get there because of the traffic ...

Patsy has another question:

Q. While Greenlane East is all torn up at the moment, why don't they take the opportunity to widen it?

A. Because the substructure under the footpath is not strong enough to support a roadway. And all the gas, water, sewage etc pipes run under the footpath, so they would have to go. Then there might be expensive land purchases for road-widening.



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