Signs of the times break letter of the law

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Motorists are being told to avoid "parknig" in the Auckland mayor's spot because it is a tow-away "znoe".

And dozens of road signs in the central North Island have been changed to read Passing Planet.

Auckland City Council's signs may just be a signwriter's mistake, but taggers and other vandals are causing headaches for highway managers.

Passing Lane was changed to Passing Planet using stickers that look the same as letters on the signs. The vandal's handiwork stretches south from the Bombay Hills along State Highway 2 and State Highway 27 to Tirau, then on to State Highway 1 to south of the Desert Road. Other signs have been reported near Tauranga.

Transit NZ started receiving calls about the signs this week, and the Herald has spoken to people who saw them last Thursday.

Transit's regional asset manager, Ian Cox, said someone put a lot of effort into changing the signs. Contractors had been told to look out for them and peel off the extra letters, which was a relatively simple task.

However, Transit had also been hit by an unusually large number of "tagging" spraycan attacks that had damaged many signs in the central North Island.

The taxpayer-funded signs cost between $400 and $800 each. The paint can be cleaned off, but only by reducing the signs' life-span.

"Someone went crazy over the Christmas period," Mr Cox said. "There's a lot more damage than normal."

The goofed-up paintjob on Auckland mayor John Banks' parking spot outside the town hall reads "tow away znoe, mayoral parknig".

An Auckland lawyer specialising in traffic matters, Zahir Mohamed, said anyone who got a ticket for parking in the mayor's spot would have a good defence in court because of the poor spelling.

Mr Mohamed cited a case in 1995 between the Wellington City Council and a man with the surname Kelly in which it was found that traffic signs had to comply with regulations to be enforceable.

"Obviously if the spelling is wrong then the sign does not comply," he said.

A spokesman for Auckland City Council said the sign was painted at least two weeks ago by Highway Systems, and cost ratepayers $49.

He said he was not aware of any other spelling goofs in Auckland at the moment, but there tended to be "one or two" each year.

Highway Systems engineer Mike Coote said the firm's workers "normally spelt things right", but admitted he would have struggled with "mayoral".

The sign was to be repainted last night at no cost to ratepayers, he said.