Survey probes zone's traffic needs

More than 6000 people who work in the North Harbour Industrial Estate will be quizzed on their travel habits in an effort to find the key to unlocking peak-time traffic jams.

Businesses and residents will also be included in the survey, which North Shore City Council says is the first such exercise in a New Zealand commercial zone.

The burgeoning estate is ringed by the Northern Motorway, two highways and a major arterial road. But business owners complain the estate's internal roading system cannot cope.

Peak-time delays in getting in and out of the estate have worsened in the past 18 months, said Albany Basin Business Association chairman Mathew Bellingham.

"It's got to the point where several courier firms won't try to come in here after 4pm.

"We used to be an attractive option for North Shore residents to work here rather than battle the Harbour Bridge traffic and some of that attraction is sliding away now."

The survey is a positive move said Enterprise North Shore chairman Maurice Boland.

"We have brought Transit, Auckland Regional Transport Authority and the city council together with Albany businesses to get a unity of purpose in seeking improvement."

Mr Boland said the survey would reinforce the need for long-term planning and better anticipation of future needs.

Council infrastructure chairman Tony Barker said planners had no way of predicting traffic demands before the estate began its growth spurt in 1998.

The District Plan made inadequate provision for new buildings to have off-street parking. So workers parked on the street and restricted through traffic.

Then Transit New Zealand stopped entry to a main internal road from the Upper Harbour Highway, which resulted in an alternative route being overtaxed.

"The only infrastructure improvement I can see is buses." Mr Barker said. "They can't make more roads."

The estate has no bus service for the 6000 to 7000 people who work there, said council transport operations manager Tom Morton.

"We want to know more about the community's travel needs so that we can give people a range of options that work for them," he said.

Possible alternatives included car pools, priority lanes for buses and high occupancy vehicles, and a shuttle bus service from the park-and-ride Busway stations being built at Constellation Drive and Albany.

Transit regional manager Richard Hancy said moves were under way to improve motorway links for the estate.

* Survey forms are available from the North Shore City Council website (see link below) or call Actionline at 486-8600.