Green light but not green lanes for buses

A regional standard for colouring bus lanes was endorsed and adopted by Auckland City’s Transport Committee this afternoon.

The regional standard reflects Auckland City’s existing practice for signage and road marking. The standard does not require full length and width colouring of the city’s bus lanes.

Auckland City’s Transport Committee chairperson, Councillor Greg McKeown says “Under the new standard, Auckland City will not be painting the full length of bus lanes along major arterials.

“However people should be assured that the momentum for rolling out new bus lanes and other priority measures for buses is continuing. For example, at today’s meeting we approved new bus lanes on Khyber Pass and parts of Broadway in Newmarket.”

“We will seek flexibility in applying the guidelines on key streets such as Queen Street to reduce the visual impact and protect the city’s heritage,” says Mr McKeown.

Colouring of bus lanes will be limited to situations where conventional signage and road marking is insufficient to deter illegal use of the lanes.

The standard includes colouring as a requirement in three specific situations:

at the start and end of a bus lane, generally a 20m length at bus pockets located at intersections, generally one to two bus lengths where a bus lane is more than one traffic lane away from the kerb.

In most cases, the existing coloured bus lanes will be retained until the surface is replaced through the council’s re-seal programme. This will see the majority of coloured bus lanes removed within five years.

The regional standard covers the range of priority lanes operating in the region with the exception of motorway shoulder lanes and on-road cycle lanes.

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