No Free Ride for Truckies on Dominion Road

For immediate release – 25th September 2017

A business group representing one of Auckland’s busiest, and most iconic streets, has hit back at suggestions that parking should be banned on major roads such as Dominion Rd to allow truckies a free ride through the streets of Auckland.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11926269

Dominion Rd Business Association Manager Gary Holmes has responded to comments by National Road Carriers chief executive David Aitken who is calling for all the major arterial roads to have no parking 24/7.

Mr Holmes says that while he has sympathy for the plight of delivery vehicles, the comments from Mr Aitken show that he is clearly ignorant of the reality of small business in Auckland.

“Retail shopping strips such as Dominion Rd, Remuera Rd and others rely on parking for their lifeblood and any suggestion that parking be removed to make way for large dirty, polluting and smelly trucks is absurd”, he said.

The potential upgrade of Dominion Rd to cater for light rail sometime in the next 30 years was already a nightmare scenario as it could see the removal of all parking along Dominion Rd but changes simply to accommodate trucks would be strongly resisted, Mr Holmes said.

Mr Holmes said he was aware of businesses along Symonds Street that were now struggling to survive after Auckland Transport installed an isolated 50 meter cycle lane outside the world famous French Café and it showed that the anti-car mentality was alive and well in Auckland Transport as well as the National Road Carriers Association. Ends

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