A Papamoa man is warning people about a pedestrian crossing he believes is dangerous in the Papamoa Town Centre.
Peter Gallagher is concerned about a crossing at the eastern end of the shopping centre off Gravatt Road.
The crossing is outside Wholefoods Bin Inn Papamoa and the first three metres on either side runs through angle parking. Peter is concerned that people's line of sight is obscured by parked cars.
He was driving one day and didn't see a woman who was nearly on the crossing; she shouted: ‘Hey pedestrian'.
'I felt sorry for her and I felt guilty because I'm only doing 10 km per hour but it's dangerous,” says Peter.
'I felt terrible because I had my grandson in the car with me.”
Peter says he had no show of seeing the woman until he was right at the end edge of the crossing.
He is worried someone will be hurt and says having the crossing through the parking with no indicator of where the road starts gives pedestrians a false sense of security.
His wife Norma had a near miss at the same crossing; she was walking across it when a car went through quickly.
People's view of the road is blocked by a standard car but vans and four-wheel drives are even worse, says Peter.
He would like to see yellow lines put where the crossing meets the road and potentially remove the lines from the parking area to start the crossing on the road.
There is a yellow line on one side of the crossing just before the road but you still can't see cars until you reach the line, says Peter.
'It's a busy little place. I just want them to make it safe.”
The speed limit for the road is 10km per hour.
Peter has contacted the police and Tauranga City Council about the crossing but because it is on privately owned land there is nothing they can do.
He says both organisations were very good and the person he spoke to from the police understood the issue.
Papamoa Town Centre Association administrator Scott Murray says people might mistake the pedestrian areas for parking if the crossing lines are removed from the angle parking area.
He says they could potentially look at different colour markings in the parking bays.
'Safety is important and we will consider what other alternatives could be looked at,” says Scott.
4 comments
Safety first
Posted on 17-04-2021 08:36 | By Kukss
Typical shopping centres, they just want to get people through the door, fair enough but make things safer, take out a couple of carparks, extend footpath out to end of carpark ,some pedestrian lights,same on opposite side if need be, come on papamoa shopping centre do the job right don't just paint lines. Lead the way in safety.
Bad design
Posted on 17-04-2021 11:40 | By Kancho
Surely not difficult to fix ..take out a couple of car parks. At Pyes Pa shops we have a pedestrian ramp into the shops but to get to it have to cross the busy exit entrance or worse across a 60 km an hour busy road. Dangerous in daylight even worse as winter comes on a dark and wet at night ! The road is to become 50 Kmph soon but with no proper crossing or good lighting it's still very dangerous especially for pedestrians who can't move quickly enough . Almost always get stuck half way across with cars whizzing passed
Tom Ranger
Posted on 17-04-2021 13:22 | By Tom Ranger
Could have been better thought out (Like all roads and car-parks). As a pedestrian. I don't move into the line of traffic unless I can see my path is clear and i can do so safely. At the end of the day. I take personal responsibility for my safety as arguing about who's fault it is, matters not when I've been hit or hurt. We have a lot of elderly people around Tauranga (some with vision issues) and we all need to live together in harmony somehow. As vehicles are the danger(and bigger and more difficult to stop than walkers). Paint a message on the walkway. Watch out for cars! Glad Peter managed to avoid the lady. At the Base in Hamilton. The main crossings are light controlled and very safe.
Crossing
Posted on 17-04-2021 14:05 | By peanuts9
Tauranga has many unsafe or non-existent crossings, both on public and private land. Neither the shopping centres or the council seem keen to update them. yesterday, I spent 8 minutes waiting at the so-called courtesy crosssing from Fraser cove shopping centre to the bus stop on Fraser St, no-one let me cross. Being disabled, walking up to the lights is near impossible. Just another example of the lack of thought for any but the motorist in this city. BTW, I use crutches and they could be seen.
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