Congestion on Broadway

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 144, 8 September 1927, Page 10

Congestion on Broadway

Solution of Traffic Problems BY creating a parallel traffic outlet on the west side of Broadway the Newmarket Borough Council hopes : relieve existing congestion, of which motorists and pedes- ! trians alike, are painfully aware. Broadway at present is a narrow got into which are ; compressed the streams of traffic converging from opposite j directions.

\ UCKLAND rejoices in traffic outlets which are almost weird. In cities of any size it is the general rule that more and more alternative roads present themselves as the suburbs are traversed, but the principle does not apply here. Instead Auckland is burdened by the peculiarities of a roading system which in the earlier days must practically have evolved itself. Hence the

city has Queen Street congestion which is only to be expected, repeated in Symonds Street and Broadway where such conditions should not, logi cally, be the order. Similarly it has the great untraversed gully dividing the old and new north roads, the main outlets to the west. NEWMARKET’S EFFORT In a commendable effort to solve its share of the problem, the Newmarket Borough Council last evening adopted proposals that a new street should be built parallel to Broadway. The effect will be two streets instead of one, to deal with the converging traffic. As the plan shows, the new street is not designed to deal with the great squadrons of Remuera motor-ware. Its invitation will simply be to Epsom, Onehunga, and South Road traffic. A councillor last night said that the new outlet would take one-third of the traffic. If it does, it will serve its purpose.

The detour formed by the new road will be approached from Mortimer Pass, at the south end of Broadway, to which it will swing parallel by bisecting Morrow Street and Eden Street, while Bourke Street and Osborne Street, in the same alignment, will be absorbed. Corners cut back at the intersection with the Khyber Pass will give the new street a clear run to Victoria Crescen . and thence

to Parnell and Carlton Gore Road. ONL>' A DETOUR The weakness many will see in the scheme is that it is a detour, and a new and busy intersection will be created near the Broadway end of the • Khyber Pass. A scheme for which the City Council had expressed preference was the utilisation of Morrow' Street and Gillies Avenue to form a deeper detour entering the Khyber Pass turthei j along. By cutting back corners and j improving traffic conditions on the immediate back roads, the Newmarker Borough Council intends partly to develop this scheme, but its preference is for the scheme adopted last night Some traffic authorities consider that the ultimate solution of the difficulty is an extension of Remuera Road, on a diagonal line across the back of Broadway and through the Khyber Pass, to Park Road, where it joins Mountain Road, but that project would be extremely costly.