Transport Solutions

From speed cushions to zebra crossings, transportation engineers and planners have a lot of tools to help calm traffic, control flow and get pedestrians across roads safely.

Our Transportation Team uses engineering, psychology and planning to come up with the right answer to a roading issue. Often, they’ll trial a temporary fix before committing to a permanent solution. They also look overseas and across New Zealand at best practice and new innovations. What works in one part of the city, might have the opposite effect somewhere else.

Zebra crossings can actually make crossing the road more dangerous. They work well where vehicle speeds are low, like 30kmh. When used on streets where cars are moving quickly, they can cause issues with people presuming cars will stop, when often they won’t. Children, especially, tend to step onto zebra crossings without looking. At the same time, drivers frequently ignore zebra crossings, and don’t stop.

Raised crossings are a better solution, particularly where there are lots of pedestrians. They are known as a ‘vertical’ solution. Anything vertical slows down vehicles because people don’t want to damage their cars, especially when those cars are lowered! They're often used in a sequence every 100 or 200 metres. This sets the tone for the street and drivers slow down for the full length.

Speed cushions are also a vertical solution. Again, they set the tone for the road when they're used in multiples. Speed cushions go across most – but not all – of a lane. This is so ambulances, fire engines and trucks, which have wider wheelbases, can go over them without having an impact, or being too bumpy (especially important with ambulances!).