Traffic frustrates school

Battling traffic at the school gate is causing grief for staff and parents at Greenhithe School.

With a large number of parents and children using the Sunnyview Rd entrance at home time, the road becomes a bottleneck of congested traffic every day at 3pm.

The usually quiet suburban street becomes a busy one lane road for 15 minutes.

The issue affects school families as well as residents and principal Peter Marshall would like some sort of light relief.

‘‘Most schools have some sort of traffic problem,’’ Marshall says.

‘‘It’s causing frustration and I feel for the parents.’’

There are a number of entrances to the school, including Greenhithe Rd and Isobel Rd, and the entrance at Sunnyview Rd is home to the staff carpark.

Parents use it as a drop off zone before school and then wait in the carpark and on the road after school. Marshall says it doesn’t take much to fill the carpark.

He says students often walk and bike to school, but that changes when it’s raining.

‘‘A lot of children could walk but a lot get picked up from here after school.

‘‘In the summer the problem goes away and then when it’s winter it comes back again.’’

Marshall approached Auckland Transport about the issue last year and an engineer visited the school in November to look at the problem.

He had suggested adding timed yellow lines and signs or the possibility of widening the road but was told they weren’t suitable solutions.

Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan says it is working with the school to see if they can jointly develop solutions.

Hannan says it has suggested options to improve the traffic flow and minimise congestion, including using cones to close sections of parking or enforce left turns only out of the school.

It has considered installing broken yellow lines or signs but it isn’t a preferred option, he says.

‘‘These restrictions would inconvenience residents and could result in high traffic speeds which could increase safety risks,’’ Hannan says.

‘‘Parents could consider parking a little further away from the school to avoid the congestion immediately outside the school gate.’’

PHOTO: EMILY FORD/FAIRFAX NZ Sunnyview Rd becomes a bottleneck of traffic at home time every day and Greenhithe School principal Peter Marshall wants a solution.