Auckland's Deputy Mayor is furious after traffic lights were installed in the middle of a cycle lane in the central city.
The lights have popped up a few hundred metres from the Ngāpipi Bridge, heading towards the Outboard Boating Club, on Tamaki Drive.
The temporary lights were put in place while work is carried out to widen Ngāpipi Bridge to accommodate a cycle lane which will then join up with the existing Tamaki Drive and Glen Innes to Tamaki cycle lanes.
The lights will be in place for approximately six months while the bridge extension work is carried out and then they will be removed.
Auckland Transport said widening the bridge will expand the area available for people on foot and bikes and create a seamless connection between cycleways while also meaning no changes are needed to the current number of lanes on the road.
But the lights haven't gone down well with Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson who wrote a scathing Facebook post slamming them over the weekend.
In the post Simpson said placing the lights in the middle of a cycle lane was "simply not well considered".
She said she accepted lights were needed to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe - because Tamaki Drive has four lanes and is busy. But she said if she was consulted she would have put them in a different place.
"Had they asked me for my opinion (I had no idea they were getting installed - don’t know what happened to the "no surprises" policy and for the record nor did OLB [our local board]). I’d simply say use the existing lights at Ngāpipi share the new southside footpath with care and come back onto separated cyclelane at Solent Street for the short time the installers of new pedestrian section need to use it (sic).
"If you absolutely had to install them please use the garden don’t put them in the middle of the new cycleway," she said.
An Auckland Transport spokesperson said the changes went through a rigorous temporary traffic management approval process.
