Rua Road Flush Median

Rua Road is an arterial road in Waitakere, Auckland with a carriageway in the order of 10.5m wide and carries in the order of 10,000 vpd. A flush median was installed in 2008 as a means of addressing excessive speeding and also to improve the situation for pedestrians. The traffic enginner responsible was Duncan Campbell of Waitakere City Council and he carried the design through to construction.

A nominal reduction of 85% vehicle speeds from 60 km/hr to 58 km/hr was recorded several months after the flush median was installed, but more significantly the number of vehicles travelling over 60 km/hr reduced from 1200 to just 700 per day. Basically the flush median markings have reduced the visible traffic lane width, and when there are parked vehicles on the road drivers have to traverse the flush median markings when manoeuvring past. Vehicles waiting to turn right into driveways can use the flush median as well, so some accommodation by drivers for such manoeuvres is required and it is believed this is one of the reasons traffic speeds have reduced. For googlemap view refer: [1]