The Issues

When our Network Optmisation team did its study of Onewa Road, they found that the existing pedestrian crossing technology installed at the two mid-block signalised crossings by St Mary's Catholic Church and Northcote College (at Wernam Place) is out of date and not working properly to accommodate the large number of pedestrians that use them, especially on weekends and at school drop-off/pickup times.

There have been several instances of the signal change ending too early when there are still people trying to cross. Drivers have also complained of having the opposite issue at off-peak times, where the signal change is held unnecessarily long and there are clearly no pedestrians trying to cross.

Our Solution

To resolve these issues, we've upgraded these two crossings with pedestrian detection technology. Pedestrian detection technology uses special advanced cameras and sensors to detect the number of people on foot waiting to cross automatically when one of them presses the button. If someone presses the button and leave the crossing before the signal change, the pedestrian detection technology senses there's no longer anybody there and cancels the signal change before it happens so that cars don't get unnecessarily stopped. However, if the pedestrian detection technology senses a large crowd of people trying to cross (such as several students crossing at the same time after school), it holds the signal change for longer so that the crowd has more time to cross together.

This change has been implemented as of July 2025.

Next Up: Northcote College & St Mary's Church Bus Stops Changes

Click here or the button below to see the next set of changes we're planning to optimise Onewa Road.