In the first four weeks of the second Links Avenue trial, over 16,000 drivers have illegally used the bus lane that creates the cul-de-sac, sometimes repeatedly, says Tauranga City Council's Director of Transport Brendan Bisley.

'With children returning to school next week, we need to see behaviour change. The main purpose of the trial is to look at ways of getting the current levels of traffic down to a safer, more reasonable level for a residential street,' says Bisley.

"Parents need to be able to send their children off to school knowing they have a street to use that is safe to ride or walk on. Safety remains the key issue."

The level of continued use of the cul-de-sac – in spite of the bus lane, shows just how many people use Links Avenue as a bypass through Arataki.

Following feedback from residents, the cul-de-sac location now being trialed is at the Concord Avenue end of Links Avenue, with access into and out of Links Avenue closed to all vehicles except buses and authorised vehicles.

In the first two weeks of the trial, 8,500 warning letters were sent to drivers who infringed the bus lane. The letter was used to educate and warn drivers; it explained that the bus lane had been used and that future infringement would mean the standard $150 bus lane fine would apply.

'As of today, we've issued 8,000 infringement notices to drivers who have used the bus lane illegally. At least 25 per cent of those are to drivers who have used the lane before and have received a warning letter or previous infringement,” says Tauranga City Council Regulation Monitoring Team Leader Stuart Goodman.

'We'd like to see more compliance as the trial progresses. The goal of the bus lane, and the subsequent infringement notices, is to stop drivers using Links Avenue as a through road. This will return the street to residential volumes of traffic and ensure it is safe for the children who use it to ride and walk to the local schools,” says Goodman.

'It's an important reminder for all of us," says Bisley. "When we get into our vehicles, we're often thinking about being late, where we are going or what's for dinner, but we need to give the road 100 per cent of our attention.

"We've had a lot of people say they didn't see the signs, but driving towards Links Avenue from any direction, drivers will pass between three to five signs about the trial. If you don't notice them, safety is clearly an issue,” says Bisley.