The transport authority claim that the recent development will remove the last bottleneck on the motorway. This is clearly misleading since there will still only be two lanes in each direction remaining through the CMJ. Having the extra lanes will just put more pressures on the CMJ (either side of K Rd.)
socram,
Nov 11, 9:53am
You obviously don't understand that the Vic Park flyover north bottleneck was always caused by traffic entering from the North Western motorway AND Wellington St and the traffic backed right up to Tip Top corner.The bridge with 5 lanes heading north hasn't been the bottleneck ever since they reduced the Onewa Rd off ramp from two lanes to one.(Before then, traffic entering Curran St was backed up right through Ponsonby.)
Heading South is another story, but the traffic again backs up to the bridge and right up to Greville because there are just two lanes again and they have to carry all traffic using the Cook St, Port and North Western off ramps.Sure, spagehtti junction south won't be vastly improved, but the widening of the Newmarket fkyover and extra lane to Green Lane will help.
The removal of the 70kph limit will also help as you are bound to get a bottleneck when you put a 70kph limit in the middle of a 100kph motorway system without increasing the number oflanes by 50%.Unfortunately, we still have an 80kph limit in the centre for obvious reasons, which is a shame.
The bottleneck north is now where the Constellation on ramp has to cope with all traffic from the west and the bays, once again, trying to join a 2 lane motorway as far as Greville.Once that bottleneck is fixed (and goodness knows when that will be), the motorway system should flow much better - just as long as people keep left except when overtaking.But they won't.
richard198,
Nov 11, 9:57am
I sure do understand; having been a courier in Auckland for almost ten years. As you said yourself; there will still be two lanes in each direction. All they have done is reduce the length of the bottleneck.
thunderbolt,
Nov 11, 10:28am
If it stops the a$$hats who stop in the fanshawe street motorway lanes so they can push into the outside 2 lanes heading south, then that will greatly reduce the boiling blood of all the considerate drivers that have been in the correct lanes since the harbour bridge.
Now thay just need to stop the same type of people who push in at the last minute on Gillies ave trying to get on the motorway heading north. (From Manukau end)
socram,
Nov 11, 10:44am
Couldn't agree more!
m16d,
Nov 11, 11:36am
I like visiting Auckland but jeese I'm glad I dont live there.
richard198,
Nov 11, 11:38am
And it's going to get worse!
cantab1971,
Nov 11, 1:35pm
well.my two cents worth. i moved here from cantebury 2 years ago and I must say the motorway system isn't nearly as bad as it was made out to be. i reckon it works pretty well in fact. Yes it has dumb aspects, like on ramps within a couple hundred metres of off-ramps (creating a great dance in the left 2 lanes), but ive been told thats largely because of the geography of the land the city is on.can't blame em for that really. my gripe with the tunnel is that they didn't go the whole hog and go 6-8 lanes, thus removing the ugly bridge over vic park. typical kiwi compromise.but again.we got here and expected gridlock all day, and that isn't the case. Its just a couple hours each day and its not really gridlock, you still get where you're going. I've travelled a bit overseas and there's plenty of cities worse than ours.Put the air-con on, turn the radio up, get hands free for your phone.and chill out :)I like Auckland!(and I like canterbury too)
compchick,
Nov 11, 1:38pm
So true I see the above all the time it just kills the flow of traffic, you can be cruising along quite nicely over the bridge and all of a sudden it drops to 30 - 40km/h thankfully only for a short time.By the time I get to work I need a cuppa and a quiet room :D
cjohnw,
Nov 11, 1:41pm
Jesus that make my blood boil. Notice how many taxi drivers do it!
And the pricks that go up the outside lane and do an illegal left turn at the traffic lights and on to the on-ramp.
Grrrrrrr.
socram,
Nov 11, 2:08pm
At 6:30am, the right lane on the harbour bridge is often at a standstill.If you are self employed, sitting around for two hours a day is painful.That is why I leave home at 6:15, dive off to Ponsonby (whilst St Mary's Bay is almost stationary) and have a coffee until what ever client I am seeing opens the doors. Thankfully most start 7:30am or often earlier. I leave well before the evening rush these days too.
Nothing has been done to ease the pain of Onewa Rd traffic and if you own a 2 seater, even if your car is full, you can't use the transit lane because unlike all other transit lanes, Onewa is for 3, not 2 in a car.
richard198,
Nov 11, 4:32pm
Yup! They're going to feel the extra pressure as well! This is our main highway!
philltauranga,
Nov 11, 7:56pm
Thanks to the person in power who decided to allow trucks to use some of the shared bus lanes on the uphill on ramps with ramp signals and not needing to stop for the lights, so we dont have to do a stop start, or we would be slowly grinding our way up the hill onto the motorway. Someone in power must have passed School Cert. Good idea having the inland port terminal at Wiri to, so they can rail the containers to the hub and then the trucks dont have to go all the way into the city for containers that are heading south.
fordkiwi27,
Nov 12, 5:51am
victoria tunnel to us wellingtoneionsis the mount victoria tunnel. but aucklanders always think that nz is auckland! just saying
ontwowheels,
Nov 12, 6:02am
its all about where you live and work. I dont have to deal with traffic on a day to day basis. Every now and again I have to go somewhere during a rush hour time, and it always catches me off guard. I couldnt live here if I had to commute in traffic everyday!
socram,
Nov 12, 6:56am
Me too!I used to leave here on the Shore at 7am and was at my desk in East Tamaki 7:25am. No problem.Each year, you had to leave a few mins earlier, then they brought in the high occupancy lane that kicks in 6:30am and chaos reigns from then on.I now make sure I am at the foot of the road and on the motorway before 6:30, but the motorway is clogged going straight through anyway, so diving off for Ponsonby is my only option.
Our SH1 is trying to be a commuter road around Auckland at the same time as a road shifting intercity traffic, yet for years has been just two lanes, virtually its narrowest, when it should have been at its widest!
Fortunately or unfortunately, work has all but dried up now that the industry has decamped to China, so I don't now do battle with the traffic very often.
richardmayes,
Nov 12, 8:02am
OMG you just reminded me of one of the main reasons I don't miss Auckland. Queue jumpers. "I don't play by the rules" types. Special people who need a kick in the dick.
My first car was six-cylinder automatic and it was so easy to keep them out. Now I'm gonna speed up so that you can't push into the queue in front of me. Now I'm gonna slow down so that you can't push into the queue behind me. I'm gonna keep doing this all the way along this right-turn lane to the Pakuranga traffic light, you utter utter knut head.You're going to go down the road you didn't want to go down, and it serves you right for thinking you were entitled to push in at the front of a queue of people who've all gotten into the correct lane at the correct time and waited their turn in an orderly way.
(It always amazed me that no-one jumps the queue in the supermarket or the bank, but on the motorway it's somehow considered acceptable.)
richard198,
Nov 12, 8:21am
We didn't mention "Mount" Victoria. No ambiguity except on your part!
cocabowla,
Nov 12, 11:51am
surely the widening will go as far as ( southbound) the north western & port links so that traffic feeds off before the merge down back to 2 or 3 lanes which will help solve some of the current bottle neck
socram,
Nov 12, 1:01pm
I believe it does and agree, it will help a lot.
neville48,
Nov 13, 6:34am
Na mate, I agree with fordkiwi. It should have been called the birdcage or something further away from victoria anyhooo. From ex westie.
hyphen,
Nov 13, 6:57am
no amount of motorway upgrade can keep pace with the increases in population / vehicle rate. ie what is being built & upgraded now would suit the traffic flow of 10 years ago, imho
richard198,
Nov 13, 7:35am
True.
trogedon,
Nov 13, 8:57am
We did the walk through the tunnel the other weekend. Its all very nice (with only foot traffic!) but I read they spent $20m one month on it! Bring on the cycle / walking lane on the Harbour (no, not the Wellington harbour) bridge.
wasser61,
Nov 13, 9:13am
All I can say is that the cost to have made it 4 or 5 lanes wide for future development would have been minimal, but again the shortsightedness of people is amazing. The extra lanes should blocked off and not used, but be there if required. Just like the north bound lanes on the New Market Flyover are only 3 lanes. when it should have been 4 lanes each way.
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