Auckland - the city of traffic queues

Aucklanders are just about stuck when it comes to avoiding the region's peak-hour traffic crawls.

People in most New Zealand cities and towns still talk of a rush hour, morning and night. But on Auckland motorways, especially the Northern and Southern Motorways, the peaks can cover five hours or more a day.

Transit NZ electronically monitors motorway volumes. In simple terms, the speed of motorway traffic drops as the flow increases, so a dip in speed indicates peak time.

On a bad day it can now take 53 minutes to drive about 18km from Browns Bay on the North Shore to downtown Auckland in the morning peak. Or 52 minutes to do the 30km from Papakura to Auckland, instead of 20 to 22 minutes at legal speed limits at other times.

At peak times it regularly takes 30 to 40 minutes longer for people coming into central Auckland from Manukau, North Shore or Henderson than it takes in off-peak hours. Mondays and Fridays are usually the worst.

Slow-moving queues on the motorways and arterial roads are nothing new to Aucklanders. But the lengths of the peak traffic times are. People are trying to beat them by leaving for work earlier, or getting home earlier or later.

A couple of years ago the morning peak on the Northern Motorway ran from 7am. Now North Shore motorists can expect to run into the back of the queue at Greville Rd, more than 10km from the Auckland Harbour Bridge, at 6.30am.

The Northern Motorway has what engineers call a steep-sided peak, while the Southern Motorway builds slowly but has peaks that last longer (3pm to 7pm in the afternoons) with queues up to 8km south of Newmarket Viaduct.

As well, snarl-ups can occur following even minor accidents on the motorways and major arterial roads any time during the day, exasperating motorists and transport operators.

There is no single solution. It will have to be a range of answers - including a western motorway system to complement the present one and much better public transport.