Bus lane ticket blitz clears way for rush hour

By CLAIRE TREVETT

A hardline approach towards drivers sneaking down bus lanes in rush-hour traffic has eased congestion on a busy North Shore road.

A study commissioned by the North Shore City Council showed that morning rush-hour traffic was now flowing down Onewa Rd to the motorway up to 30 minutes more quickly than last year.

Fewer cars were on the road as more people bused or car-pooled.

The council put the results down to a ticketing blitz on people illegally using a lane reserved for buses, motorcycles and cars carrying three or more people.

Since August last year four enforcement officers - trained and certified by police - have issued $150 tickets to people driving illegally in the lane for more than 50m.

Since the council took over the enforcement, travel times dropped from 30 minutes to seven minutes in the bus and carpool lane, the study shows.

The time taken for cars in the adjacent lane had also dropped, from up to 40 minutes to 7-25 minutes.

North Shore City Council works and environment committee chairman Joel Cayford said the number of vehicles using the lane illegally had dropped from about 900 a day to about 20 since officers began issuing tickets.

There were fewer vehicles on the road, despite commuters increasing from 2747 to 3888, and about two-thirds of commuters were opting to car pool or bus to work.

Morning peak-time bus passengers had increased from an average of 986 to 1591 since August last year.

More than a quarter of all Onewa Rd commuters were now carpooling - up from 428 in 2002 to 1055.

The number of commuters in cars carrying fewer than three people dropped over the same period from 1858 to 1274.

"This number is roughly equivalent to taking 600 cars off the road each day, with resulting benefits in cutting costs, pollution, delays, travel time and stress," said Mr Cayford.

Traffic services manager Tom Morton said the study was done over four days each year by an independent traffic engineer.

The trip time had shortened because fewer cars were on the road, and less congestion in the bus and carpool lane meant traffic merged better.

"It doesn't always work and it won't work when the motorway is jammed. But on most days it works very well."

Mr Morton refused to say how many tickets had been issued, but said the enforcement had been "cost-effective".

He said some people had put their imaginations to work to avoid the scrutiny of the officers.

"We have had some people go down with cushions in the car and a cap on top of the cushions."

Others had tried tricks to make up the numbers required for the quick lane, including asking whether a pregnant woman could be considered as two people.

The study gave anecdotal evidence that driver behaviour had improved, especially where traffic merged into one lane just before the motorway.

Birkenhead Transport managing director Robert Inwards said passenger numbers had shot up by about 15 to 20 per cent since the enforcement began.

"It's absolutely brilliant. There has been a huge change. The other thing is we used to have a problem with bunching of buses ... you'd get about five or six in a row. Now you get one going down every couple of minutes."

North Shore City Mayor George Wood said the figures showed that commuters' habits could be changed if they were given a convenient, practical alternative.

"Now we need more bus and carpooling lanes over the bridge and across the region.

"Then we will begin to see some really significant improvements in bus travel times, more people over the bridge in fewer vehicles and almost certainly fewer private cars on our roads."