Commuters on scooters streets ahead

Tom Guernier. Photo / Janna Dixon

If you're looking to get to work as fast as possible, buy a scooter - you could cut your commute time in half.

Members of an Auckland traffic consultancy business, Traffic Design Group, put the city's roads to the test this week, sending workers out to test the travelling times of various modes of transport. The group set off for their Newmarket office from Kingsland at 8am rush hour. Travel times ranged from 13 minutes to 35 minutes, depending on what type of transport they took.

Riding a scooter was the fastest, followed by driving, cycling and running. Public transport was at the bottom end of the scale, with bus and train faster only than walking.

Scooters can use the bus lanes and weave through lines of backed-up traffic.

Transportation engineer and scooter rider Tom Guernier said he wasn't surprised he was the fastest of the team. "Skipping traffic is pretty much the reason I got a scooter," he said.

Meanwhile, Transportation engineer Ruby Mak took the bus. "It took a while for the bus to get here and the bus was full," she said.

Traffic Design Group Auckland branch manager Don McKenzie said the race was designed to give group members a first-hand experience of transport in Auckland and to find solutions to Auckland's traffic problems.

"From our perspective it's recognising that there's not one single solution, that it needs to be balanced appropriately across all modes of travel," said McKenzie.