Drivers risk fines to use bus lanes

By PHILIP ENGLISH

Ellerslie commuters would rather face $150 fines than a slow-moving traffic lane, judging by the numbers using bus lanes illegally despite a clampdown.

The Auckland City Council began enforcing the use of the bus lanes itself in March, using 12 trained officers car-spotting on 13 bus lanes.

Numbers of infringing cars have since dropped dramatically on some routes, such as Sandringham Rd (8 per cent of all cars in May/June last year to 0.2 per cent in March), Great North Rd (26.7 per cent to 1.9 per cent), Dominion Rd (13.3 per cent to 5.3 per cent) and Fanshawe St (14.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent).

But commuters on Ellerslie Highway seem impervious to the camera-wielding enforcement officers.

Nearly half of all cars used the bus route.

The council's manager of traffic and roading services, Joseph Flanagan, said the nature of the Ellerslie Highway might be the reason, and the council was looking into the situation.

The lanes were shorter than elsewhere in the city and located just at intersections. With two traffic lanes and a bus lane at intersections, drivers had to change lanes often.