Ask Phoebe: Intersection traffic lights provoke lots of road rage and horn-blowing

In Flat Bush there is a new set of traffic lights at the intersection of Stancombe and Ormiston Rds. Stancombe Rd, with two lanes, becomes Murphys Rd, one lane, as it heads south. All the vehicles that queue in Stancombe in the left lane waiting for the lights to change then force themselves into the right lane on Murphys Rd. There is a lot of horn-blowing and road rage every morning, as well as near-accidents. My solution is to hang back until there is a red light and then join the traffic in the right lane to go straight ahead on Murphys Rd. The problem is that when I wait to let traffic in from the left lane, I get tooted at and abused. Can anyone do anything about this situation? Desley Flack, Dannemora.

Hang on, help is on its way. Murphys Rd, south of Ormiston, will be upgraded to a four-lane arterial road in the future, but Manukau City Council couldn't tell me exactly when this would happen. In the meantime, council officers will take a look at the lane merge to see if some kind of short-term fix can be put in.

But motorists should keep in mind the advice to merge like a zip.

While it is great news that the SH20-SH1 connection will be finished next August, the real bottleneck on my daily trip from Titirangi to Takanini and back is the Mangere Bridge. It is worst at 5pm, when airport traffic creates a 2km tailback. The new bridge is two-thirds of the way across but it doesn't seem to have moved for a while. Why is this? The four-lane roads each way are close to being finished. When will the new bridge open? Murray Hunter, Titirangi.

The weather has slowed progress on the bridge, but the whole project is scheduled to be completed by early 2011, in time for you-know-what.

I used to happily jump on the bus from Mairangi Bay to Takapuna for work, a one-stage trip for $1.44. I now work in the city, which rockets the ticket price to $3.87 for three stages. I have been contemplating whether it is possible to use a scooter. Are scooters (think Vespa) allowed on the motorway and on the Harbour Bridge? Given that traffic travels at about 10km/h in the mornings, I would have thought it might be OK. Karl Hamon, Mairangi Bay.

Scooters are classified as motorised vehicles if they are over 50cc and may use motorways, including the bridge. However, the Transport Agency and the police believe that they are not always safe to do so unless they can keep up with the motorway traffic - frequently, not such a big ask.