KEY POINTS:
I'm wondering if anyone can suggest the safest way to get from lane 2 to lane 4/5 citybound on the Northwestern Motorway, between the St Lukes onramp and the Port offramp. I get on at St Lukes and off at Port to get to Parnell. In the morning rush hour, often lanes 2 and 4/5 move at more than 80km/h while lane 3 is packed and crawls at around 20-30 km/h. Is there a plan to remedy this situation, so the slowest lane is not in the middle of the motorway?
Rendy Sugiarto, Auckland.
Make your move, carefully suggests Transit. The layout is designed so that motorists can exit more intuitively to the left, and also to make the most of a tight space by putting in new links and offramps. Things should ease when the Newmarket Viaduct is finished in 2011, because that will provide an extra lane from the city to Greenlane. Meanwhile, you could avoid the hassle by using local roads instead of the motorway.
The Alpurt B2 motorway extension is due to open early next year. When it does, will the heavy vehicles that currently have to exit at Silverdale before thundering through Orewa on the Hibiscus Coast Highway be obliged to use the motorway extension?
Dave Barker, Orewa.
It's my understanding that motorists cannot be forced to use a toll road, and that in fact an alternative non-tolled option must be available. However, given that a commercial imperative of heavy vehicles is to reduce the time taken to travel between points, it will probably suit them to use a motorway rather than wind through local streets.
I have looked in the Road Code but cannot find a rule for who gives way when a road is narrow and steep. Does the car coming down the hill give way to the car going up? What if it is a truck going up or down - does the rule change? I frequently use a narrow, steep inner-city road, and I always seem to be the one to give way.
Brenda Barnes, Auckland.
That just shows what a considerate driver you are, Brenda. The Road Code, and all the road user rules that I could find, suggest that it is a matter of courtesy, and that it is easier for vehicles moving downhill to give way to vehicles going uphill. That reduces the necessity for handbrake starts and the loss of momentum for heavy vehicles.
What are they trying to do on the city-bound onramp from the southeastern arterial? When will it be finished? Now there are a few hundred metres leading up to the lights where the right-hand lane is cordoned off.
Beverley den Boestert, Auckland.
The right-turn lane is being lengthened, and an additional lane is being built as a priority lane for trucks and high-occupancy vehicles. The work should be all but finished by now.
