KEY POINTS:
Transit New Zealand plans to stop trucks over 13 tonnes using the Harbour Bridge clip-ons, and in fact there is already a truck ban in place. The tare (unladen) weight of a Stagecoach (now NZ Bus) bus is around 10 tonnes and, for the purposes of weight calculation, 15 adult passengers (or 30 children) are regarded as equal to one tonne. Therefore a 55-seat bus full of adults on their evening commute to the North Shore would weigh over 13 tonnes. A bendy-bus would be well over. Why does Transit's weight ban apply only to trucks and not to buses?
Owen Blackburn, Auckland.
Although I think your weights err on the high side, that's not really the issue. It's not just the weight of individual vehicles on the clip-ons that's of concern.
What Transit is trying to prevent with the ban is a concentration of stationary trucks back-to-back. The combined weight of these plus motor vibration could conceivably cause a problem.
During the strengthening work, it is important that the clip-ons stay as still as possible to make sure the measuring and welding are accurate. This won't happen while trucks are using them.
Transit says that buses do not back up in the way trucks do, there are less of them on the bridge at any one time, they are more spread out and, arguably, a bus can move faster than a fully laden truck.
What on Earth is going on in the middle of Queenstown Rd near the onramp to the airport motorway? The middle lane citybound has been closed for months, which is causing significant delays in both directions. Most of the time there is no evidence of any progress in the work, but still the blockage remains. How much longer do we need to put up with this?
Alan Allbon, David Thompson, Mike Bennett, Anna Kofoed, Neville Lane, and others too numerous to mention.
This is a Watercare job, being undertaken by JB Pipelines. The job has been held up while the contractors waited for equipment to arrive. It should be finished by the end of the month.
Regarding the right-hand turn at Three Lamps, the sign says, "Buses only may turn right from the middle lane". This can be taken to mean that if a bus wants to turn right it can only do so from the middle lane. It does not say that a car can't turn from the middle lane. Why does the sign not say, 'Only buses etc' and then there is no ambiguity?
Andy Watkins, Auckland.
I don't think there is any ambiguity. "Buses only etc' means just that - cars may not turn right from the middle lane here, and the wording is in line with other signs around the city, such as lane signs that say 'Buses only'.
