KEY POINTS:
Holidaymakers fleeing Auckland this afternoon are urged to check electronic signs for the least congested routes to Northland and the Coromandel Peninsula.
Transit NZ, which expects heavy traffic flows from the city from about midday, is reminding motorists to look out for electronic signs on the Northern Motorway just south of Silverdale.
These will direct them to Wellsford via Kaukapakapa and State Highway 16 once traffic queues start building up through Orewa and the Hibiscus Coast Highway.
Similar signs will be available just north of Wellsford for southbound motorists.
And electronic signs will operate for the first time at the junction of State Highways 2 and 25 in the Hauraki Plains, advising motorists of queues behind the notorious one-way Kopu Bridge, gateway to the Coromandel.
These will have estimated travel-time comparisons between the more direct but sometimes slower bridge route, and a longer loop taking traffic just to the north of Paeroa.
Transit area engineer Alan Burkett said that although the alternative route took about 30 minutes longer at quiet times, the extra time was often cancelled out during holiday peaks, when motorists faced waits of up to two hours to cross the Kopu Bridge.
"By taking the slightly longer route through SH2 and SH26, motorists can avoid getting caught in queues and could reach their destination up to an hour and a half earlier," he said.
The Paeroa route also removes a difficult right-hand turn into State Highway 26 for motorists heading from the bridge to the Kopu-Hikuai road, to eastern Coromandel resorts such as Pauanui and Whitianga.
Transport officials hope the long lead-up to Christmas Day on Tuesday will mean more evenly distributed inter-city vehicle flows than in shorter holiday periods.
Land Transport NZ spokesman Andy Knackstedt said that should encourage people to spend more time planning their journeys properly, so they did not over-extend themselves and became dangerously fatigued.
That hope has been reinforced by V8 supercar racing champion Greg Murphy who, as part of a safety education campaign in partnership with the Motor Trade Association, is advising holiday drivers to plan their routes "so that you have a total picture, knowing when you should make your own 'pit stops' and recognising potential hazard areas".
The Automobile Association wants motorists to drive with dipped headlights during the day, to protect against vehicles overtaking from the opposite direction, and to be careful to keep safe following distances.
Spokesman Mike Noon suggested they consider the high likelihood that children were among the passengers of vehicles in front of them.
Police vow to be out in force on the roads in a bid to beat last year's record low holiday road toll of nine deaths and 442 injuries between Christmas Eve and January 3.
But the chance to improve on last year's road toll of 391 deaths has already been lost.
The toll between January 1 and yesterday stood at 406 deaths, compared with 391 people killed on the roads by the same time last year.
That is making a Government target of no more than 300 deaths by 2010 look increasingly unattainable, although ministers will today announce a package of new road safety measures in a bid to make the grade.
Mr Noon said the AA hoped that would include extending the minimum period for a learner's driving licence from six to 12 months.
The organisation also wants fines for young drivers to be reduced in return for increasing demerits for traffic violations, meaning they would lose their licences after "three strikes".
The Government has also been considering a zero alcohol limit for young drivers.
OPERATION SWEEP 2
In a five-hour operation this week, police found:
* 30 children not belted in, or not properly restrained.
* 33 document offences such as no registration or WoF.
* 45 driver licence breaches.
* 14 unlicensed drivers.
* 16 safety breaches including broken windscreens.
* 12 people not wearing seatbelts.
