Toll dodgers set off alarm bells

Onehunga residents fear airport traffic may spill through their streets to avoid a toll Transit is proposing for what is now a free motorway route beside Manukau Harbour.

Transit has decided against tolling Mangere Bridge or a duplicate four-lane harbour crossing it wants to open in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup to ease traffic flows to and from the airport.

That is because motorists would otherwise not have a feasible free alternative route, which transport legislation requires to be available before the Government can approve any tolling scheme.

But the agency has nominated the 2km section of the Southwestern Motorway along Onehunga Bay for the highest toll out of seven charging points it envisages for the 48km western ring route it is developing between Manukau and Albany.

Motorists could expect to pay a $1.50 toll (plus annual inflation adjustments) each time they cross the bay in peak periods, $1 at other times of the day and at weekends, and 75c at night.

Transit suggests motorists not willing to pay a toll could join or turn off the motorway at a proposed new interchange at Onehunga, and travel to or from central Auckland through that suburb and via Mt Albert Rd.

That would mean a deviation from the current route to or from the airport for many Aucklanders, via motorway ramps at Queenstown Rd.

Transit intends widening the motorway across Onehunga Bay to three lanes and will argue that it is integral to new sections of the western ring route such as the 4km extension it is building through Mt Roskill.

It suggests that motorists using a future link through Waterview and then the Northwestern Motorway into downtown Auckland will cut 15 to 20 minutes off their airport travel times, for tolls amounting to $3.50c at three charging points.

But taxi driver Murray Reid says that route will be 6km longer than the one via Queenstown Rd (an extra $14 on the meter even before counting tolls) and he wondered yesterday how so much time could be shaved from a trip which now takes him 40 minutes.

He agreed the trip times could vary between 30 minutes and 60 minutes on a bad day, but questioned the reliability of travel along the frequently-congested Northwestern Motorway.

Maungakiekie Community Board deputy chairman Geoff Abbott expressed concern about both the potential visible impact of an overhead tolling gantry on Onehunga Bay and on traffic flows through local streets if large numbers of motorists wanted to avoid the proposed road charge.

Mangere Bridge Residents and Ratepayers Association president Roger Baldwin said he crossed Onehunga Bay up to six times a day but would certainly head inland through suburban streets rather than face a toll.

Transit's transport planning general manager, Wayne McDonald, said the agency would adjust tolls to levels which would prove attractive to motorists and minimise "rat-running" along alternative routes.

He said that if the ring route was not tolled, it would rapidly become as congested as State Highway One.