Weekend Herald editorial: Glimmer of hope for traffic woes

Auckland is in the grip of "March Madness", a phrase coined by traffic officials for the peak congestion that arrives when universities open for the year and students' vehicles join the crush of those trying to get around the city. The fact that university students are driving to and from their studies is particularly disappointing for those who are urging Aucklanders to get out of cars and use public transport, or cycle, as much as possible.

The response of many Aucklanders is to say public transport does not go where they go, but that excuse is not available to those attending the universities and private training institutes in the central city. Auckland's train lines and bus routes just about all converge on the city centre. To go anywhere else requires a transfer at some point on the journey, possibly more than one transfer, and that makes public transport unattractive.

But at some level of road congestion, surely the transfers and other inconveniences of public transport will be outweighed by the wasted time and frustrations of driving in Auckland's traffic. It seems the city has not reached that point yet. When the Herald put a car to a test against the train, the bus service and a bicycle trip from New Lynn to the city on Wednesday, the bus, car and train arrived in that order but there were only five minutes between them.

Fastest by far was the bicycle, beating the others by 25-30 minutes. That's plenty of time for the cyclist to shower and change before the others arrive. Students should take note. The NZ Transport Agency has built splendid cycleways into the inner city in recent years and Auckland Transport is building an extensive network of them. Taxpayers and ratepayers need to see them well used, especially in summer and especially by young people who are said to be much less wedded to the private car than previous generations have been.

In the grip of March Madness it is easy to be despondent about the city's traffic. It has been made particularly fraught in the inner city by the construction of the central rail link. The near closure of Albert St has disrupted the usual flow and put great pressure on other streets in the CBD. But the underground rail link, which we take a close look at in the paper today, should fulfil its promise to permit faster and more frequent rail services on all three lines. The construction will take another six years but it should be worth it.

Confidence on that score, though, is not encouraged when rail staff take industrial action just as March Madness arrives. Their union wants to retain security guards on all trains at all times while the company thinks that is not necessary. There must be a better way of resolving that issue than disrupting services that need to be seen as reliable if car users are to be converted to train commuters.

Every year puts yet more cars on Auckland motorways and the Transport Agency has to keep adding to the network's capacity. The network is now complete with the Waterview Tunnel and this week the Automobile Association reported congestion has eased slightly since it opened.

Technology may improve the capacity of roads with more co-ordinated signalling and cars capable of driving closer together in coming years. But for the moment we must endure March Madness and hope.