Reports of a free-flowing commute during Monday's massive evening outage have prompted questions over whether so many signals are needed at all.

A bit of traffic and a hot engine wasn't going to stop Sheryll Conn from getting her two Great Danes to a Whangarei dog show.

Drivers using NZ's newest toll road this long weekend are being advised to 'drive now, pay later.'

Traffic slowed to a snail's pace on many roads yesterday, but the worst of the expected post-holiday traffic jams failed to eventuate.

Holidaymakers heading back to Auckland today are being urged to take a different route to avoid one of the region's most heavily congested roads.

Drivers are being urged to use alternative routes to avoid long queues during what is expected to be a warm weekend.

Thousands of motorists spent hours stewing in traffic jams between Auckland's Northern Gateway toll road and Warkworth yesterday.

Steven Joyce says the toll on the Transmission Gully route will be no more than $3.

Wellington's mayor lauds a move to proceed with Transmission Gully but her Kapiti counterpart admits to being "extremely disappointed".

The long-awaited Transmission Gully route has been approved as part of a $2.2 billion upgrade of State Highway 1 from Wellington to Levin.

Police Minister Judith Collins has backed the commissioner's plan to use specialist traffic officers to issue speeding tickets.