Anna Patu can walk part of her daily commute to work faster than she can drive it.
The Whangarei mum lives on Three Mile Bush Rd, about 6km away from her job at Kensington Educare.
The traffic had been so bad recently Ms Patu decided she would drive part-way to work on Tuesday, park on Whau Valley Rd, and walk 1.4km to work.
"I know I only have a short distance to go and I thought why am I driving when I could be walking.''
As she began walking, she noted a WorkSafe ute was in the traffic queue.
"I was walking and I was keeping up with the WorkSafe NZ ute and I would get ahead and he would get ahead. I passed him and he was crawling the whole way," she said.
The delays are linked to the final work being completed on a State Highway One roundabout, and the nearby SH1/Manse St intersection.
Brett Gliddon, New Zealand Transport Agency Northland highway manager, advised people to allow extra time for their journey as construction of 600m of structural retaining wall and a concrete median barrier was completed.
The barrier will be installed on Western Hills Drive (SH1) around the curve at Manse St where a number of crashes have occurred due to people crossing the centre line, he said.
The work is on track to be completed in April.
"We're grateful for the patience regular users have shown as they experience these short term frustrations which will result in long term benefits to their journeys through this area," he said.
Ms Patu said when she starts work at 8.30am she has to leave at 8am compared to leaving at 7.15am when she starts at 7.30am.
"The longer you leave it, you're stuck. I think I sat through at least seven green lights because even though the lights are green no one can move," she said.
Ms Patu said the traffic had been bad for about a year now and the roundabout works slowed down traffic.
She said it takes her husband 45 minutes to drop the children off at school in Kamo and travel down Western Hills Drive to his workplace on Dyer St.
Mr Gliddon said some lanes of that roundabout were still closed as reducing traffic to one lane slowed it down to protect the safety of workers and road users.
NZTA could not say if any complaints had been made about congestion.
Ms Patu said she believed part of the congestion was also because more people were using the road.
"I think a lot of people are travelling to different schools instead of going to the school in their area. I see a lot of parents with children in their cars heading to Kamo and I know a lot ... take their kids to Boys' High School."
When the Northern Advocate asked people on Facebook if they had noticed a backlog of traffic on Western Hills Drive in the morning, numerous people replied saying it had taken them much longer than usual to get to their destination.
Ms Patu said carpooling and walking to work could alleviate some of the congestion.
Mr Gliddon said the Kensington to Manse St section of improvements is one of six projects worth $49m to manage growing traffic numbers in and around Whangarei.
"The improvements on the Kensington section are designed to improve safety for road users and reduce traffic queuing at the intersection at peak times as well as for road users and pedestrians accessing Kensington Park."