Opinion: Treating commuters like guinea pigs

The life of a commuter ain't easy. Photo/file

In the great game of traffic management, it can feel like we're all guinea pigs.

Fair enough, I guess. It's hard to know whether something will work or not if we don't give it a go.

But changing things week to week is a big headache for your average commuter.

Take the changes to the Maungatapu underpass for example.

In the first week or so, surprised motorists reported getting a straight run to Turret Rd, with traffic apparently flowing much faster than before it opened.

But more changes were afoot.

The council decided to close off the Hairini St slip lane to all but buses, good for the buses, but bad for the drivers coming from the south of State Highway 29A, particularly Ōhauiti residents.

Hairini residents felt they weren't consulted on enough about the planned changes.

Transport manager Martin Parkes said: "Normally we'd go through quite a lengthy consultation process. But there was an opportunity that came up and in the transport world, when these opportunities come up; sometimes you've got to take them. Otherwise,
they're lost forever."

Then there was the closure of the straight-through option at the Maungatapu roundabout, meaning all traffic on SH29A travelling from the direction of Baypark to the city centre had to instead turn around and go through the underpass.

The intention was to try improve the flow of traffic on the highway. It seemed okay at first, then school came back, and long lines of traffic were backed kilometres up Welcome Bay Rd that hadn't been seen since the underpass was first opened.

There have also been suggestions of other trials such as free turns and carpool lanes.

I can only imagine how frustrating these trials have been for commuters - how can you know what time to leave for work if the travel times are varying so much?

The stress it's causing must be huge, particularly when you add in the confusion of all the changes.

For the planners thinking up the trials, trying something new seems a sensible way of attempting to alleviate heavy congestion.

But there are real people inside each one of those cars, every single one of which is significantly impacted by each change.