Shocking online video appears to show an Auckland motorist driving hundreds of metres on the wrong side of the road to beat heavy traffic.
Dubbing the motorist’s actions a “lazy shortcut”, a TikTok user posted the clip yesterday, showing a driver taking extreme measures to get around a lengthy queue in Ōtāhuhu.
The video, recorded from the front of the vehicle, shows the driver swerving around a line of cars on Trenwith St.
The line doesn’t stop, so neither does the wild overtaking, as the driver merrily continues their wrong-way adventure along Frank Grey Pl.
They go hundreds of metres down the road, past dozens of commuters sat waiting in the hot sun.
“It’s giving me learners for 20 years vibes,” joked another.
No green light? No problem.
But for all the detractors, many expressed approval for the move - labelled as “safe az” by the TikTok user who posted it.
“That’s allgood he was on his way home and wasn’t cutting in to jump on the motorway,” one person noted.
“Nah, ok this one takes the cup,” another fan said.
“I thought my overtake was good.”
Police have been approached for comment.
Expensive delays
A 2017 study from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research found that solving Auckland’s congestion woes could benefit the economy between $0.9 billion and $1.3b per year.
Increased intensification in subsequent years has seen the problem grow, leading to plans to implement congestion charging.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said in 2023 that the city’s motorists could be charged $5 per trip on some of its busiest highways.
Traffic is a constant headache for Aucklanders. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Brown said he is looking at placing the congestion charges on SH1 between the Penrose and Greenlane on-ramps, and SH16 between the Lincoln Rd and Te Atatu on-ramps.
“Between 7am and 9am, those two motorways jam up and between 4.30pm and 6.30pm, they jam up again,” Brown said.
He claimed travelling at peak times was “easily avoidable”.
Brown added there would be “big discussions” about the price, but he said he thought a reasonable price would be $5 each time the motorists used the specified roads at the peak times.
He claimed the prices would ensure people would start to think, “maybe I should start work at that time, and work a bit later and go home a bit later”.
Chris Marriner is an Auckland-based journalist covering trending news and social media. He joined the Herald in 2003 and previously worked in the Herald’s visual team.
