Aussie gridlock dwarfs NZ snarl-ups

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland motorists have it easy in the rush-hour compared with drivers in Australia's major cities.

Morning snarl-ups in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane dwarf Auckland's congestion, and getting home from work is faster than in all the main Australian cities.

The contrasting figures are part of a pilot survey of travel times in Auckland conducted by the Ministry for the Environment and roading agency Transit New Zealand.

The worst congestion was found in the morning rush-hour on the Northern Motorway between Greville Rd and Takapuna and on the Southern Motorway from Manurewa to Ellerslie. Delays on these stretches of State Highway 1 were between 2 minutes and 4 minutes per kilometre travelled.

But when 267km of Auckland's 482km of motorways, state highways and arterial roads were measured for congestion, the average delay per kilometre was 35.4s in the morning rush-hour and 20s in the evening rush-hour.

In Australia, the morning rush-hour delay per kilometre was 48s in Sydney, 42s in Melbourne and 52s in Brisbane.

Perth and Adelaide were similar to Auckland.

In the evening rush-hour, Aucklanders' 20s delay for each kilometre is on a par with Canberra but much less than motorists in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, whose journeys were slowed by about 33s.

In Perth and Adelaide, the evening delays were about 26s.

Outside rush-hour, Auckland's roads are much less congested than the major Australian city roads, except around bottlenecks like Spaghetti Junction, where the delays are similar.

The survey also looked at Wellington's roads and found a much happier picture for motorists. The per-kilometre delays were 15s in the morning and 12s in the evening rush-hour.

Transit spokesman Terry Brown said the comparison with Australian cities was a fair reflection, although the figures were skewed by a higher speed limit of 60km/h on Australian local roads.

Mr Brown said the pilot survey in April also excluded many of Auckland's busiest arterial roads, such as Fanshawe St, Quay St and Mt Albert Rd. These roads would be included in the next survey, starting in two or three weeks.

* Australian motorists are becoming more angry and impatient, with Melbourne and Sydney drivers leading the trend, an annual survey by motor insurer AAMI reveals.

The survey also shows Brisbane and Hobart drivers have the poorest drink-driving histories, while South Australians have the highest drug-driving rates.

The survey says impatience, anger and risk-taking among drivers has increased, with 23 per cent of drivers admitting to using rude gestures at other motorists when angry, compared with 19 per cent last year.

Four per cent of drivers admitted cutting off other motorists, while 6 per cent admitted they "had been known to chase after drivers who have done something stupid".

Nine per cent of drivers admitted becoming so angry that they tailgated people and flashed their headlights.

"Australian drivers are angrier, more impatient and more likely to take risks on the road than they were a year ago - and the angriest drivers are those who have the least experience," said AAMI spokesman Richard Jeffrey.

"In fact, drivers who have up to three years' experience are more likely to tailgate and flash their headlights when angry, and are more likely to react angrily to other drivers' behaviour."

Mr Jeffrey said the survey found Melbourne's drivers were the angriest of the capital cities surveyed, followed by those in Sydney.

Canberra drivers were the calmest.

Melbourne drivers were also the worst offenders when it came to using mobile phones while driving.

AAMI's crash index, which surveyed drivers in all states and territories except Western Australia and the Northern Territory, found 44 per cent of motorists in Brisbane and Hobart admitted to driving when they were probably over the legal blood-alcohol limit.

Eleven per cent of South Australian drivers admitted using recreational drugs before driving, compared with 9 per cent nationally.

Twenty-nine per cent of SA drivers admitted taking medicine and then driving, even though the drug label warned against such practices.

In other findings, 70 per cent of drivers were found to have crashed at some time during their driving history.

Men showed more confidence in their driving ability than women, although they were more reckless and had more crashes.

Further reading
Feature: Getting Auckland moving

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