Herald journalists report from the wheel

AUCKLAND

By JULIE MIDDLETON

The boss wants me to drive to work. My blood pressure rises immediately. I usually take the bus: 15 minutes in the bus-only lane from Mt Roskill shops to Queen St (cost: $2.60. Stress: minimal).

8am: Leave my suburban cul-de-sac, and am immediately blinded by sunstrike. It takes several minutes to turn into busy Mt Eden Rd; the traffic is flowing thick but fast. Head through Epsom to Gillies Ave and the motorway on-ramp. The traffic is steady but the drivers are rude.

8.06am. Waiting to turn into Gillies Ave, a major arterial. Six cars ahead and two behind - not too bad. Turn the corner straight into a tailback. Gillies Ave is stop-start, top speed 20km/h. Students walking to school are going faster. Mr Impatient in the silver-beige 4WD pulls testily into the adjacent lane and zooms past. Not sure why as we all stop at the red light.

8.13am: Can see that there is a 200m-long queue waiting to join the on-ramp. Stop-start, stop-start.

8.17am. Shuffling forward. As I get to 10km/h during one shuffle, another 4WD, this one carrying kids, turns abruptly across my path from the right, and shoots off up the road to the left. Rattled, I lean on the horn.

8.19am. Nearly at the on-ramp; traffic on the overbridge ahead is also crawling. Suddenly, from the right-hand side, a light truck abruptly barges in. Feel tension rising in shoulders. Boss owes me big-time.

The driver of YK6690 partially redeems himself by flashing his hazard lights several times in a "sorry/thank you" gesture.

8.21am: Finally on the motorway, slow but steady at 60km/h.

8.23am: Car reaches 80km/h under Grafton Bridge. Reach a 100m-long queue at the off-ramp into Wellesley St but sit in it for only about two minutes. Drive through town and turn into Queen St.

8.31am: Arrive at Herald carpark in Wyndham St.

TAURANGA

By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE

If you want to travel around Tauranga without getting caught in snarl-ups, there are times when it is best to avoid driving.

Traffic peaks from 7am to 9am, 11am to 1pm and 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Weekends and holidays have their own busy patterns. On a good day, the green will flash at the intersections controlled by traffic lights and the numerous roundabouts will be a merry-go-round rather than a lengthy wait to enter.

But throw accidents, roadworks or bad weather into the mix and the blood pressure rises as motorists wait to get out of first gear.

Yesterday was one of the better mornings. At 8.15am an unbroken line of cars - the majority carrying only a driver - flows into the city from Welcome Bay and Ohauiti. More often, it is a stop-start snake over the Hairini Bridge, along Turret Rd and into 15th Avenue.

Further out, a steady stream of traffic from Te Puke and Papamoa takes the causeway from Te Maunga to Maungatapu.

It was a good run too for those who did not turn at Te Maunga but carried on along SH29 toward Mt Maunganui. By Bayfair, traffic was building up and became heavier closer to the Maunganui Rd intersection with Hewletts Rd, where Mount and Papamoa commuters cross the harbour bridge.

The drive from Bayfair into central Tauranga took 15 minutes. About mid to late afternoon, the bridge crossing from either direction can be bumper to bumper and the Marsh St intersection on the Tauranga side of the bridge is a sticking point. From the city's northern approaches, the worst congestion is usually at Bethlehem on SH2 and on SH29 leading into Greerton.

Vehicles, including trucks, ignored the 5km Route K toll road from Tauriko and instead chugged along the alternative, Cameron Rd. But with no major hold-ups it was a 10-minute drive from Barkes Corner into the central city.

CHRISTCHURCH

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Early morning rush hour Christchurch - or is it?

On the major arterial routes bringing cars and buses into the city centre, traffic is bumper to bumper for the last 5km.

But the waiting time is minimal. Yesterday it took less than five minutes to get from Papanui to Cathedral Square at 8.15am - that's about the equivalent of Sandringham to the casino in Auckland.

Once in the centre there are few problems with delays.

Traffic light sequences seem smooth, roundabouts make for an easy glide around Hagley Park and the one-way system into the city centre efficiently feeds the handful of multi-level carparking buildings.

During the day travel times around the city remain about the same. Buses know they have the right of way and often force the issue to make sure other drivers remember - and they appear to be well patronised.

Riccarton Rd is the worst. It's only two lanes wide and a large shopping centre with carparking still under construction can almost guarantee a crawl for several minutes no matter what time of day it is.

The drive home from the city often takes longer than the trip in.

A 22km journey to Rolleston, built south of Christchurch specifically with commuters in mind, may take more than half an hour at 5.30pm.

For those living in the other direction, at New Brighton or Sumner, the trip is also longer at night. But there are a couple of routes to choose from to get out of the city centre, and both are four-lane roads with generous speed limits.

Those routes and the "motorway" connecting the south and western areas mean that to get to the most outlying suburbs from the centre of New Zealand's third-largest city will take less than 40 minutes at any time, maybe an hour on a bus. Road rage? Congestion? Generally not words in the Christchurch commuter's vocabulary.